Should ‘I Was Drunk, Your Honor’ Excuse Illegal Behavior? 1925

From the editorial page of the Aug. 20, 1925 issue of The Landmark, Statesville, N.C.

Down at Charlotte a man who put his hands on a young girl in a picture show was arrested. He explained that he was unconscious of what he was doing after he and his friends had consumed $10 worth of liquor, which he had bought.

In other words, he confessed to three offenses—buying liquor, drinking liquor and insulting a girl. Fined $10 for the purchase of liquor, judgment suspended for drunkenness. For laying his hands on the girl, which was assault, nothing done. Of course the punishment will make no impression on the man if he is disposed to repeat. There is no deterring effect in a fine of $10. The light sentence was of course because the man was drunk. It has for so long been the practice to overlook the conduct of a man under the influence of liquor, unless the offense is very grave, that we can’t get away from the custom, even though the last has never recognized drunkenness as an excuse—not in the old days when the sale of liquor was legalized. By excusing it now we excuse at one and the same time several offenses, some of them serious.

It is a violation of law to buy liquor, a violation to carry it around, a violation to drink to excess. And the buying and drinking means that we are upholding law violators, contributing to an unlawful business and helping to keep it going, aiding and abetting in lawlessness, encouraging defiance of the law and all the evils growing out of trampling the law under foot. That is the most serious of all; that’s what buying and drinking liquor mean. Those who engage in that, who defend it or condone it in any respect, are contributing not only to the evils growing out of the liquor traffic and the use of liquor, but they are actually contributing to the breakdown of law and recognized government authority.

But hypocrites that we are, we do not take this law seriously. Many who shouted for it never intended to take it seriously. And to all the sins mentioned is added hypocrisy, for which it is difficult to escape the damnation of hell, if we accept the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.