A Heated Debate

Edward I. Edwards, Democrat, from New Jersey, rose in the Senate and declared:

"Mr. President, on the night of the 15th of February, 1924, a United States Senator was struck down by a stray shot while walking along Pennsylvania Avenue accompanied by his wife. Pennsylvania Avenue is the main thoroughfare in our National Capital and one of the historic thoroughfares of the world. It connects the Capitol Building with the White House. The appalling tragedy referred to occurred almost within the shadow of the Capitol. The newspaper stories are to the effect that there was a running battle between an agent of the National prohibition department and suspected bootleggers, in which pistol shots were freely exchanged, and that one going wild struck Hon. Frank Lester Greene, a United States Senator from the State of Vermont, in the head. He is still in the hospital, his life hanging in the balance. Our common prayer is for his speedy and permanent recovery.

"... I have taken the initiative, so far as the Senate is concerned, and have introduced a resolution to investigate the National prohibition department. . . . Have we reached the point where it is no longer safe for United States Senators to walk along the principal thoroughfares of the Nation's Capital City? Is the law to enforce the 18th Amendment to the Federal Constitution so much more sacred than the laws to enforce the other Amendments that those charged with its enforcement may without regard to the great third party, the public, engage in pistol duels with lawbreakers, alleged or real, in places where hundreds of people pass to and fro at all hours of the day and far into the night? Is the 18th Amendment so much more holy and sacred than the Fourth and Fifth Amendments* that the enforcement branch of our National prohibition department is justified in violating either one or both of them to enforce it? If so, why? . . .

"Christ ended His ministry on earth with the great command ... to preach the gospel to all men everywhere. He did not tell us to shoot the gospel into all men everywhere. We are doing a lot of things in the name of Christ nowadays in a manner wholly contrary to anything He ever said or did or taught. . . ."

Senator Willis, Republican, from Ohio, got the floor: "

... It is interesting to note that men who become agitated because of this accident had nothing at all to say about the hundreds of men whose lives have been lost by the nefarious traffic of the bootlegger. Nothing at all is said about the six or seven hundred men, according to latest reports, who in the city of Philadelphia have lost their lives through the work of the bootlegger. Nothing is said about that. Nothing is said about the 35 members of the enforcement division who have lost their lives seeking to enforce the law. Nothing at all is said about that. . . ."

And Senator Sheppard, of Texas, pronounced:

"Propagandist endeavors are always under way to create the impression that the entire prohibition enforcement machinery has collapsed and that prohibition is a failure. The resolution of the Senator from New Jersey fits admirably into such a campaign. The social revelers, the wealthy entertainers . . . form but another wing of the bootleg army. . . . The society matron who feels that she must circulate cocktails among her guests little realizes that not only may she send some soul to Hell about her board but may also by the encouragement which her patronage gives to an illegal traffic send a bullet into the heart of another official sworn to uphold the law and to apprehend its violators. . . . Let bootleggers, moonshiners and all the other criminals be given to understand that the American Congress and the American people will sustain and applaud our officers in the enforcement of law."

* The "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses . . . and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures," and "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or prosperity, without due process of law."