Sheet-Anchored by Public’s Thirst

Evening Star, Issue 18135, 27 November 1922, Page 2

Sheet-Anchored by Public’s Thirst

OFFICERS Of THE LAW MOCKED AND INSULTED. RESPECT FOR ALL LAWS ENDANGERED. ATTITUDE OF WORKERS. (Based on the remarkable series of articles, recently contributed by Frederic William Wilo to the .Philadelphia ‘ Public Ledger.’) Frederic William Wile, the author of the articles from which the - following summary is taken, is a journalist of high international re- ; natation. He first came into prominence as correspondent of the Chicago ' Record • and ‘ Daily News’ in the South African War, 1900-1. He reported for American journals the death and funeral of Queen , Gloria and the coronation of King Edward VII. Proa 1906 to 1914 he* was chief correspondent of the London ‘ Daily Mail in Germany and Berlin correspondent of the Now York ‘Times’ and Chicago ‘Tribune.’ At the outbreak of war he was arrested as a British spy, released on the demand of the D.S, Ambassador Gerard, L left Germany under safe conduct of the British Embassy. During m Great War he edited ‘ Germany Day by Day ’ in the London • Dady Mail.’ At the invitation,of the British Government he lectured on behalf of British war loans. The Philadelphia ‘Public Ledger,’ the journal to which Mr W e contributed his remarkable series of revelations concerning the gran, corruption, and scoundrelism which render Prohibition in America a tragic* farce, prides itself on the accuracy and exclusiveness of its information on subjects of national importance. Its columns are contributed to by the best-known journalists in America.

HOW A BAD LAW MADE A BAD START. To those who have read the foregoing articles of this series summarising Mr Wile’s revelations concerning. the connection of legislators, courts, officers of the law, lawyers, and bankers with tua grea bootlegging conspiracy, it must be obvious that the connivance of. the great American public is an essential part oi the conspiracy. As Mr_ wile puts it: “ Tlio real sheet-anchor of the bootlegging industry ifi the drink-consuming profligate American public. All authorities agree that unscrupulous and. cunning men in the industry will continue to make a mockery of'enforcement, by hook or bycrook, until the business is checked at its thirsty source.” It may, perhaps, help to explain the attitude of the American . public to this law, which makes it a crime to drink. a glass of beer, if the circumstances of its introduction in 1920 aro recalled. National Prohibition was agreed upon by Congress as a war-time measure, essential to the efficiency of the war effort of the United States. But, like that war etTort, it was a belated measure, and before it could be put into practice the Avar was over. President Wikon, whoso mind was nothing if not logical, vetoed the war-time Prohibition law', on the simple ground that the war was over. Congress, politically hostile to Wilson, repassed the law over hi;i veto. .Vs Mr Wile says, this “inevitably inspired, lax enforcement,” MARTIAL LAW IN TIME OF PEACE. The Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution came later, but the mischief had been done. The best of ‘‘good Americans ” could havo little respect lor a species of martial law introduced in peace time against the protest of the President. And ja the popular mind, it may be guessed, the difference between war-time Prohibition in peace time and the Eighteenth Amendment xvas merely the difference between tweedledum and tweedledee. As the Americans themselves would say, the new law “got in bad” at the outset so far as the general public was concerned. AN ATMOSPHERE OF BITTER HOSTILITY. What is the general attitude of the public to this law at the present time? Mr Wile, when, investigating conditions in New Jersey, was allowed to take part in gome liquor raids conducted by a Federal“flying squad” in Atlantic City. Ho says: “In almost every instance the raids were made in an atmosphere of bitter hostility upon tho part of the public which witnessed them. If it was not hostility it was cynical amusement. The majesty of the event transpiring before onlookers’ eyes made no appeal. It could not havo dawned upon one out of twenty of them that here was the Federal law solemnly stretching cut its arm to enforce national authority—that unless such authority is respected constitutionalism goes out and anarchy comes in. What happened? Instead of sympathy there was resentment. Outspoken expressions of contempt of the ‘Fedorals’ were uttered by men and by women. Now and then a policeman joined in the insulting observations levelled at Prohibition agents who were engaged in a necessary, if sordid, duty.” SAMUEL GOMPERS AND THE WORKERS’ RIGHTS. The attitude of the general public towards any law must be largely gauged by the attitude of working people, since these make up the great mass of the population in any country. The groat leader oi working-class opinion in tho United States. Samuel Compere, ie opposed to Prohibition. Mr Wile says: “ Samuel Gompers did the cause, of Prohibition no good in Pennsylvania when he championed tho working man’s ‘right’ to beer and light wines. Mr Gompcrs’s manifesto on that subject is repeated as gospel bv men and women of thirty different nationalities in Pennsylvania, who, holding it akin to Labor’s holy writ, proceed gaily to operate stills for the manufacture of stuff to which, tho President of the American Federation or Labor e:i vs they havo a ‘ right.’ The An-

draezks, Florinis, and Wolfsons see no crime in brewing hooch under such conditions, and so on. ■ The* consequence is that Pennsylvania’s mining and industrial eentrea are flooded with liquor, * NEW YORK’S GAY INDIFFERENCE. New York, of course, has no lime .for Prohibition. As Mr Wile puts it; “ Now York is an avowedly Avet community. Prohibition, speaking broadly, is not popular in New York. Where a law is not only disliked, but openly sneered at and joked about and fraudulently violated by prince and by pauper, enforcement presents a problem of”truly staggering dimensions.” And in an earlier reference to the same subject Mr Wile says; ‘‘Greater' New York, money mad, 'incurably wot, and steeped in traditions of graft, contemplates tho orgy of lawlessness Avit.li gay indifference. If Manhattan Island is ever dried up u« shall know tho ago of miracles is not past.” MARYLAND OPENLY REBELLIOUS. What about Maryland, to take the lust of tho four States in whjoh Mr Wile conducted his investigations? Mr Wile says: “In all but actual fact, Maryland is in rebellion against constitutional Prohibition. Sho disbelieves in it, despises it, and defies it. Bootlegging in tho Commonwealth of tho Calverts and the Carrols is in consequence not only a rampant- but almost a respected calling. Tho AttorneyGeneral of tho Stale rules that the local police forces are under no obligation whatever to co-operate in Prohibition enforcement, and they interpret tho decree literally and liberally. Maryland’s senior United' States senator, Joseph Irwin Franco (Republican), is now seeking rceloctioh on a platform calling for a repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. . . . Genuine drya in Maryland threaten to nominate a man for tho Senate 100 per cent. arid. He would bo about tho worst defeated man who ever ran for public office in Maryland.” PROHIBITION LAW WEAKENS PROHIBITION SUPPORT. National Proliibition has not helped the dry cause in Maryland. Mr Wile says: “ Perhaps tho most significant development Is tho growth of anti-Prohibition sentiment, on the celebrated Eastern-Shore. For decades that branch of the Slate, remote from and unsullied by. city atmosphere, has been tho rock-ribbed citadel of rural conservatism. Tho church clement predominates and rules. All of the Eastern Shores traditions and tendencies havo been in the direction of temperance and Prohibition. Y r et for the first time since tho drink question, became a. political issue the Eastern Shore has nominated a man for Congress who openly advocates light wines and beer. If the district had rallied round a candidate who favored substitution of a monarchy for the republic the change of heart wonldhaxdly bo more revolutionary. Authorities of wet inclinations affirm the Eastern Shore's backsliding is duo to a daAvning realisation that Prohibition cannot be enforced under tho Volstead Law.” THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. Throughout the long course of the Prohibition controversy men of sagacity, statesmen, professors of jurisprudence, doctors of divinity, and other students of human and divine law have been tolling us that disaster awaited any nation which tried the prohibition of natural appetites as a panacea for social evils. Their prophecies are being fulfilled to the letter in tho United States to-day. The Legislatures and tho courts have been debauched, and public contempt for the Prohibition law is, as President Harding and the Federal Prohibition Commissioner testify, insidiomsfly undermining lyspect for all law. It cun safely be loft to the common sense of the American people to put an end. sooner or later, to the impossible conditions imposed upon them without their consent. But if New Zealanders put their head into the same noose of their own free will they will have nobody but themselves to blame when the string is tightened. Once National Prohibition is carried in New Zealand the electors lose the legal right to a further referendum on the question.—[Advt.]