PROHIBITION: Bruce & Borah

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Mr. Borah: "But every man who commits forgery feels toward the law exactly as the Senator does toward prohibition."

Mr. Bruce: "He does what his neighbors do not. The difference in this case is not only the man who takes—"

Mr. Borah: "I am not sure the Senator's neighbors do."

Mr. Bruce: "I have stated to you before that many of my neighbors regard with great indulgence the violation of the great lunacy—the Volstead Act—because, as they conceive, that act has no true moral sanction behind it. It endeavors to pronounce something as being criminal per se that is not criminal at all."

Then the two Senators argued the propriety of the New York state referendum.

Mr. Bruce: "Outraged nature claims its rights, and there is nothing which I regard with more satisfaction than the fact that when I was a boy, living in a remote countryside, all the white citizens of that community, without reference to station in life, were banded together like brothers for the purpose of nullifying those atrocious amendments to the Federal Constitution and defeating the will of Congress, and, thank God, they defeated it."

Mr. Borah: "The Senator is preaching the doctrine of Trotsky here in the Senate of the United States!"

Mr. Bruce: "Oh, no."

Mr. Borah: "Yes, the Senator is; he is preaching anarchy."

Mr. Bruce: "It is not the Senator from Maryland, but the Senator from Idaho, who wishes us to recognize the Soviet government."

Mr. Borah: "I do. I think it would be really an example for us, the way we are pursuing things in this country at this time. I think we could learn lessons from them."