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The Commoner
FEBRUAKT, 1919
9
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.n,iv have Illinois Ohio, Texas, Missouri,
SSachuMtts and Michigan, and will have New
y?rk and Pennsylvania.
when the agricultural states swung Into line
rtr Prohibition, we were told that the movement
nnii be checked when it reached the city, hut
JJipflEO the second city in the union, could not
2 Illinois from ratifying; Now Orleans could
S keep Louisiana from ratifying; Louisville
rnuld not keep Kentucky from ratifying; San
Francisco could not keep California from ratl
fvlnir St. Louis could not keep Missouri from
ratifying Detroit could not keep Michigan from
ratifying; Baltimore could not keep Maryland
from ratifying; Boston could not keep Massa
chusetts from ratifying; and New York City and
Philadelphia cannot keep the Empire State and
Pennsylvania from ratifying.
If all of these cities could have been located
in one state, With no agricultural district to
counteract the influence of the saloon, they
might have been able to keep ono commonwealth
oinder the control of the liquor traffic.
VICTORY POLITICALLY UNIVERSAL
The victory for prohibition is not only geo
graphically complete but it is also politically
universal. The democratic and republican parties
have fought each other upon almost every qjher
pdlitical issue for fifty years, but they are united
iii this fight and share about equally in the
glory.
It is true that we democrats are able to "point
with pride" to the fact that the hill making .the
District of Columbia dry and the bill closing the
saloons during the war, were both passed when
the democratic party was in control of both
houses, and that it was a democratic congress
also that submitted the prohibition amendment.
We can congratulate ourselves, too, that it was
a democratic President who signed the only pro
hibition bills that ever reached the White House,
and, as the amendment ha6 been adopted, no
similar prohibition measure will haye to be
passed in the future; but it is only fair to. admit
that the republicans in congress gave as large
a percentage of their vote to the support, of these
measures as did the democrats, and that a re
publican President "would doubtless have- signed
the hills had the White House "been occupied by
a republican
While wo can be happy over the part that. the
democratic party is playing in the concluding
months of the fight it is not safe for us to brag
much, because a boast might tempt the republi
cans to reply that it required a great deal of
latter day activity to deodorize our partyls earlier
record. .'
My party's record up to a few years ago, and
its more recent record in the cities in the East,
suggests the only explanation I can give for
being so highly honored by those who entered
the fight earlier than I did. In a debate once
held over the relative merits of the sun and
the moon the champion of the latter contended
that the moon deserved the more credit because
it gave its light at night where it was needed.
Certainly, it used to be dark eriough in' my
party, on this subject, to make even a moori look
bright. -:
Now that the wave is running our way, w
have reason to believe that, it will not bo Ipn'g
before every state in the union will be recorded
in favor of ratification of the prohibition amend
ment, and thuB give to the policy of prohibition
the strength that comes from unanimous en
dorsement. '
Even legislators who were pledged - to the
I l.?.Snd ifc Psslle to justify the support of
Prohibition, in spite7 of tHe promises that they
S5?' any of you stion the right of a wet
politician to break his promise under the cir
cumstance that now exists, a word of explanation
1H set you right:
fmHhe m,arrIaSQ contract is the most sacred obli
ihl in that we know of' but terminates on
i 12 i.2f ,elther party Tne contract between
wet politician and .John Barleycorn surely can
thpJS more sacred than a marriage contract,
w7n,e as .Jnn Barleycorn is now dead, the
alliance iS at 1Iberty to contract a"new
prnrL50,Urse there m b a certain amount of
Even m rPrestatlves of the liquor traffic,
of tihS??1 lawyers are threatening all sorts
raisinJ 7 tlo?,,?ut that ls t0 Q expected. The
Hon wa? J i illl0n, dollar fund tQ fi&ht Pbibi
of it ramJnoi7 adversed, and as long as any
1 romains there will be lawyers ready.to sug-
prohibUion?8 f inBOnious ways of overthrowing
These lawyers are expecting to make more
now than at any previous time on a theory
-?h w ttxplaIn by filing you an Irish
story that a Irishman told mo: Two sons of
Erin wore traveling on a highway and came
to a bridge over a stream; on the bridgo they
eaw a sign "Five dollars reward for the reacuo
of a drowning person." Being sorely in need of
money, they hit upon a plan to secure the re
ward. They decided that one would fall in and
the other would rescue him, and then they would
rllwifln fl film ,111 ft . ... -
, uuiuua. uarrymg out the scheme,
one of them fell in. As ho was going down for
the third time, he noticed that his companion
showed no signs of rescuing him and demanded
an explanation. The man on the bank repliod,
"Since you fell in, I have seen another sign,
ten dollars reward for recovering a doad body."
t is evident that those wet lawyers are expect
in 2 to make more recovering the dead body of
John Barleycorn than thoy could make trying to
rescue him. But it is too late.
It is real amusing the way the newspapers
have kept the big cities in the dark about this
movement until after the fight was won, because
this fund was raised after tho election of last
November, at which tho friends of prohibition
secured six more states tha thoy needed for
ratification. To the credit of our form of gov
ernment, let it be said that the billion dollar
fund has not changed a vote. They could not
buy a single legislature.
It is not necessary that, in the presence of
these pioneers, I should elaborate on the forces
that have combined to put an end to tho saloon.
The moral reason has grown stronger year by
year; the scientific objection to alcohol has boon
reinforced by investigation; the business argu
ments have accumulated and just as these made
a final victory certain a patriotic impulse carried
tho nation over the top. The country found that
drink, dangerous in fieace, wa3 disastrous in-war
when the maximum of oun man-power was
needed.
ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW
The problem immediately befoijp us is en
forcement of the law, and it is necessary that
the opponents of the saloon shall be vigilant and
see to' it that officers are chosen who are in
sympathy with the law rather than tho law
breakers. No one could intrust the prosecution
of murderers to one who believed in murder, or
the pvosecution of thieves to ono who believed
in stealing. It would be as absurd to entrust
the enforcement of prohibition laws to men who
believe in the liquor traffic and want to pro-
We'have taken a long step in advance and
made prosecution easier, because the national
amendment will stop the manufacture of intox
icants as well as their sale.
Enforcement has been difficult heretofore,
mainly because enormous combinations of capital
have been engaged in the liquor business, and
these organizations have furnished money to
elect officials pledged in advance to the violation
of their oaths. But we have transformed it from
a business into a crime. Our fight hereafter is
not with organizations, with big corporations, or
with national associations, but with individuals,
and these Individuals cannot co-operate. A na
tional association of bootleggers Is as Impossible
as d, national association of pickpockets. Every
year will find it easier to enforce the law, be
cause every year, will find a stronger public
sentiment behind it.
Next to the enforcement of tho law comes the
work of building up a sentiment in favor of
total abstinence, and in this work our churches
will take the lead. Every pulpit will become 4
the centre of an influence against the use of
alcoholic drink's. We stand upon solid ground
when we condemn even the moderate use o
intoxicating liquors. God never made alcohol
necessary to body, mind, or soul. He never mader
a man strong enough to be sure he could resist
the appetite for drink when once formed, and
there is no day in life after which it is safe to
beein the use of intoxicants.
In addition to these propositions that apply
fo all the Christian has special reasons for not
drinking. He has no moral right to Impair the
v u"e of the service he has pledged to God and
Christ; he has no money to use for alcoholic
drinks when so many noble causes need all the
morfey that he has to spare; and he cannot afford
S nut a Christian's example on tho side of a
habit that has brought millions, to the grave.
Tthird problem with which we have to deal
is world prohibition. Wo cannot hido tho nation's
lamp under a bushel, Wo suspect tho Ohrlatlanfty
of a man who dooB not want to spread tho gospel
which ho professes, and so wo would suspect
our nations' devotion to prohibition If it did not
desiro to impart to others a knowledge of tho
benefits received.
In tho first place, somo of our broworloa and
distilleries are preparing to movo into Mexico
nnd to tho Oriont.- When a good man goea
abroad, ho carries a letter of introduction; when
a bad man loaves his country ho Is followed by
a certificate of his criminal rocord. Wo owo it
to Mexico to warn hor against welcoming a
traffic which wo aro driving out of this country.
Wo owe it also to China and Japan to let them
know tho character of tho business which haa
arousod tho wrath of our country.
And shall wo not give to tho republic which
aro rising in Europe tho benefit of our experi
ence? Wo rojoico that popular govern mont Is spread
ing; that Gormany has driven her Kaiser into
exile. Germany ought to know that she will not
advance very far if sho puts a browor on tho
throne in tho placo of tho Kaiser. The repre
sentatives of the liquor traffic have boon as much
opposed to. popular govornmont horo as thp
Kaiser was In Germany, and as despotic In their
methods.
Our flag of democracy has been lifted so high
that It can now bo seen around tho world. Today
the whlto flag of prohibition has been flung to
tho broeze, it floats just beneath tho stars and
stripes. They aro emblems that Btand for things
that "bleBS us; tholr triumph will, wo believe,
bless people everywhere.
Doctor Scanlon and friends I thank you again
for tho joy you have added to this day.
MR. BRYAN AND PROHIBITION
It fell to tho lot of Nebraska to put tho cap
stone on tho monument. Thlrty-Bix votes wero
necessary to ratify tho prohibition amendment,
and she supplied tho thirty-sixth.
Tito Blackwator state is tho home of Mr.
Bryan. No public man in America has contrib
uted moro of his time to tho cause of prohibition
than tho orator of tho Platte. Probably nono lias
addressed so many people on tho subject. For
years, in his ceaseless journeyings up and down
tho country, appearing before audiences on this
subject and that, he has never forgotten tho
subject of prohibition.
Slnco retiring from the cabinet, Mr. Bryan
has confined his canvassings largely to prohibi
tion. Ho promptly made his purpose known, and
has held to it. His audiences have never been
larger. His challeLges to tho drink traffic have
n.ver been more direct. More applause haa nevor
at any time greeted his utteraocos.
In his home state Mr. Bryan has done his part
in creating and fostering prohibition sentiment.
Politically, he has lost gound thoro. Democratic
leadership has been transferred to others. But
on this moral issuo, put and kept on moral
grounds, he has maintained his influence; and
tho vote of yesterday is due probably in generous
measure to his activities. Washington Star.
GREATEST VICTORY EVER WON
Oakland, California, January ID, 1919. W. J,
Bryan, Lincoln, Nebraska. My Dear Mr. Bryan:
Wish It were so that I could literally present to
you my armsfull of poppies, golden smiles from
the warm hillsides of California, as a token of
my appreciation of the supreme part you played
in making national prohibition a fact, the great
er victory ever won by a people engaged In
moral and economic effort. While many noble
souls contributed to the victory I am persuaded
that it would not yet be achieved had not your
leadership ever been there to carry on. You have
fought, my dear sir, many a great flght and won
but none so great as this one. May your days
bo long upon earth and filled with other great
and glorious victories. Sincerely your wellwisher,
W. D. Young.
The scientists have it all figured out that with
tho war taking its toll of lives there will be left
about six women to every five men, and that
this fact will glvo tho men a wider choico than
before. All we have to say is that the scientists
have a funny idea about who does the choosing
in the matrimonial business.
About the easiest way to make a member of
the legislature angry is to list him as. a wet.
There's a reason.
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