The Horse's Skeleton (verse)
Maynard, Theodore
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...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...No fright like his who stumbles on Grim relics of the mastadon Was mine...
...This phase of the situation I failed to consider when I was writing the articles for the Ecclesiastical Review and the Catholic World...
...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...
...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...
...Dr...
...Of course, I have never subscribed to the contrary doctrine, at once tyrannical and shallow...
...And when you dropped he did not miss You gone, till your bones were bare like this...
...Looking upon these bones I trace The history of lost pride and grace...
...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 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...
...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...
...Consequently, no foundation existed upon which to erect a moral obligation...
...The basis of this judgment I found in the deliberate refusal of Congress to prohibit purchases...
...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...
...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...
...the young squire forgot Whether you were alive or not...
...For, rising through the skull And ribs, wild flowers were beautiful...
...THEODORE MAYNARD...
...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...
...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...
...Cumulative experience, however, has definitely destroyed the presumption that favored the "noble experiment" during the early years of experimentation...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...No grave could be a better home, So they left you here beside the combe...
...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...
...Time drooled on...
...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...
...S. E. Nichol- son, associate superintendent of the Anti-saloon League...
...Following is a summary comparison of my present and past attitudes...
...Through the eye-sockets clambers up The tall, audacious buttercup, And clover nestles by the teeth-- No longer made afraid by death...
...Incidental to the question of the purchaser is an amazing assertion recently made by Dr...
...And bees come foraging for pollen Among the flowers where you have fallen...
...But pass it did...
...Some remnants of their speed and power Are moldering even in this hour...
...My article in The Commonweal, April 3, I929, presented only one change of opinion from previous printed statements...
...One is moved to inquire how the lawmakers expected liquor to be available for use if the law were enforced...
...This is a much more complex question than that of merely vio- lating the law as such...
...Therefore, I do not think that the national prohibition laws are any longer directly bind- ing in consclence...
Vol. 10 • June 1929 • No. 8
