of the American people favor the retention of the Amendment now that
it is an accomplished fact, this will not prove that they favored its
adoption in the first place; it may be that they wish to give it a
fuller trial, or it may be that they do not wish to go through the
upheaval and disturbance of a fresh agitation of the question or it
may be some other reason quite different from what was in the
situation four years ago. On the other hand, if the referendum should
seem adverse, this might be due to disgust at the lawlessness that has
developed in connection with the Prohibition Amendment, or to a
realization of the vast amount of discontent it has aroused, or to
something else that was not in the minds of the majority when the
Amendment was put through. But really the question is of very little
importance. From the standpoint of fundamental political doctrine, it
makes no difference whether 40 million, or 50 million, or 60 million
people out of a hundred million desired to put into the Constitution a
provision which is an offense against the underlying idea of any
Constitution, an injury to the American Federal system, an outrage
upon the first principles both of law and of liberty. And if, instead
of viewing the matter from the standpoint of fundamental political
doctrine, we look upon it as a question of Constitutional procedure,
it is again--though for a different reason--a matter of little
consequence whether a count of noses would have favored the adoption
of the Amendment or not. The Constitution provides a definite method
for its own amendment, and this method was strictly carried out--the
Amendment received the approval of the requisite number of
Representatives, Senators and State Legislatures; from the standpoint
of Constitutional procedure the question of popular majorities has
nothing to do with the case. But from every standpoint the way in
which the Eighteenth Amendment was actually put through Congress and
the Legislatures has a great deal to do with the case. Prohibitionists