Page 10

OverviewTranscribeVersionsHelp

Facsimile

Transcription

Status: Complete

were the principals.

Mary Magruder told of the successful search for a Peasant Post among school
children.

Margaret Jones' article was by Senator Capper-"New York's Whiskey Rebellion".

[newspaper clipping three columns]
New York's "Whisky Rebllion"
[first column]
New York, 44th of the 45 States of
the Union to ratify constitutional nation-
wide prohibition is now put in
open rebellion against the laws and
authority of the United States by a
"wet" legislature dominated by pro-wet,
vice-ridden cities. During the last
hours of this misrepresentative legislative
body it repealed New York's prohibition
enforcement law.

About the same time New York's
governor, an avowed "wet," in a letter
sent to every member of Congress, virtually
requested Congress to nullify a
constitutional amendment ratified by 45
of the 48 States and formerly adopted
by all the people - requested Congress
to legalize wine and beer.

Meanwhile - altho whisky nowadays
has little or no standing as a medicine
and no longer is listed as a remedy in
the American Pharmacopacia - a New
York Federal judge rules that no limit
may be put on the amount of liquor a
doctor may prescribe. And this opens
the door to free and unlimited boot-legginh
by al the quack and shyster
M.D.'s that may be found in a population
of 10 million people.

The first rebellion against the authority
of the United States was the
"Whisky Rebellion" of 1791. Now New
York leads another - it is making a heneral
assault on the Constitution and the
laws of the United States. In 1894, as
now, the cry of personal liberty was
raised. In 1832-1833 the South Carolina
nullifiers raised it again. When
the seven Southern States seceded from
the Union in 1860-1861, it was heard
again. Now the New York nullifiers
raise the same hypocritical cry.

It is significant that booze led the
first rebellion and is leading the last,
and that George Washington gave John
Barleycorn his first knockout in this
land of freedom - of freedom without
license. Booze has always been a rebel
and an outlaw, a skulking traitor in
war, a debaucher and a grafter in peace.

In the first whisky rebellion, the governor
of Pennsylvania hesitated to act,,
but President Wahington acted with
vigor. He summoned the militia of

[second column]
four States, and the rebellion ended
then and there without a shot.

There were only 17 States in the
Union then, and the population of the
United States was 3,927,214. The governor
and legislature of New York
would impose their will on 47 States.
Five of these States each have a population
larger than the entire United
States in Washington's day, and each
State of another five has a population
equal in numbers to that of the entire
country at that time.

Early in 1920 the year following
the adoption of the national prohibition
amendment to the Constitution, its constitutionality
was upheld by the
Supreme Court of the United States
against suits brought to annul it by
brewers and distillers and by the States
of New Jersey and Rhode Island.

These manufacturers of "bottled
damnation" offered a former justice of
the United States Supreme Court,
Charles E. Hughes, now Secretary of
State, $150,000 to take their case, and
he refused. They offered an ex-President
of the United States William H.
Taft $200,000 and he refused. When
Mr. Taft declined they asked him to
name his own figure, and he again refused
to appear for them at any price.
But the liquor interests had no trouble
in prevailing on an eminent corporation
attorney in New York to take their case.
Despite his great skill and learning they
then met their final defeat.

The Volstead amendment has every
sanction of law and precedent. It has
become a part of the bedrock of our
national charter. It is as inviolable as
that carter itself. But a few men representing
a single State - one of these
its governor, under oath to support the
Constitution of the United States, and
that State calling itself "the Empire
State" - have the temerity, if not the
effrontery, to challenge that charter
and to give aid and comfort to all those
who violate one of its provisions. They
are openly, if not avowedly, in rebellion
against the power and authority of the
United States and the public sentiment
of its people

New Yorkers are led to believe by
these false leaders, and by the New

[third column]
York newspapers, that prohibition is a
failure because in New York, once a city
of more than 17,000 saloons, they see
the law flouted, atho, even there, the
lid is being screwed down tighter and
lighter. The repeal of its enforcement
law now leaves the State in an analogous
situation to that of this country
before the Civil War - half slave, half
free - so aptly termed by Lincoln an intolerable
situation. There is a clash of
auhority.

In the end prohibition will win - even
in New York City. If put to a vote at
this moment in the United States, it
would carry by a larger majority than
ever. The New York politicans have
delayed its benefits in their own State,
that is all.

There was a time when Kansas had
a noisy and a lawless "wet" minority.
It was dwindled to 5 per cent, or less,
of the population. A part of these have
the bloated faces of the once chronic
"soak."

Today Kansas has these benefits to
show for its years of pioneering in prohibition:

The Census proves it people live
longest.

War Department records prove it
contributed the best men physically to
the draft.

It has the most home owners per
capita.

It is one of the five States lowest in
illiteracy.

Few States had a lower percentage
of business failures in the trying year
1921.

The last Census found 33 Kansas
county jails and 34 Kansas city jails
without a prisoner in them.

These are times that test out men.
there can no more be two kinds of
right action there can be two kinds
of straight lines." said a world -famous
philosopher. There is meaning to that
saying for New York. Prohibtion is
right. There can not be two kinds of
prohibition and there will not be.

[signed] Arthur Capper

Hallie Bentley, being called on for something extra, gave the poem by William

Notes and Questions

Please sign in to write a note for this page

JudyO

This page contains a large newspaper clipping which was not transcribed.