national power and lowering of the comparative importance of the
functions of the State. However, the functions that still remain to
the State--and its subdivisions, the municipalities and counties --are
still of enormous importance; and, with the growth of public-welfare
activities which are ramifying in so many directions, that importance
may be far greater in the future. But what is to become of it if we
are ready to surrender to the central government the control of our
most intimate concerns? And what concern can be so intimate as that of
the conduct of the individual citizen in the pursuit of his daily
life? How can the idea of the State as an object of pride or as a
source of authority flourish when the most elementary of its functions
is supinely abandoned to the custody of a higher and a stronger power?
The Prohibition Amendment has done more to sap the vitality of our
State system than could be done by a hundred years of misrule at
Albany or Harrisburg or Springfield. The effects of that misrule are
more directly apparent, but they leave the State spirit untouched in
its vital parts. The Prohibition Amendment strikes at the root of that
spirit, and its evil precedent, if unreversed, will steadily cut off
the source from which that spirit derives its life.

CHAPTER IV

HOW THE AMENDMENT WAS PUT THROUGH

THERE has been a vast amount of controversy over the question whether
a majority of the American people favored the adoption of the
Eighteenth Amendment. There is no possible way to settle that
question. Even future votes, if any can be had that may be looked upon
as referendum votes, cannot settle it, whichever way they may turn
out. If evidence should come to hand which indicates that a majority