The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1922-10-13
KENNEDY SAYS
VOLSTEAD ACT
CAN BE- MODIFIED
Would Permit Sale of
Light Wines and
Beers

JAMES L. hcllltUy VI Dul iii X WI
democratic candidate for Congress
against F. G. Fleetwood of Morris
vile, and to succeed Congressman
Frank L. Greene of st. Adams
further defines his position as a
"wet" candidate. He says in an
open letter to Editor Cushing Of
the St. Adams Messenger:
If | understand you correctly
you are of the opinion that it is
impossible to modify the Volstead
Act, liberalize it, as it were, to the
extent of permitting the maniac
ture and sale of wines and beers
and remain within the prescribe
ment Of the Eighteenth Amend
ment.
| feel that you are wrong in this
respect. Even the most ardent adj
vocates of the Volstead Act fear
that modification may take place
and by some of the Jealous advo-
Gates of the law absolute repeal
is feared.
A no lesser person than William
H. Anderson, Anti-Saloon League
superintendent in New York, has
said:
"Prohibition is cracking some
places.
If beer and wine is legalized,
that will be collapse"
Anderson says nothing about it
being impossible to modify the
Volstead Act. He fears modifica-
ton.
You say there must be an en-
forcement act. | agree with you,
but if the enforcement act is be-
yond enforcing then it nullifies its
intent and is useless.
And this is the kind of an en-
forcement act we have at the pres
ent time and have had since Oct.
%, 1919,-an act that has created
a near-army of law violators, an
increase in crime and an increase
in drunkenness.
You ask me to define my plan
of modification. | am well satisfied
that the Volstead Act should be
modified to permit the manufac-
ture of wholesome beer and light
wines which are in fact and in
truth Notwithstanding, and there
fore not honestly within the scope
of the amendment.
Permit the average man and wo-
man to legally be permitted to OBJ
tain the beer and the wine he or
she desires and you will have,
presto, deprived the bootlegger of
his customers, for | am sure the
average man and the average wo-
man will be satisfied with the
wholesome beer and the light wine
that all should be able to obtain
under a proper modification of the |
Volstead law.
Unless | am misinformed, land |
surely all the reading | have had !
on the subject proves what | am to
say that the nations of beer and |
wine drinkers are not nations of +
durnkards, but on the contrary are
the most temperate nations of the .
globe.
You must know that the law un-
der which we are now living is
growing up generation of "hard"
i. e., drinkers of hard .
liquors, most of whom boast of
the fact that they can "get all they
want and that they rejoice in de-
feating the law.
AS an economic measure you
will have to admit that the Vol
stead Act is a failure.
In your editorial you ask: "Do
we want to turn our backs on the 1
party of Lincoln" and | say no, |
assuredly no. |, for one American
am willing to stay with the
memory of the man who said "a
mouse divided against itself cannot
stand" and if the Volstead Act has
not divided the house of America
hen | do not know what division
5. With 63 per cent of the votes
'ast in the poll of the Literary Di-
gest favoring modification of the
' olstead Act to 81 per cent again
It modification, it would see that
here is division and that the
is at present in control.
And, again, from Lincoln: mo |
nan is good enough to govern
mother man without that others
onsent."
Assuring you Mr.. Volstead new
II had my consent, | am, very
yours,