One hundred years ago this week, in an address to the Chattanooga Rotary Club, attorney W.L. Frierson offered a patriotic address stressing the need for the support of law enforcement and on the ill-advised need to tinker with the U.S. Constitution.
His words, as recorded in the July 3, 1925, Chattanooga Daily Times, still resonate today when law enforcement instead of lawbreakers is said to be the problem and when the answer to “the Constitution won’t allow it” is to suggest ditching the document, getting rid of the offending parts or creating an unanswerable bureaucracy to deal with it.
Although part of Frierson’s address dealt with prohibition, the 1919 ban on the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages by the 18th Amendment (repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933), much of it is also general in nature.
“Prohibition is on trial,” he said. “If it shall prove an unwise policy, it will in good time and in a lawful way be repealed. But there is now involved a matter of greater importance. …
“The question is does good citizenship require us to at least give our sympathy and support in the efforts of the government to enforce these laws, or are we at liberty to help break down the reign of law by encouraging their violation? That question applied to laws in general admits but one answer. If we will be candid with ourselves, no other answer is possible when applied to prohibition or any other particular law. And yet are we not obliged to admit that one of the greatest obstacles in the way of an efficient enforcement of these laws is the attitude of many good citizens?”