Henry O. Evans City Comptroller, Pittsburgh
ABRAHAM LINCOLN once said, "No law is stronger than the public sentiment where it is to be enforced." Our entire history since colonial days is abundant proof of the fundamental correctness of this axiom. Any plan, therefore, to make effective the 18th Amendment rests upon the sanction of public sentiment and opinion with respect to the Amendment.
The prime necessity of sound planning in every aspect of life and as to any problem is, always, accurate knowledge and impartial marshaling of all the facts governing the case.
We have had too much opinion and too little fact-finding on both sides of this very controversial question.
The reliable evidence--the dry laws of 33 states before the approval of the Amendment; the ratification of the Amendment by all but 2 states; the votes upon such state referendums as have been taken; the progressive increases in dry majorities in both houses of Congress; the results in the recent election of President and Vice-President, members of Congress and state officers--all goes to show the existence of considerably more than a majority of our voters in favor of the Amendment.
In spite, however, of this weight of the evidence, it is generally said, and by many believed, that public sentiment is not, now, favorable to the Amendment. Since, as Lincoln also said, "A universal feeling, whether well or ill founded, cannot be safely disregarded," positive and unequivocal demonstration of the present existence of public sentiment
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