[Footnote 2: Revenue Act of 1918, Title XII.]

The assumption by the National Government of jurisdiction over the
manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors is no more of an
encroachment on the prerogatives of the states than is its assumption of
jurisdiction over child labor and the use of narcotic drugs. We come
back, therefore, to the proposition that the Prohibition Amendment is to
be regarded less as a departure in American fundamental law than as a
spectacular manifestation of a change already well under way.

The change, however much students of our institutions may deplore it, is
not difficult to explain. The earlier solicitude for state rights was in
a sense accidental. It was based on sentiment and mutual jealousies
among the colonies rather than on any fundamental differences in race,
beliefs, or material interests. The traditions behind it, while strong,
were of comparatively recent growth. When they entered the Union the
colonies were still new and undeveloped. As men died and their sons
succeeded them prejudices gradually yielded and sentiment changed.
Moreover, various other forces--immigration, free trade among the
states, the growth of railways and other nationwide industries, foreign
wars--have been at work to obliterate state lines.

Advocates of the old order see in the change a breaking down of the
principle of local self-government. To their minds the danger of
majority tyranny, made possible by a centralization of power in a
republic of such vast extent and varied interests, outweighs all the
advantages of national uniformity and efficiency. Advocates of the new
order think otherwise. They argue, moreover, that the states have become
too great and populous to serve as units for purposes of home rule;