The Evolution of an Anti

...There seems to be no sound reason why the people of each state should not be permitted to decide this ques- tion for themselves...

...My article in The Commonweal, April 3, I929, presented only one change of opinion from previous printed statements...

...The other, and the more im-portant, of the two main propositions defended in my Commonweal article, was that there exists no univer- sal moral obligation to obey every civil law, and to continue to observe every such statute until it is re-pealed...

...Again, the supposed change may not be as deep or as thorough as is assumed by those who are kind enough to be interested...

...Concerning the unwisdom of na-tional prohibition and the menace to individual liberty which it involves, and concerning the immorality of in- cluding in such legislation the manufacture and posses- sion of liquor for personal use, my opinions have never changed except in the direction of greater intensity...

...By I926 that presumption seemed to me to have been negatived by the con-sequences of the legislation...

...The revision included the first and most fundamental change that has occurred in my opinions on prohibi-tion...

...If this presumption is to be overthrown, I said, "a vastly greater amount of evidence will have to be brought forward than has thus far appeared...

...The real purpose of the Eighteenth Amend- ment and its enforcing statutes was the prohibition of the traffic in beverage intoxicants, including manufac- ture, sale, transportation and exportation...

...Two questions which had been discussed in the Ecclesiastical Review and the Catholic World articles received no mention in the book: namely, the moral status of the liquor merchant and of his customers...

...One is moved to inquire how the lawmakers expected liquor to be available for use if the law were enforced...

...THEODORE MAYNARD...

...This is a much more complex question than that of merely vio- lating the law as such...

...The morality of conducting and patronizing a business which involves violence, corruption of officials and other serious risks and dangers, I have never discussed anywhere...

...As to the Volstead Act, I said that those provisions of it which forbid a person to manufacture, possess or transport liquor for his use or to give it to his friends "are tyrannical and unjust interferences with the liberties and rights of the citizen...

...The critics of prohibition have committed, he declares, "the fatal error of assuming that the primary purpose of the law is the inhibition of the personal use of liquor...

...But pass it did...

...Shortly before the first of these productions was written, the Eighteenth Amendment had passed Congress and been submitted to the states for ratification...

...June 26, 1929 i THE COMMONWEAL 21I w THE EVOLUTION OF AN ANTI By JOHN A. RYAN S INCE the appearance of my article in The Commonweal for April 3, Who Shall Obey the Law?, not a few per-sons have commented on my supposed change of atti- tude toward prohibition...

...Rights are necessary and valid in proportion to the importance to human welfare of the spheres of action which they cover...

...If the amount of liquor consumption is reduced by three-fourths, I should call that condition one of "reasonable enforcement...

...And when you dropped he did not miss You gone, till your bones were bare like this...

...Inasmuch as the history of my own opinions on prohibition is probably typical of the changes and the progress that thousands of other Americans have made in their thinking on this subject, a summary presentation of that history may be of some interest to the numerous readers of this magazine...

...Such a change may exemplify mental progress and wider knowledge...

...Through the eye-sockets clambers up The tall, audacious buttercup, And clover nestles by the teeth-- No longer made afraid by death...

...Nicholson either does not know his Volstead Act or he has become ashamed or afraid of this tyrannical and futile avowal of its final purpose...

...Nevertheless, I gave it as my own opinion that state prohibition or the Canadian system, or a combination of both, "would in the long run have proved more effective...

...ject...

...In the latter part of the year I926 I revised the Catholic World article for my book, Declining Liberty and Other Papers, which appeared in April, i927...

...S. E. Nichol- son, associate superintendent of the Anti-saloon League...

...Now I do not believe that drink is so important to the welfare of men in general, or of any man in particular, that the assumed right thereto may not disappear in the face of the great Evidently the foregoing paragraphs referred to state, not federal prohibition...

...The greater part of the reply con- sisted of a technical argument in refutation of the preposterous proposition that all civil laws are "purely penal...

...I admitted that if the legislators were mistaken in this judgment the prohibition laws were unjustified, but I contended that they and the laws were entitled to the benefit of a legal and moral presumption that no such mistake had been made...

...If it is given only on rare occasions, the co6peration can probably be regarded as lacking the degree of importance necessary to constitute a mortal sin...

...Assuming that the law is enforced to the extent indi- cated, I cannot see that anyone's moral rights are vio- lated...

...They wish to confer and impose the benefit of prohibition upon those benighted states that have not sense enough to adopt the measure themselves...

...they are not, with the exception of the right to life, ends in themselves...

...the young squire forgot Whether you were alive or not...

...A note at the top of this very short contribution informs the reader that it was written at the request of the editor...

...The following extracts from the article constitute the only part of it that is pertinent to the present discussion : I am in favor of prohibition wherever it can be reason- ably enforced...

...Inhibition of personal use" may not have been the "primary" purpose of the Eighteenth Amend- ment, but it was certainly the ultimate object of the Volstead Act...

...On the other hand, it is difficult to see how these acts can be regarded as entirely free from moral guilt...

...So far as I can recall, the first statement of mine on prohibition that ever got into print was published in the Fortnightly Review, April 1, 1916...

...Concerning those provisions which forbid the sale of liquor and its manufacture and transportation for sale, I still hold, as I did from 192o until 1926, that they enjoyed during those years a presumption of social utility and ethical validity...

...When my subscription expires, please stop sending me the 2t2 THE COMMONWEAL June 26, x9z 9 magazine...

...For, rising through the skull And ribs, wild flowers were beautiful...

...social good that may be effected by the abolition of the opportu- nity to drink...

...This was a reply to a solution of a "case of conscience" which had previously appeared in that magazine...

...In the second editorial, I reaffirmed this position and quoted a letter from an angry subscriber which contained this delectable effusion: None but the unthinking will be deceived by the oft- refuted booze rot in your April number, but it is a pity you saw lit to publish such illogical stuff...

...This is essentially the same attitude of undemocratic paternalism and superior tyranny that, as we noted above, is taken by the pro- fessional prohibitionists toward individual drinkers...

...You dragged the plow Through fields beyond where you lie now, Though once you held no hedge too tall When you heard the pack and the huntsmen call...

...At the end of the article I drew the con-clusion that the Eighteenth Amendment was not "purely penal" and that it had "the same validity as any other civil law...

...I think, that situation...

...No grave could be a better home, So they left you here beside the combe...

...This phase of the situation I failed to consider when I was writing the articles for the Ecclesiastical Review and the Catholic World...

...It is difficult to see how he can be absolved in the tribunal of penance unless he promises to discontinue his illicit occupation...

...The basis of this judgment I found in the deliberate refusal of Congress to prohibit purchases...

...The state of Kansas exemplifies...

...The latter already have the power to protect themselves against the contaminating influ- ence of the former by excluding liquor shipments en-tirely...

...Of course, the motives, the viewpoint, the undemocratic spirit, and the false philosophy of the professional prohibition- ists and the Anti-saloon Leaguers, are quite another matter...

...This was the judgment that no person is under moral obligation to refrain from pur- chasing liquor, by reason of the law itself, even if the law were considered binding in conscience...

...The manifold evil con-sequences of national prohibition have shown, to all who have eyes to see, that it is not only not the best but probably the very worst method of dealing with the liquor problem...

...These conclusions were based upon the assumption that federal prohibition of the liquor traffic was not an unjust interference with individual liberty...

...And bees come foraging for pollen Among the flowers where you have fallen...

...I have consistently held that national pro-hibition involved such a grave restriction upon individ- ual liberty and individual rights that it could be morally justified only when it was not only an effective, but the most effective, kind of liquor legislation...

...for it had approved itself to the public authorities as the best method of abolishing or reducing grave social evils...

...The third section of the latter ends thus: "and all the provisions of this Act shall be liberally construed to the end that the use of intox- icating liquor as a beverage may be prevented...

...Incidental to the question of the purchaser is an amazing assertion recently made by Dr...

...Previous to I926 I had held that the federal prohibi- tion laws enjoyed the presumption of conforming with this condition...

...Therefore, I do not think that the national prohibition laws are any longer directly bind- ing in consclence...

...An article which I published in the Catholic World, May, I925, set forth at considerably greater length the conclusions just summarized...

...If I want pro-booze arguments, I can get all I want of them, and get them first-hand, and put up in better style, from the booze press, and they have the additional merit of being what they profess, booze organs...

...It sounds very much like the inexhaustible shallow prattle of one of those beer-foam philosophers of Baltimore, but no matter where it came from, I could smell the beer on it quite distinctly, and read the same stuff in the brewers' journal and other liquor organs, time and again...

...Now time turns back for me: I am The eye that sees you by your dam, Mercurial, long-legged, shy, Lifting your head to snuff the sky...

...The degree of success which attended state and local prohibition prior to the national legislation, the degree of success achieved by the Quebec system, and the degree of failure which has characterized the attempt to enforce national prohibition, constitute sufficient evi- dence to warrant a reasonable and prudent man in hold- ing that the Eighteenth Amendment was an unnecessary, unwise and unjust enactment...

...Yet their representatives in Congress have sought to impose prohibition on the liquor states by means of an amendment to the federal constitution...

...Inasmuch as the law which they [bootleggers and saloon-keepers] violate has to do with a grave matter, it is diffeult to see how they can carry on their traffic without committing a sin which is grave.9 .9 . . The person who buys liquor only occasionally and for his own use cannot be held to co6perate so gravely in the evil traffic that each purchase renders him guilty of grave sin...

...Here is the most significant para-graph in the first editorial: The prohibitionists show a disregard for individual liberty in their attempt to establish national prohibition...

...The last of the three editorials was written after the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment and a few months before the enactment of the Volstead bill...

...Cumulative experience, however, has definitely destroyed the presumption that favored the "noble experiment" during the early years of experimentation...

...The following article has been written to answer one or two common objections advanced against the author, and particularly to explain the extent to which "a change of mind" is involved...

...I then added this paragraph: Therefore, the person who day after day carries on the business of bootlegging is guilty of a grave violation of an important, morally binding law...

...The question of their indirect obligation, on account of the social disorder which their violation entails, is one that I am not now called upon to discuss...

...Does the person who purchases liquor from him likewise sin gravely...

...Probably he does not, unless his patronage be more or less continuous...

...My next production on the subject was a short article in the American Ecclesiastical Review, April, I924, under tile heading, Are Our Prohibition Laws "Purely Penal...

...For these features of the prohibition movement I have nothing but detestation and contempt...

...Dr...

...No fright like his who stumbles on Grim relics of the mastadon Was mine...

...Looking upon these bones I trace The history of lost pride and grace...

...In the opening paragraph I said that the wisdom and the justification of national prohibition were not at the moment practical questions, that we should have to "wait and see" whether it would prove efficacious...

...The question that was still within the realm of actu-ality, I said, was whether the Anti-saloon League would succeed in its efforts to get into the enforcement act (the Volstead bill) a clause forbidding the manu- facture and possession of liquor for personal use...

...Even then, I think the law may be on the whole desirable and beneficial...

...This extreme proposal I denounced as an unjustifiable exercise of legislative authority...

...The states that prefer to have liquor can enjoy that con- dition without hindering the desire of other states to have prohibition...

...To be sure, there is a considerable difference between rural and urban observance of the law...

...Of more than usual interest, the paper is, we believe, also a wise com-mentary upon the trend of public opinion about the Eighteenth Amendment and the correlative legislation which has appeared to sustain it during the entire past decade.--The Editors...

...Some remnants of their speed and power Are moldering even in this hour...

...Following is a summary comparison of my present and past attitudes...

...On the other hand, a change of opinion sometimes calls for justification by positive reasons...

...Had I dealt with these questions I undoubtedly would June 26, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 213 have drawn the obvious inference from the paragraph just quoted, that, so far as the law itself is concerned, both seller and buyer are free from moral guilt or blame if they feel morally certain that the law is de- void of ethical validity...

...In the years 1918 and 1919 I published under the following titles three edi- torlals in the Catholic Charities Review: Undemo-cratic Prohibitionists (April, 1918) ; Intolerant Pro-hibitionists (June, 1918) ; and Prohibitionist Tyranny (February, 1919...

...To be sure, it is not necessarily irrational to change one's mind on a contentious subFather Ryan's recent Commonweal paper--ICho Shall Obey the Law?--called forth abundant comment and criticism...

...Growing in strength, you race the sward With primroses and daisies starred, Nuzzle your manger, roll in grass, As if your year would never pass...

...On the other hand, the non-commercial and private manufacture, possession and transportation of liquor for consumption by oneself or one's friends, remain lawful in the field of conscience and morality...

...TAe Horse's Skeleton At the meadow's further corner where The wood begins, I saw it there: The grey bones sprawling on the ground, The sweet grass growing thick around...

...A state may so enforce the law that only quite exceptional persons get liquor in the country and the small towns, the great majority of the young growing up without any knowledge or thought of intoxicating drink, while a considerable proportion of the city dwellers get it, either from outside the state or through illegal sellers within the city...

...This refusal clearly indicated that the lawmakers did not intend to impose even a civil obligation or penalty upon those who desire to buy liquor...

...Hence I put the follow- ing paragraph into the book cited above: Six years of experience with the legislation have changed its moral aspect...

...There is now grave reason to doubt that the conditions necessary to justify this degree of interference with individual rights really ex-isted...

...Time drooled on...

...There is no national exigency demanding uniformity of legislation on this subject...

...Of course, I have never subscribed to the contrary doctrine, at once tyrannical and shallow...

...Here are its most important conclusions : The Eighteenth Amendment and those provisions of the Volstead Act which forbid the sale of intoxicating liquor and which prohibit acts involved in or immediately connected with the sale of intoxicating liquor are bind-ing in conscience...

...Consequently, no foundation existed upon which to erect a moral obligation...