we construe law without any reference to the Annual Conferences. If we
touch the law inside of the Restrictive Rules, we must go down to the
Annual Conferences. Outside we are free to legislate as we may.

What is the Constitution for? The Constitution is designed simply to
limit the powers of the Legislature. In my own State of Ohio, for
illustration, we have an article in our Constitution that forbids our
Legislature to license the liquor traffic, but our legislators give a
license under the guise of taxing, but they cannot give us a license
law in form. The Constitution prevents it. There are States that have
Constitutions that have no word to say about the liquor traffic at all,
while they may either tax, license, or prohibit.

This is a fact that is well settled, that the Constitution is a
limitation of legislative power, and where there is no such limitation
there is no restriction.




ADDRESS OF REV. DR. ALFRED WHEELER.


Mr. President, it will be well for us, so far as we have progressed in
this discussion, to see how near and how far we agree. It is admitted by
the friends of the report, or by the committee, that this is a question
of law, and to be decided exclusively upon principles of law. So far as
those who are opposed to the report have spoken, they conceive, as I
understand it, that the position taken by the committee is taken by
those who are advocating its adoption. Then we are agreed that it is not