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ho
Undermines Prohibi t ion?
W
RSE
and worse the Prohibition angle becomes,
chiefly because of the lack of franlmess, honest and
straightforward dealing in those we in trust with
o u r
law-
making nd law-enforcing. The spectacle of the United
St ate s seeking to compel the vessels of other countries to
conform to
o u r
domestic customs while temporarily in port
and at the same time endeavoring to extend the immemorial
three-mile limit to twelve (why not twenty?) is enough to
make one hang ones head wit h shame. Well do we mer it
the ibin g of the cartoon
in
an Eng lish daily which por-
trayed a steamer arriving in English waters and passing
through a lane of signsmarked: Give up your horned
spectacles here ; Li mi t for chewing gum here, etc., etc.
We shallbe lucky, indeed, if th er e ar e no eprisals.Yet
our
fana tics insis t that we impose
o u r
wills and our pecu-
lia r ,beliefs upon those who in the conduct of international
trad e are temporarily
our
guests.
O u r
readers will notmisunderstand, we aresure,
ations
position. We ar e
for
the prohibitionamendment
as long
as
it is law and
are
for
its
rigid enforcement. Bu t
there is no stronger argument f o r a nation-widereferen-
dum han, th is case presen ts;
we
should therefore ike o
see the question submitted today t o a vote of all the people.
Believing as we do that the re su lt would be overwhelming
approval, there would then be a clear-cutpopular opinion
behindefforts to enforce he law. Bu t if we err n his
and the majorit y should favor the abolition
o
prohibition
we should accept the decision with all the cheerfulness we
could muste r; if the vote were close one eith er way we
should deeply regre t it, but that is the risk
a
democracy
has to run which
is
founded on the rule of th e majority.
The point plainly is that then thepeople would have spoken,
and n o t merely legislatures full of cowardly politicians vot-
ing not according to th ei r inmostbeliefs or according to
the ir consciences, but at the dictation of paid lobbies.
But has not a ref orming minority the right to convert
others to
its
-views o r to incorporate those views into legis-
lation? Were not heAbolitionists a small minor ity? Did
not the woman suffragists begin with a mere handful of
despised men and women? Unquestionably; ye t the parallel
is not quite exact; their methods were different; more than
that we do not recall any such tyrannical efforts to domi-
nate egislatures and men as we a re witnessing oday. In
NewYork the Anti-Saloon Leaguehas been laying down
the law to the Republicans wit h amazing effrontery-as if
no
otherssue existed on ear th today. Mr. Anderson
undertakes to tell the Republicans who is fit
f o r the
gubdr-
natorial nomination and who is not. With one weeping
wave of the hand this organ ization informs the party that
i t may not nominate e ithe r Col. Roosevelt
or Mr.
Machold,
but must choose from a list it submits. Louis XIV never
identified himself wit h the state more completely.
Now, in our judgment, there can be only one outcome of
such arrogance and hat
is a
further reaction from pro-
hibition. That is greatpit y rom he reformers
own
point of view. What heyought t o be- doing
is
doncen.
trating upon the enforcement
o f
the law and, by the sweet
reasonableness of this ttitu de,making riends or he
arguable principle that as long as the law is on the statute
books
it
should be enforced. Theymight also dwell upon
.the hypocrisy which, as we have already pointed out, marks
the carrying out
of
the law. It is
a
profound misfortun
from the point of view of the cause of temperance that
tain t of falseness rests upon the entire p rohibition strugg
Some legislatures voted
it
th e bulk of whose members we
totally opposed in principle and practice. Ou r highest o
cials violate the law privately when there is no dange r
discovery
o r
publicity. We heard one remarknot
so
ve
long ago tha t he had built one of th e most marvelous c
lar s in America and stocked it wi th more than enough
lasthim a lifetime-at least ixvarie ties of winewer
served a t h i s t ab leb ut he
is
viciously against all red
and laboring men and anybody else who will not obey o
laws, by heaven, sir. Inveighing aga inst those who wou
undermine ou r Constitution, he himself does his uttermo
to brin g it into contempt and to prove the theory that tho
sworn to uphold thisparticular law are
ou r
worst la
breakers.
By decision of Mr. Mellon we have ceased to conserve t
morals of sailors on foreign ships in our harbors by den
ing them wine liquor during their stay, andMr. Hardin
it
is
reported in dispatches, proposes
t o
askCongress
repeal that section
o f
the Volstead law which sugge
this precious bit
of
puritanical yranny.Very well; b
why is he notman nougho come out nd ay
s
Why is he not willing to give tha t much comfort t o tho
foreigners whom we are so incommoding and
so
infu
ating?
We sincerely hope that some of these countries will tak
prompt ction against us. We have become
s o
used
forcing our will ,upon othe r peoples not
a
tenth
or
a hu
dred th of our size, like the Ha itia ns and the Dominica
and th e Mexicans, that it would be a n extreinely good thi
if we were to hear from
a
fellow our own size that he d
not ntend to be put upon. Europe has
a
righ t to be e
tremely irritated against
us. It
was only
a
few months a
that Mr.Lasher and some other officials were counseli
Congress to vote th at half of th e immigrants from for ei
countries should cross the At lan tic Ocean upon Americ
vessels.
It
is
bad enough
t o
enforce o u r domesticsocialusages
upon thosesojourning inourharborswhen thoseusage
deliberatelycontravene the statute s and customs of oth
lands.
To
pass legislation in Washington ntended o c
trol he ree movements of the nha bitants of Italy,
England,
o r
France would be to go beyond allbounds
decency and fairness, and internationalcourtesy.
We frank ly do not know whether prohibition can be
forced
o r
not. We believe th at it has done much
the masses of the people whilehelping o demoralize t
classes that pri de themselves upon being superior beings
wealth and intelligence.
It
may have within it th e seeds
a dangerous strifean d clash of wills between cityan
countryside, Bu t we do know that he experiment
w
never have a fai r t ria l u nti l men reach h igh office in Wa
ington who, whilehavingdueregard fo r th e feelings
others, will hemselves stand by the prohibition awand
will by heir
own
personal bearingandabstention rom
liquor set an example fo r the nation o follow. Today t
bootlegger is not prohibitions worst enemy, bu t he high
office-holders who advocateenforcingprohibitionbyday
and then booze away half t he night.
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June
27 19231
The
Nation
73
Compulsory Arbit ra t ion
Dead
9
E movement fo r compulsory arb itration of labor dis-
puteshas received a serioussetback by th e decision
of t he Supreme Court declaring the Kansas Indus trial
act nconstitutionalnd void. Indeed, the courts con-
demnation of theact is so sweeping that
it
is doubtful
whether anything of substance remains. The question arose
Over a contested order of t he Court of Industrial Relations
fixing the wages of th e employees of small meat-packing
piant, and could have been disposed of by a simple decision
that he meat-packing indust ry snot sufficientlyclothed
with a
public int ere st to war ran t th e sort f public regula-
tion imposed. The Supreme Court, however, was unwilling
to ake such an easyway out andalthough it intimated
strongly tha t neithe r the food, clothing, nor fuel industries
ar e of such a public character
as
to justify regulation, it
preferred to rest
its
decision
on
the genera l nature of the
restrictions imposed by the law.
The object of th e act, the court found, was to secure con-
tinuity of industry. It forbade the owner of a business to
suspend operations even though he had been ordered to pay
wages which caused him a net loss, and it forbade the em-
ployees to strik e even though the wages k e d by the Court
of IndustrialRelations seemed t o them lower than he ir
needs. Such imitations upon the iberty of individuals to
manage heir own affairs, thecourt now decides, cannot
constitutionally be imposed unless a clear obligation to th e
public to providecontinuousservice is undertakeneither
directly
o r
by implication when the owner
o r
the employee
enter s he business. Compulsory arb itr ation
is
constitu-
tional only when the re is a situation somewhat equivalent
to the appointment of officers and the enlistment of soldiers
and sailors in mili tary service.
What, then, is lef t of compulsory arb itr atio n? It can be
applied, we suppose, to public employees, but
its
advocates
will not take much comfort from th at possibility, because
wage s in that ield
are
matters of legislation and not of bar-
gaining
in
any event. It can be applied to ailway em-
ployees in he face of
a
threatened nation-wide strike,
as
was decided when the Supreme Court sustained the Adam-
soneight-hour law. But hecou rt now expressly refuses
to extend the rule of tha t case, refe rrin g to
i t
a s excep-
tional and as going to the border line, and that avenue
the spread of the principle
is
thus shut
off.
As a practical matter we think that it may safely be said
th at compulsory arbi tration s dead, except as to th e em-
ployees of railroadsand public utilities
in
times of par-
ticular and vitally pressing emergency. And th at
its
death
is a good thing
f o r
all of
us
we have littl e doubt. The con-
flic ts between hose who labor and those who employ
are
not likely to be solved by a dictated peace, even though the
dicta tion come from a source theoretically above the battle.
Their ootsare imbedded inhumancomplexity and eco-
nomic inequality, and they can be helped only by
a
solution
based upon a greater equality of position, and upon freedom
to try to reachmutual agceement.Such a solution is far
distant, to e sure, but compulsory arbit ration stood squarely
in he road. Thatpart icula r obstacle has now been re-
d, and even though i ts removal affords another instance
a power which we believe the Supreme
ourtoughtnot o possess, nevertheless we should give
As
f o r
the Kansas court, th is decision ought t o seal
it
doom. Our eaders are awa re hat GovernorDavisasked
the egislature o abolish
it
lastwinter,but hat bod
merely cut down the ppropriations
f o r
it. He s now
quoted as-favoring an ex tr a session to, wipe the whole ex
periment o thest atu te books, and believes thathe wil
save a hundred housanddollars year f o r the State b
doing
so.
We hope tha t the legisl ature will now be of hi
mind. Yet, we cannot eel hat heexperimenthas bee
wholly without value.
It
is a good thing to test out
a
new
governmental device withhe ttenti on of th e nation
focused upon, it, ass
it
was n hiscase to remarkabl
degree. UntiI we hadhad somepracticaldemonstration
of
its
futilityandunconstitutionality,we should alway
have had demands that compulsory arbitration by
be tried.Themoral plainly is, however, not
t o
let ou
enthusiasm carry
us
away when an experiment
at
the be
ginn ing s proclaimedacure-all by those esponsible fo
it. Only two year s ago the pre ss was ringing with the de
mand that similar courts be set up in every Stat e n he
Union and by the Federal Government as well. With many
thi s was due to a genuine belief th at
a
satisfactory solutio
of the st rike difficulty had been achieved; the enthusiasm
of others was because they thought that, thanks to the c
a way hadbeen found of securely hobbling labor.
takes pride in having opposed the.court the very be
ginning.
Philosopher Statesman
THE STATESMAN. recognize your arguments . They are
old acquaintances. I not only recognize them; I admit thei
force. But he problem
is
salvation, alvation in tem
poral ense. Th at can come only from a deed.We mus
act.
THE PHILOSOPHER.
here was thinker once-youve
never heard ofhim-who sa id that all action is a
sign
of
limitation. Before you act you must exclude all other pos
sible actions. You
must
almost assert, a t least to yourself,
the absoluteness of the value of the deed you choose ou
of all possible deeds.
STATESMAN.hat
is
vicious intellectualism. Every poli
tician
is
bound.to be a pragmatis t. The deed to be done is
thefruitful deed.
PHILOSOPHER.hat a dangerous doctrine
STATESMAN.t ishe only possible one. We cannot
stagnate,
PHILOSOPHER.amnot
so
sure hat abstention rom
action which you call stagnation would .not often be fr ui t-
ful, that saturation with the idea
of a
situation would not
often help to solve it
STATESMAN.hat sounds true. No doubt it
is
true in the
schools.
In
my ife decisions mus t be made, since
all
are
immediateand final. Everyquestion s a question of life
and death-often literally, often f or thousands.
PHILOSOPHER.nd always fo r your career.
STATESMAN. ertainly. And it
is
my clear righ t to g uard
my career since its continuance is the condition of my ser-
vice to men, the condition of causing my ideas, supposing
them to have value, to prevail.
PHILOSOPHER.he trouble with your doctrine is its uni-
versality of application.
STATESMAN.thought thatw s
a
virtue in every doctrine,
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738 Theation
[Vol.
116
No.
30
PHILOSOPHER.f hestatesmanmustactandactprag-
matically and also save his career n order to make himself
I begyourpardon,his ideas-prevail; if th at is all, if
you forbid the consideration of truth, you make o u t a per-
fect ca se fo r any person in power-for Mussolini, Hit-
ler, for the leader of every red terror, every white terror.
Each of themactsout on the nstant hepragmatically
fruitful ruth
of
his personalityand ituation. Inbrief,
your doctrine is st rictly tha t old and shoddy one tha t m igh t
is right.
STATESMAN.ot at all.
PHILOSOPHER.e are alone, youknow.
STATESMAN.ell, what can aman who ha s power do
but e xer t tha t power as seems best to him?
PHILOSOPHER.e can do nothing else indeed. And since
it
is never a philosopher who is in power-
STATESMAN.eaven forbid
PHILOSOPHER.
ince, a t all events, it never is, th e action
you defend will always be half-blind because i t will always
spring from
h o t
convictions, fr om fea r, fro m opportunism
STATESMAN.ou speak ontemptuously of hot convic-
tions.What snobler?
PHILOSOPHER.
The hotter they are, the more ignoble ar e
they likely t o be, and the more destructive. Nothing is as
su re of itself as ignorance. snt that natu ral? Ther e are
no obstacles in ts path.Nothing is so sure of itself
as
fanaticism.
Mr.
Brya n knows exactly how the world is to
besaved; every Kleagle of the Klan knows th at too.
Its
simple. Anatole Fra nce sverydoubtful;Bertrand
Rus-
sell hunts for scraps of tentative ruth. Action is indeed
easy t o those who ar e not fit to act at all.
STATESMAN.ou
are trying t o foist a paradox onme.
It
follows,
I
suppose, that those who are wor thy of acting
cannot and will not and dare n ot act.
PHILOSOPHERrecisely. You complete my philosophic
truth
in
its
correct form.
STATESMAN.o r m ?
PHILOSOPHER.
es. In th e world o practice, since the re
is
a world of practice , we cannotindeed adhere
t o
the strict
forms of truth.
STATESMAN.h,
you will become pragmatic n amin-
ute
PHILOSOPHER.
ot at all. What I have said is absolutely
anduniversally rue. To tran slate hat ruth nto action
means thi s: To be afra id of power, t o abstain from power
as far as is humanly speaking possible, t o be afraid of i t
andabstainfrom it not hroughpersonal considerations,
but on the ground of t he old and precious sayin g that no
man is good enough to rule another.
STATESMAN. who
is
then o wield the irreducible
minimum of power in society, since heremust be such
wielding?
PHILOSOPHER.hose who fea r power and hate
it
and take
no pride o r glory in it , who exercise it after prayers and
tea rs, o whom the wielding
of it is
sacrifice andbitter
service.
STATESMAN.
ystics, then?
PHILOSOPHER.
od forb id The ncorruptible ntellects
who have thought their way clean through to its essential
evil. Not statesmen, of all people.
STATESMAN.or professional philosophers, I hope.
PHILOSOPHER.
am not so sure. There are philosophers
and philosophers.
T h e
Spice in
the
Thundere r
OMETIMES we are tempted
to
pit y the unhappy lot
the ired businessman nEngland.Presumably, l
the r est of us, he worries about the st ate of the world. Pr
sumably he has need to tur n to something for relie f; but
whatcanhe urn?In wonder andpitywe flap over t
news pages of the London I n vain we search
f
Mut t and, Jeff or fo r Mr. McGinniss
r
f o r our good frie
Cicero Sapp. They are no t the re; no one in all those ba
ren pages is being hit by brick; no one is being precip
tatedhead irst, shoes last,out of th e picture. And t
news, and the headlines Nothing
is
done to save the tire
Londoner work. The detail s of the lat est divorce indecen
hidden in the fine pr in t of aw-court rep ort and head
HighCourt of Justice.Probate, Divorce, andAdmiralt
Division. Ausbandsetition.ones os Jonesnd
Smith. The details are there, to be sure, even to the le
piece of initialedingerieound in he co-responden
room; but the reader must hunt hard for them. No kind-
hearted reporter writes them into the
first
paragraph.
rewrite man puts the bestf them into theheadlines.
Forhis ports, heEnglishmanmust work lmost
hard. After much searchinghe will come upon colum
soberly headed Spor ting News. Then if golf be h
hobby, a line of 10-point caps may catch his eye announci
Depart ure of American Amateurs. In he language
an Oxford doctors, disserta tionhe will be informed th
friends and admirers gathered at th e dock to bid farewe
to the Walker Cup Team, who expressed t hei r ple asu re
thevisit n ermstranspa rent ly sincere. Indeed,
marks the special sports writer,
it
was th e note of sinc
ity running through the remarks of all the members o t
party
. .
which made one realize the significant value
such meetings.
But perhaps the Englishman fares better n his
than
we
think. Doubtless he has learned to skip those drab
pages of news and sports and to turn directly t o the las
page of ll-for the re romance await s him. There,wit
alluring illustration and tempt ing description, he can mo
at once into the greatest estates in the British Isles. Th
are all fo r sale, one begins to believe, a nd they are all che
-if one for get s he axrat e. Who would fai l o find
thrill in the description
of
Wyckham Park, for example
pleasant place seated in a deer park of 270 acreswit
twenty-four bedrooms and two baths , complete domes
offices, and three lodge houses, not to mention-or to me
tion only invery fine pr1nttwenty-three mixed farm
f o u r residences,ifty-six ountry ottages, seven villa
shops, andseveralhundredacres
of
woodland? One c
as well have hun ting esta te of thousands of acres in Sco
land. And if one
is
tempted t o worry about th e difficu
of
upkeep and the trouble of finding the right sort of hel
one need only turn back to the first age of the same pape
There, n hepersonal column, where omance crowds
most as thick as among the real estate , one finds this:
Ex-officer
and
Public Schooloy
27),
with nothing
e
against him
except total
busmess inexperience, would
be
amaz
though eternally indebted,
If
anyone required
his
servic
Write box F. 363
The
Times.
Perh aps after all
we
could learn
to
get on withoutMut
and Jeff and th e flyingbricksand thespuri ous spice
our sports writers. For here is t he spice of life itself.
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