(Standard Union, Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec. 23, 1914-Rep.)

WISELY VOTED DOWN

"The constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquor throughout the United States was properly defeated in the House of Representatives at Washington last night. There is sufficient power in the people of each and every state to prohibit the sale of liquor if they wish.

"What the prohibitionists should do is to carry on their campaign of inducing the people in as many states as possible to put away intoxicating liquor, both by individual abstinence and, whenever the majority is converted to that view, by legal enactment and genuine enforcement. For thirty-six states to attempt to enforce prohibition in twelve unwilling states would surely bring into discredit the efficiency of Federal law and enforcement, now fortunately so high. To violate a Federal statute now means punishment. To attempt to enforce a Federal prohibition law in states that cannot be induced to enact prohibition for themselves would be to bring the United States laws into contempt."

(Times, Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec. 23, 1914-Rep.)

PROGRESS OF PROHIBITION

"The Brooklyn Times believes, and always has believed that the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors, strict regulation, or a freer hand in the dispensing of such compounds, are purely community concerns, and that such issues have no place in the discussion of Congress."

(Commercial, Buffalo, N. Y., Dec. 23, 1914-—Rep.)

PROHIBITIONISTS BEATEN

"The resolution should not be associated with a genuine movement to promote temperance. On the contrary it sought to regulate by law a traffic that laws cannot reach unless backed by public sentiment. It brought into politics an issue that is essentially a moral one. Such an amendment would give to certain states in the union the right to impose prohibition upon the city and commonwealth of New York no matter what public opinion might be there respecting the advisability of such legislation.

"It would, moreover, do a rank injustice to a class of men who

have invested their capital in a legitimate business, in that it would be tantamount to a confiscation of their property without compensation."

(Courier, Buffalo, N. Y., Dec 22, 1914-Dem.)
HOBSON'S HOBBY

"Although Congress must finish its work by the fourth of March and has as much or more than it can do in the remaining time, to-day in the house may be wasted with ventilation of Hobson's fad.

"Apparently Mr. Hobson feeds on notoriety. He will soon have to ride some new hobby, for this one is knee-sprung."

(Enquirer, Buffalo, N. Y., Dec 21, 1914-Dem.)

VOTE ON HOBSON BILL THIS WEEK

"Kansas or Georgia may be satisfied with conditions existing within their borders. They are dry states, but have their representatives in Congress any moral or legal right to say what the people of New York or Pennsylvania shall do or shall not do?

"New York state is preferably able to take care of itself upon questions affecting the people from whom it accepts revenue to carry on its government and until those people by direct vote express themselves as being in favor of prohibition, the state should be permitted to carry on its affairs without interference from the outside.

"The Hobson amendment has political bearing of great importance. While the government realizes a revenue of from $200,000,000 to $300,000,000 a year from the distilling and brewing interests, the financial aspect of the situation is not everything.

"The Hobson bill provides that 'Congress shall have power to enforce this article by all needful legislation.'

"If the United States should undertake to enforce a nation-wide prohibition law, it would require an army of officials which would mean millions of dollars in salaries to raise by taxation, in addition to what would have to be raised to cover the loss in revenue. It would require thousands of officials to enforce the law in New York city alone."

(Evening News, Buffalo, N. Y., Dec. 22, 1914-Rep.)

HOBSON'S DANGEROUS MEASURE

"The enforcement of the Hobson amendment would mean the creation of an enormous army of federal spies, inspectors, clerks, a vast array of place-holders appointed by the political powers that happened to be in control and used as the party bosses might find convenient for their purposes, for nothing can be kept out of politics in a free country.

"Americans who value the liberties that have been inherited will do well to see that those liberties are not gathered together bit by bit until the whole system of government of this vast continent is centered in Washington."

(Evening News, Buffalo, N. Y., Dec. 24, 1914-Rep.)

HOBSON DEFEATED

"The more one considers the effect of measures which call for an army of place-holders to make them effective, the more the people ought to hesitate and probably will hesitate before agreeing to such measures."

(Express, Buffalo, N. Y., Dec. 21, 1914, Ind. Rep.)

PROHIBITION AMENDMENT

"The Express has frequently pointed out that the proposed prohibition and woman-suffrage amendments to the United States constitution are objectionable on general political grounds aside from any question of the merits of prohibition or woman-suffrage. They represent an attempt to assert the imperial power of the federal government over the states and minor civil divisions which is entirely alien to the principles on which the republic was founded."

(Times, Buffalo, N. Y., Dec. 23, 1914-Dem.)

HOBSON BILL BEATEN

"The proposed resolution sought to interpolate in the Constitution an issue which always has been and always ought to be, decided by states and localities-a principle which is absolutely correct, and whose application resulted, as it should, in the defeat of the bill."

(Post, Jamestown, N. Y., Dec. 24, 1914-Rep.)

PROHIBITION AMENDMENT DEFEATED

"As The Morning Post has recently pointed out, it is one thing to declare that the people of a state, county, city, or township should have the right to decide for themselves whether the liquor traffic shall exist within its borders and quite another to advocate prohibition throughout the whole country by a constitutional amendment, which is not voted upon by the people but is submitted to the vote of the state legislatures, three-fourths being necessary for its ratification. Even in attempting to legislate upon great moral questions, and that of restricting the liquor traffic is the greatest before the American people, we must not forget the limitations of our form of government, expressed or implied."

(American Banker, New York City, Dec. 26, 1914-Finance)

PRESENT PROHIBITION PROSPECT

"Apparently, the large brewery interests of the United States perceive the approaching danger and they are doing everything in their power to check the spread of this temperance sentiment. One cannot help noticing the exceedingly clever advertisements in which the claims of beer are set forth as a temperance beverage and containing invaluable food properties.

"It is difficult to imagine the condition of the United States when the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages is stopped and there is an end of saloons, liquor stores and breweries. There is invested in the liquor business capital amounting up to millions of dollars and the displacement of these enormous investments will cause a serious upheaval when it takes place."

(Herald, New York City, Dec. 24, 1914—Ind.)

THE PROHIBITION DEFEAT

"Defeat of the proposed amendment to the federal constitution to prohibit the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages throughout the country, was largely due to the votes of representatives who regarded the suggestion as an infringement upon the police powers of individual states.

"The evils caused by abuse of liquor are fully organized, but experience with prohibition laws shows that men cannot be made temperate by legal enactments."

(Journal of Commerce, New York City, Dec. 24, 1914.)

PROHIBITION AND POPULAR RIGHTS

"To attempt to impose such a prohibition upon this whole country, with the diversity of sentiment indicated even in this congressional vote, through a centralized authority at the national capital, would either prove an utter failure or result in a system of espionage and autocratic power destructive of our system of government. That the alternative would be utter failure of the scheme can hardly be doubted. If advocates of temperance carried to the point the total abstinence would devote their energies to promoting educational and social influences in support of the cause which they have at heart and seek support through the agencies of the communities and states in which they live, instead of calling upon some exalted official power centered in the national government, they would make more progress and avoid undermining a system of government which was intended to be a bulwark against the tendency to despotism and the suppression of popular liberty."

(New York Commercial, New York City, Dec. 24, 1914.)

PROHIBITION IN CONGRESS

"Nothing short of martial law could enforce prohibition in New York City and other centres of large foreign-born population.”

(North Side News, New York City, Dec. 27, 1914—Ind.)

HOBSON'S CHOICE

"The United States is not ready for the adoption of a prohibition policy yet, and in this respect the American people are in about the same situation as Great Britain and France, and perhaps Germany, although the latter country has made less progress toward prohibition than the others. It may be noted, however, that Kaiser Wilhelm II is a strong advocate of total abstinence.

"Of course, in this matter a broad distinction must be drawn between whiskey on the one hand and beer and light wines on the other."

(Post, New York City, Dec. 22, 1914-Ind.)

THE PROHIBITION AMENDMENT

"Unless all our notions of the American character have been mistaken, it is quite certain that the long-established sentiment of