THE AMERICAN ENIGMA

In a resolve of three parts, the Directors of the Church Temperance Society of the Episcopal Church, declared themselves upon the prohibition question. There is nothing new in the manner. The prohibition issue is one which has constantly drawn religious organizations into political agitation, through all the years since the movement began. It is not strange, therefore, that a church organization should concern itself with the shortcomings of the law so laboriously enacted.

The Episcopal Temperance Society alleges that the amendment has "blemished the constitution," that enforcement itself has "resulted in increased drunkenness and the use of opiates." It further resolves to appeal to the nation "for the speedy adoption of moderate regulatory measures to replace the impractical and harmful laws now in force."

The Society does not stand alone in deploring the 18th amendment as a "blemish" on the constitution. Its subject matter is not a matter of political principle or organization such as truly befits a constitutional provision, but rather meet concern for a police regulation. And certainly the publicity of drunkenness has increased to proportions which do not alarm the alarmists and That, however, a speedy replacement of the amendment itself and state laws similarly stringent, is really called for, constitutes another matter, constitutes in fact a problem which all the wisdom of the nation is needed to solve.

All will agree that the abolition of public nuisances are the desired objects rather than abject abstinence. That the amendment was not framed in a suitable way to attain that end, that it has not even attained its literal object, may be true but as assertions, these beliefs do not prove that the amendment ought to be forthwith repealed. The argument that the youngest generation now alive will reap the benefits of prohibition is not without plausibility. The notion that the liquor evils as well as the crime wave have been over-emphasized by the press contains its grain of truth.

Likewise, on the other hand, it is true that prohibition has saddled the political parties with a burden under which they are cringing even more than is their usual custom. There is no way however, to remove this problem from their attention now: all agitation brings it closer under their scrutiny. It is not entirely a false notion that the administration of the Treasury Department has been in part corrupted and much confused by the exigencies of enforcement. Yet the government does not do well to confess impotency too readily however impracticable a project it has undertaken.

The situation is admittedly complex. The Episcopal Temperance Society illustrates an attitude, and little more, in the great welter of discussion and morass of mystified opinion. There is only the hope that Father Time may be more quick and bounteous in his revelations than he usually seems to be.