Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1920-01-13

Red Cross from this time on will
be chiefly done in the United States,
that organization is not yet ready
to abandon the foreign field. Its
foreign plans have just been made
public. The scheme of organization
is briefly this: central Office in
Paris to determine and direct the gen.
eral policy for the whole territory
Serbia alone excepted-to approve the
budgets, assign the personnel and dis
tribute the supplies. Then the organ
ization is to have Its commissioners
and their stats in European countries
where there is permanent work yet to
be done. In countries like Poland,
threatened with famine and pesti-
lence, this work, which the organiza-
ton hoped to give up as early as last
July, is growing rapidly In Czecho-
Slovakia the work of the organization
is practically completed, as it is in
Italy, with the exception of the home
service for the families Of the Italian
born soldiers, of whom there are more
than 10000.
The organization has withdrawn
from England and from Switzerland.
1t still has temporary missions scat
tered about, such as that for the Amer
lean troops in Archangel and the one
to care for Russian prisoners in Ger
many, and more recently. at the re-
quest of the supreme economic coun-
Gil sitting in Paris, II took trainload
of supplies into Vienna and Budapest.
Still Busy in Europe.
So long as the Paris office is main
liminary inquiries here and there. One
such inquiry into southern Russia,
made not long ago, was followed by
three shipments of supplies and an
other representative of the organiza-
ton has just returned from the
Ukraine. The American Red Cross is
not operating directly in Armenia.
This means that it does not have any
personal representatives there. but 1t
is doing it's share in relieving the con-
ditions in that section.
The American Red Cross is taking
leading share in building up the or
ganization of the International League
of Red Cross Societies, which it be-
lieves will carry into all the world the
Red Cross spirit and the knack of
getting things done, despite all diff
culties. The organization is still in
close touch with an American relief
organization (Mr. HoOver's organiza-
tiOn) and with all peoples and govern
ments everywhere. 1t still has in the
foreign service, including Siberia,
over 1,200 American men and women,
and its budget for this year comes to
about eighteen millions. 1t was
brought out at the annual meeting of
the organization here the other day
that with all activity the organization
is really only touching the surface of
the needs throughout the world.
Little Hope for "Wets."
The public man who believes that
the United States will ever take
backward step with respect to
prohibition of the manufacture and
sale of intoxicating beverages is
hard to find. The decision of the
Supreme court the other day, up
holding the wartime prohibition legis-
latiOn, has done much to confirm the
prevailing view that prohibition is here
to stay. Men who know the history of
their country point with some pride
to the fact that the people of the Unit
ed States have never taken a back
ward step on any moral question The
so-called liquor question is generally
regarded as a moral question and for
this reason, if for no other, many pub
lie men say, the people may be count
ed on to hold all the ground that has
been gained.
The failure of the senate to ratify
the treaty of peace with Germany and
the decision of the Supreme court on
wartime prohibition have made it ex-
tremely doubtful whether the wartime
ban will be lifted even for a limited
period of time. The amendment to the
federal constitution prohibiting the
manufacture and sale of intOxicants,
also the legislation recently enacted
by congress for the enforcement of the
constitutional amendment will become
effective January II. Even if the treaty
of peace with Germany should be rati-
fed the first week in January, which
is extremely improbable, there would
still be question as to whether the
president would have authority to de-
clare wartime prohibition null and
void for the United States would still
be at war with Austria and Bulgaria,
technically speaking. So it seems rea-
sOnably certain that there is to be no
gap between wartime prohibition and
prohibition through constitutional
amendment
Position of the President.
1t is evident that up until the day
the constitutional amendment shall be-
come effective the president of the
United States will be importuned to
lift the ban. His desk for weeks has
been piled high with petitions, asking
him to give the interests that hold
large stocks of liquors enough time
to dispose of their holdings. But the
presidents attitude all along has been
that he could not come to the relief of
the men and concerns that were petit
tioning him so long as the peace treaty
remained unratified by the senate The
fight against prohibition will go on.
The wet interests are attacking the
legality of the constitutional amend
ment in the courts and within the next
few months they will get a decision
| from the Supreme court. 1t would be
unwise, as well as foolish, to attempt
to predict what the Supreme court will
say with respect to the constitutional
amendment, but since it upheld the
legality of wartime prohibition the sup
porters of the constitutional amend
ment have no doubt, so they say, that
the court will hold that the amend
ment was properly adopted.