"THE BOTTLE CRY OF FREEDOM"

Wroth with the treatment accorded a New York night club by Prohibition officers armed with axes, the Evening World says flatly, "It is incredible that any people, not abject slaves under the rule of tyrants, will tolerate such infamies indefinitely. It this is what Prohibition means, then it is time to get rid of Prohibition." To the student of American history, this statement will have a familiar ring, but events seem to justify it. It was to the tune of a number of contemptuous cartoons that the lid dropped on Boston during the New Year's celebration, and the warning that chemists would be arrested if they gave analyses of alcoholic beverages, aroused even more adverse comet. As for the individual officers, the World says that they have rummaged the statirtes for excuses for the commission of outrages."

But the significance of this editorial lies in the fact that the country, getting so dangerously smug and fat with prosperity, is going to have another bitter political fight to range with those on Slavery, or the National Bank, and in this case to serve as an emetic and tonic. At last the worm, which has been turning for a long time, has accomplished the convolution. The feeling is evident in print, in the new book written by Darrow, and in the belliger out attitude of nearly all the important papers and magazines. The Civil Liberty unions have been quietly accomplishing much in the courts, but the sore will probably come to a head in the person of Governor Smith.

But Governor Smith's position as a potential nominee seems to be still somewhat clouded, and if cannot bue be regretted that the Wet issue seems to be still dangerously entangled with religious prejudice. This aspect of the problem, always in the foreground, but heretofore rather problematical in its significance, has recently taken a more definite shape, and where anti-Catholic prejudice seemed to have been some what alloyed, it is now logical to expect that this factor will again come into prominence. A recent editorial in Osservatore Romano, the official mouthpiece of the Vatican, is reported as being an attack on Prohibition in the United States, a coincidence which will not pass unnoticed among those who are uneasy about the governor's ultimate allegiance. It is not unfortunate that Governor Smith is likely to be the means of bringing to issue the question that politicians have so long handled with gloves on, but it will be highly unfortunate if, when that issue is brought, it is to be clouded by cross currents.