This enforcement of the law against foreign ships is undoubtedly for the time being favourable to prohibition, but two other recent occurrences are distinctly adverse. One is the decision of two federal judges, one in New York and the other in Montana, that the limitation of the amount of alcoholic liquor that a physician may prescribe for his patients, a limitation hitherto rigorously enforced by the prohibition authorities, is void. The other is the indictment for forgery and grand larceny of William H. Anderson, Superintendent of the Anti'Saloon League for the State of New York and one of the most outstanding figures in the whole prohibition movement.
The suit intended to test the legality of the limitation on stituted by, Br. 'Smauel W, Lam-physicians' prescriptions was in-bert, Dean Emeritus of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Columbia University and President of the Association for the Protection of Constitutional Rights, an organization established last year by 105 physicians who selected Dr. Lambert to bring this test case. Judge Knox, before whom the trial took place, said in his decision that it was not the function of Congress to invade the domain of medical authority and to deprive patients of that which they need and by every principle of right and justice are entitled to have. Congress, Judge Knox continued, had recognized the medicinal use of alcohol, but in putting itself in the place of the skilled physician and limiting the amount to be used, it had exceeded its power.
The prosectition of William H. Anderson is based upon the fact that he withdrew $24,700 from the funds of the League, to reimburse himself, he alleges, for a like amount he had personally advanced towards carrying on the work of the League, but with regard to which he has not so far furnished. a single scrap of evidence, One of the indictments charges him with having manipulated the books of the League, in order to cover up the fact that he had extorted $4,400 from a former subordinate. The Council of the League has so far stood by the Superintendent, notwithstanding that it has lost the support of many former friends, including the Rockefeller family with their annual subscription of $25,000. Anderson, who is fighting as if for his very life, has sought to attract public sympathy by representing his prosecution as the work of Tammany, an imputation the Grand Jury was quick to resent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.