The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1920-12-17
Majority Sentiment in America
Is Dry
VETS CHIEF FIGHT
Is SET FOR 1922
Post Writer Sees No Drunks in
New York
CITIZENS CAN PROVE
DRY LAW Is GOOD

The Saturday Evening Post of De
cember II, contains an article by
Samuel G. Blythe in which he dis
cusses at length the Prohibition stu,
alton in the United States at the pres
ent time. In considerable detail Mr.
Blythe speaks of the various ways II
which the law is being violated. IhC
three chief means of securing liquor
illegally are outlined by him as fol
lows: Liquor obtained on permit:
from existing stocks in bond; liquor
srnuggled in from Mexico and Can
ada by land and by water from Other
countries; and the illegal manufac
. ture of home brews and moonshinc
Vets Waiting for 1922
Pointing out that Congress has tht
power to amend the Volstead Ac
which is the only present means b,
which the liquor traffic can be re
vived Mr.. Blythe declares that thu
chief fight for wet Congress viii
come in l9ZZ. lie says:
Consequently the elections to
Congress this fall, which had not
been held at the time this article
was written, were watched with
considerable anxiety, and active
campaigns were made by both
the vets and the drys in many
localities. However, it is not
thought that this election-of
lo20--will be the crucial one, nor
is it expected that there will be
Congress elected this year that
r>ssIi do nlucfs alEs s3lac say ef
changing the present status, ex-
cept, it may be to make some
further restrictions held to be
necessary.
The vets will make their great
stand two years from now, in the
opinion of the men who hayesfo
do with the politics Of Prphibi
tion-in the congressional cleo
tions of 1922. The reason for that
assumption is this SA.decennial
census has just besnscompleted.
New congressional ,yfeapportion-
ments are mads sNer every cen
sus The cefsSy of 1920 has
shown larg4l lrcrease in urban,
or city, populaffon. The chances
are that fhssnew apportionment
for the membership of the House
of Representatives will increase
the number of members from the
city edistricts at the expense of
thetnumber from the country
districts, because of the great in
cFtase in city population in the
Spast ten years. The cities are
x the strongholds of the vets. The
z Prohibitionists are strongest in
the country. Thus it is antici-
pated that there may be an adj
vantage to the VETS in this new
reapportionment and that the big
fight will come then rather than
this year.
People Prefer Present Law
Mr.. Blythe thus expresses the opin
ion that the majority sentiment il
this country is dry.
New York City appears to be
wet. So does Chicago. So does
many another center of popula-
ton, but it is entirely probable
that if the citizens of New York
or Chicago or any other city
could get direct vote on the
wet-dry proposition, of all the
citizens, there would be much
greater dry showing than the
VETS imagine. The vets, as |
have said take their viewpoint
from themselves. That view
point always is wet. | do not
believe there is any doubt that
the large majority of the people
of this country prefer the present
law, with all its faults and with
all its difficulties and with all the
vast subsequent crookedness it
has entailed, to wet country,
with saloons, whisky and Ii
censed retailing of liquor.
Saw No Drunks In New York
OF his own observations on the re-
suits of Prohibition so far as public
drunkenness is concerned, Mr.. Blythe
says:
have been going about New
York for three weeks previous to
the writing of this article, and |
have not seen drunken man in