Bisbee daily review., 1921-01-14
MODIFICATION. OF VOLSIEAD ACT |S URGED BY
 SHIP MEN
Steamship Company Officials Say Trade Threatened If
 Law Stays Unchanged
AMENDMENT OPPOSED
Service, Not Booze, Urged By Counsel For National
 Prohibition League

WASHINGTON. Jan. 1S.-American passenger steamship officials. appeal ing today to the house judiciary con- mittee for modification or the Vol stead acHdeclared they would be an- able tOscompete wHth ships of foreign registry for world trade unless Der mitted to handle liquors for use by patrons beyond the three mile limit.
 About the only consolation they ob- tained was a preiliction-not for .he record-by Representative Dyer. Se- publican of Missouri, that they did not have q chance" This comment was made after Wayne Wheeler. gen. eral counsel for the Anti-Saloon League, in oppoSnis any let-down in the laws. expressed the opinion that some day the world would be dry and that ali ships would be devoid or li- QUOT.
 The shipping interests insisted. however. that they had to deal with present problems. that there had been wholesale cancellations of reservations .On American ships by travellers who iound other vessels unaffected by pro- hibitiOn restrictions, and that the task of trying to make the American flag supreme could nos be carried on in competition with Great Britain and other nations free of all handicaps
 ?. A. s. Franklin president of the international Mercantile Marine. warn ed that the death knen of the mer- chant marine was sounded if the rul- ing by Attorney General Palmer that American ships could not sell liquor. were permitted 10. stand.
 Building Plans Halted
 E. A- QuarleS. president of the Uni ted States Mail Steamship Company, declared owners would be lift sub- jecJS for examination in a psycopaJhic . ward if they invested any vast sums in the building and conditioning Of ships without assurances that they would be allowed to compete with the countries endeavoring now to dom:n- ate ocean commerce
 Harris LivermOre. president of the United American Line. declared that construction of many transatlantic vessels had been contemplated but that with this hanging over us We cannot go ahead until the question Is determined. Half a dozen witnesses testified that the law gave a trem- endOus advantage to foreign traders.
 Wheeler alone Was heard in oppo- sition to the plea of the steamship question made at hearing on a bill by Representative Edmons, Republi- can. Pennsylvania. to exempt pasSen- ger vessels engaged in foreign trade nom provisions of the VOlstead law.
 
 'bootlegeing.' Wheeler said the amend meIt would multiply the difficulty Of the dry laws enforcement.
 IL was in answer to a suggestion by Representative Igoe. Democrat Uf Missouri, that the shipowners merely wanted an equalization Of liquor laws that Wheeler touched on the hope of spreading the fight against saloons to all the world.
 Service, Not Booze'
 The steamship companies are un- duly alarmed" ne decIared. The company that adopts sound policy looking to the moral welfare and pro tection of the people will win. The public wants Service-not booze, And let me say that the company that renders good service and less liquor finally will dominate"
 Representative EdmOnS, in urging approval of his amendment. said he looked al il strictly as business proposition.
 If We wait for the world to go dry while other nations are going ahead with their Shippins," he added. we wont have any flag. We are dealing with d condition not 2 theory"