Word: volstead
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While locality after locality continues to express itself in positive terms as favoring beer and light wines, a number of interesting legal questions arise. Is the Volstead Act constitutional in view of what the constitution says? Is it in view of what the Eighteenth Amendment says? Are the states' laws on the subject constitutional with respect to either or both? If not, which? Does "concurrent jurisdiction" mean literally "running together"--like the blending of gin and vermouth? Or does it mean acting together, but one sovereign, like whiskey and soda? As far as we are able to see, "Nobody knows...
...recall of "Pussyfoot" Johnson from an active European campaign for prohibition affords the press another opportunity for banter at the expense of the Volstead supporters. While there is no real danger, (or hope, as the case may lie), of any immediate repeal of the eighteenth amendment, the fact that the prohibitionists have ceased their foreign campaign, and are rallying their forces at home, shows that they fear a 'too' liberal interpretation...
...weak link in the Volstead chain is the word intoxicating. Just what an "intoxicating beverage" is, has not, as yet, been defined by the courts. There can be no doubt that prohibition has already accomplished good throughout the nation, and that it should be continued. At the same time, the privilege of enjoying light wines and beers is not only harmless, but is, also, one much to be desired: Let us hope that Mr. Johnson's success here will be no greater than it was abroad...
When knockout drops in the form of the Volstead Act for enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment were served up to John Barleycorn last January, the Anti Saloon League thought he had passed out forever form American life. Temporarily he had, but the combination of wood alcohol and the W. C. T. U.'s "Tobacco Next" campaign showed that, like Mark Twain, his obituary notice was "greatly exaggerated...