"
More citations might be given proving the legality of joint smashing
by the crusaders, but the foregoing is ample, for all fairminded, loyal
people. Had the joint smasher's cases been tried on their merits, not one
would have been convicted of a misdemeaner. They were arrested, tried,
convicted, imprisoned and fined for disturbing the "peace" of a common
nuisance, and "malicious" destruction of rebel paraphernalia. Their only
intent was against the treasonable liquor traffic. Had there been no liquor
dispensing there had been no smashing. This the liquorized courts would
not admit for a moment. Every ruling was a burlesque on civil law, a
travesty on justice and a contemptible farce. The whole proceedings
from beginning to end were a miserable outrage.
DECAY AND DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.
Today the country is ringing with the cry of political bribery, boodle
and official corruption, from the highest to the lowest. The rum traffic
is the principal factor in demoralizing and destroying the dignity, honor
and integrity of civic life. It is the insidious foe that is hatching and
nursing crime. Startling complication of statistics, obtained from the
replies of over 1,000 prison governors in the United States to a circular
letter addressed to them, and a summary shows that the general average
of 909 replies received from the license states, gives the proportion of
crime due to drink at no less than seventy-two per cent; the average
from 108 officials in Prohibition states giving the per centage at thirty-
seven.
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