r to the central government the control of our
most intimate concerns? And what concern can be so intimate as that of
the conduct of the individual citizen in the pursuit of his daily
life? How can the idea of the State as an object of pride or as a
source of authority flourish when the most elementary of its functions
is supinely abandoned to the custody of a higher and a stronger power?
The Prohibition Amendment has done more to sap the vitality of our
State system than could be done by a hundred years of misrule at
Albany or Harrisburg or Springfield. The effects of that misrule are
more directly apparent, but they leave the State spirit untouched in
its vital parts. The Prohibition Amendment strikes at the root of that
spirit, and its evil precedent, if unreversed, will steadily cut off
the source from which that spirit derives its life.

CHAPTER IV

HOW THE AMENDMENT WAS PUT THROUGH

THERE has been a vast amount of controversy over the question whether
a majority of the American people favored the adoption of the
Eighteenth Amendment. There is no possible way to settle that
question. Even future votes, if any can be had that may be looked upon
as referendum votes, cannot settle it, whichever way they may turn
out. If evidence should come to hand which indicates that a majority
of the American people favor the retention of the Amendment now that
it is an accomplished fact, this will not prove that they favored its
adoption in the first place; it may be that they wish to give it a
fuller trial, or it may be that they do not wish to go through the
upheaval and disturbance of a fresh agitation of the question or it
may be some other reason quite different from what was in the
situation four years ago. On the other hand, if the referendum should
seem adverse, this might be due to disgust at the lawlessness that has
developed in connection with the Prohibition Amendment, or to a
realization of the vast amount of discontent it has aroused, or to
something else that was not in the minds of the majority when the
Amendment was put through. But really the question is of very little
importance. From the standpoint of fundamental political doctrine, it
makes no difference whether 40 million, or 50 million, or 60 million
people out of a hundred million desired to put into the Constitution a
provision which is an offense against the underlying idea of any
Constitution, an injury