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05 - What Prohibition Has Done to America by Fabian Franklin · What Prohibition Has Done to America

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five of What Prohibition Has Done to America. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. What Prohibition Has Done to America by
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  Speaker 1: Fabian Franklin, Chapter five. The law makers and the law
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  Speaker 1: well meaning exhorters shocked at the spectacle of millions of
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  Speaker 1: perfectly decent and law abiding Americans showing an utter disregard
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  Speaker 1: of the Prohibition law. A prone to insist that to
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  Speaker 1: violate this law, or to abet its violation, is just
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  Speaker 1: as immoral as to violate any other criminal law. The
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  Speaker 1: thing is on the statute books, nay, in the very
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  Speaker 1: Constitution itself, and to offend against it, they say, is
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  Speaker 1: as much a crime as to commit larceny, arson, or murder.
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  Speaker 1: But they may repeat this doctrine until doomsday, and make
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  Speaker 1: little impression upon persons who exercise their common sense. The
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  Speaker 1: law that makes larceny, arson, or murder a crime merely
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  Speaker 1: registers and emphasizes, and makes effective through the power of
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  Speaker 1: the government, the dictates of the moral sense of practically
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  Speaker 1: all mankind. And if in the case of some kindred crimes,
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  Speaker 1: it goes beyond those dictates for special reasons. The extension
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  Speaker 1: is only such as is called for by the circumstances,
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  Speaker 1: however desirable. It may be that the sudden transformation of
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  Speaker 1: an innocent act into a crime by mere governmental edict
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  Speaker 1: should carry with it the same degree of respect as
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  Speaker 1: is paid to laws against crimes, which all normal men
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  Speaker 1: hold in abhorrence. It is idle to expect any such thing,
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  Speaker 1: And in a case where the edict violates principles which
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  Speaker 1: almost all of us only a short time ago held
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  Speaker 1: to be almost sacred, the expectation is worse than merely idle.
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  Speaker 1: A nation which could instantly get itself into the frame
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  Speaker 1: of mind necessary for such supine submission would be a
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  Speaker 1: nation fit for servitude, not freedom. But in the case
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  Speaker 1: of the Prohibition Amendment and of the Volstead Act for
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  Speaker 1: its enforcement, there enters another element which must inevitably and
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  Speaker 1: most powerfully affect the feelings of men towards the law.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody knows that the law is violated in spirit, if
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  Speaker 1: not in letter, by a large proportion of the very
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  Speaker 1: men who imposed it upon the country. Members of Congress
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  Speaker 1: and of the state legislatures, those that voted for Prohibition,
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  Speaker 1: as well as those that voted against it, have their
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  Speaker 1: private stocks of liquor like other people, nor is there
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  Speaker 1: any reason to believe that many of them are more
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  Speaker 1: scrupulous than other people in augmenting their supply from outside sources.
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  Speaker 1: One of the means resorted to by the Anti Saloon
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  Speaker 1: League in pushing through the Amendment was the particular care
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  Speaker 1: they took to make its passage involve little sacrifice of
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  Speaker 1: personal indulgence on the part of those who were wealthy
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  Speaker 1: enough or clever enough to provide for the satisfaction of
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  Speaker 1: their own desires in the matter of drink, at least
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  Speaker 1: for many years to come. The League knew perfect that
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  Speaker 1: in some prohibition states the possession of liquor was forbidden,
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  Speaker 1: as well as its manufacture, transportation, and sale. But the
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  Speaker 1: Anti Saloon League would never have dared to include in
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  Speaker 1: the Amendment a ban upon possession. Congressmen who voted for
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  Speaker 1: it knew that not only they themselves, but their wealthy
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  Speaker 1: and influential constituents would be in a position to provide
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  Speaker 1: in very large measure for their own future indulgences. And
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  Speaker 1: it may be set down as certain that had this
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  Speaker 1: not been the case, opposition to the amendment would have
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  Speaker 1: been vastly more effective than it was. In order that
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  Speaker 1: a person should entertain a genuine feeling that the prohibition
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  Speaker 1: Amendment is entitled to the same kind of respect as
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  Speaker 1: the general body of criminal law, it is necessary, even
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  Speaker 1: if he waives all those questions of constitutional principle which
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  Speaker 1: have been dwelt upon in previous chapters, that he should
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  Speaker 1: regard drinking as a crime. And this is indeed the
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  Speaker 1: express belief of many upholders of the amendment, a foolish belief,
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  Speaker 1: in my judgment, but certainly a sincere one. I have
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  Speaker 1: before me a letter typical of many, published in one
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  Speaker 1: of our leading newspapers, and written evidently by a man
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  Speaker 1: of education as well as sincerity. He speaks bitterly of
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  Speaker 1: the proposal to permit light wines and beer, and asks
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  Speaker 1: whether anyone would propose to permit light burglary or light arson.
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  Speaker 1: That man evidently regards indulgence in any intoxicating liquor as
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  Speaker 1: a crime, and he looks upon the law as a
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  Speaker 1: prohibition of that crime. And he is essentially right if
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  Speaker 1: the law is right. For while the law does not
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  Speaker 1: in its express terms make drinking a crime, its intention,
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  Speaker 1: and its practical effect, so far as regards the great
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  Speaker 1: mass of the people, is precisely that the people President
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  Speaker 1: Angel had in mind when he implored the young Yale
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  Speaker 1: graduates not to be like them. Are not the makers
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  Speaker 1: or sellers of liquor, but drinkers of it. They are
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  Speaker 1: not moonshiners or smugglers or bootleggers. They are the people
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  Speaker 1: upon whose patronage or connivance the moonshiners and smugglers and
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  Speaker 1: bootleggers depend for their business. Everybody knows that in their
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  Speaker 1: private capacity, senators and representatives and legislator men are precisely
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  Speaker 1: like their fellow citizens in this matter. They may possibly
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  Speaker 1: be somewhat more careful about the letter of the law,
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  Speaker 1: they are certainly just as regardless of its spirit. With
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  Speaker 1: the exception of a comparatively small number of genuine prohibitionists,
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  Speaker 1: men who were for prohibition before the Anti Saloon League
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  Speaker 1: started its campaign, they would laugh at the question whether
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  Speaker 1: they regard drinking as a crime, and they act accordingly.
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  Speaker 1: What degree of moral authority can the law be expected
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  Speaker 1: to have in these circumstances Upon the mind of a
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  Speaker 1: man intensely convinced that the law is an outrage. How
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  Speaker 1: much impression can be produced by the mere fact that
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  Speaker 1: it was passed by Congress and the legislatures when the
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  Speaker 1: real attitude of the members of those bodies is such
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  Speaker 1: as it is seen to be in their private conduct.
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  Speaker 1: How much of a moral sanction would be given to
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  Speaker 1: a law against larceny if a large proportion of the
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  Speaker 1: men who enacted the law were themselves receivers of stolen goods,
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  Speaker 1: or a law against forgery if the legislatures were in
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  Speaker 1: the frequent habit of passing forged checks. It happens that
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  Speaker 1: the receiving of stolen goods or the passing of forged
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  Speaker 1: checks is a crime under the law, as well as
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  Speaker 1: the stealing or the forgery itself, And that the prohibition
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  Speaker 1: law does not make the drinking or even the buying
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  Speaker 1: of liquor, but only the making or selling of it
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  Speaker 1: a crime. But what a miserable refuge this is for
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  Speaker 1: a man who professes to believe that the abolition of
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  Speaker 1: intoxicating liquor is so supreme a public necessity as to
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  Speaker 1: demand the remaking of the Constitution of the United States
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  Speaker 1: for the purpose not the least of the causes of
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  Speaker 1: public disrespect for the Prohibition law is the notorious insincerity
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  Speaker 1: of the makers of the law, and their flagrant disrespect
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  Speaker 1: for their own creation. End of Chapter five