That the enforcement of the prohibition amendment is at present bordering on paralysis is quite evident. Not all men drink, indeed--perhaps not nearly so many drink as drank before--but much drinking, if spasmodic, is deeper and more reckless than ever. Strong drink is carried about by men and even boys, and is shared by them, and taken to excess, with a sort of illicit eagerness, by many who in the days of freedom passed it by. It may even be said that some are drinking to a hurtful extent for no better reason than to "prove that they can get it." Drinking is common at dancing parties where in pre-amendment days it was never thought of. It is offered by boys, in dark corners, to other boys. A larger proportion of hard liquor is in circulation than ever before. Though saloons are no longer open, the enforcement of the law seems to be a little better than a farce, at least in many cities and towns where license prevailed before the amendment went into effect.

The question arises whether the condition can be corrected with new legislation. Is this the real crisis of the amendment, or is it merely an unavoidable halting point in the adjustment of the law to the situation? Does the illicit sale and wide-spread use of spirits prove that national prohibition is something which the people will not have, and that it will be necessary to repeal the amendment? There are many who think so, but in view of the way in which prohibition swept the country, with an almost unanimous ratification by the States, it should be evident that it is vain to talk about repeal at least at the present time. Forty-five of the forty-eight States ratified the amendment. Is there any reason to suppose that more than a dozen of them, at the outside, would ratify a repeal amendment? There is none. Two courses only remain: (1) First to extend, strengthen and adjust the operations of the national enforcement law, and then to bring State legislation very thoroughly and earnestly into concurrence with and assistance of the national enforcement of the amendment as the Volstead Act applies it, with increasingly stringent measures to meet every new and ingenious means of evasion, or (2) to abandon the one-half-of-one-per-cent interpretation in the Volstead Act, and to read the words 'intoxicating beverage' as referring only to liquors having an alcholic content of more than four, five or even ten per cent. Such an interpretation would probably at once put beer and light wines in the place of the ardent spirits now consumed. One result of that course might be the re-opening of the saloons. That would be a result to be regretted for many reasons, but it might be less demoralizing, less corrupting and less detrimental to the public health than the present system of illicit traffic and reckless drinking. --Boston Evening Transcript.