The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-07-13
SURE TO STOP
LIQUOR SALES
ON u. S. SHIPS
Even Vets Want This Done in
Hope of Making Prohibition
Law Odious Congress
May Act.
MAT TER UNFORTUNATE
by MARK SULLIVAN

WASHINGTON, July 13.-The hear
ings which Attorney General Daugh-
erty's office is holding on whether the
lazy does or does not, and ought or
ought not, permit the sale of LIQUOR
on American ships, may develop any
KIND of turn. Both the "wets" and
the "drys," each seeking their own
advantage. may try to mass the testi-
mony each way.
But. regardless of all that, there
need not be much doubt that ultl-
mately. through one means or anoth-
er, the American ships are going to
be made dry" The opinion to that
effect. both throughout the country
and IN congress, Is overwhelming.
The 'drys" want 1t done because
they believe in it. The "wets." al
though they seem to try to uphold
the wet" end of the legal argument.
really want the ships made dry" be-
cause that is part of their general
campaign to make prohibition odious,
At the conclusion of the present
hearings the attorney generals office
may decide either that the law. as IT
stands, permits the sale of liquor, or
that 1t does not. If the decision is
that the law, as It stands, prohibits
the sale Of liquor on American ships.
that will end the matter. and the
ships will go dry Immediately.
Congress May Act
II the decision is that the law. as
It stands. permits the sale, that will
not affect the ultimate outcome. In
that event congress, either by immo-
date action or by an amendment to
the shipping bill, will make the ships
dry"
A good many persons thought the
president would issue an order max
ing the ships dry" as soon as he
learned that the contrary was the
practice. Others believe he may issue
such an order after the attorney gen.
erals office has interpreted the law.
In the lack of that 1t will be done
by congress.
The real outcome is not matter OF
technical law, but of public opinion.
The feeling is that this practice justi-
fes the worst that is said of Uncle
Sam by foreign critics. that Uncle
Sam Is hypocrite, who is willing to
enforce prohibition against the indi-
vidual but is not willing to practice
it himself when money is to be made
out of it.
Incident Unfortunate.
All the circumstances of the making
public of the fact that liquor is being
sold on the shipping boards vessels
combined to make the incident as un-
fortunate as possible.
The fact that the disclosure related
to a ship named after George Wash
ington, who never told lie, the fact
that one of the items, on the ships
wine list, as reproduced in congress.
was in "Old American Rye Moon
shine" the irony of the fact that the
disclosure was made by brewer, who
was in a position to call Uncle Sam
the biggest bootlegger in the world,
the fact that the ordinary layman ig
nores all legal technicalities involved
and says that if the law against liquor
does not run on American ships, he
can't see how the law against murder
runs there, or any other law whatever
all of these things combined to give
rise to the maximum quantity of the
most adverse comment on the incident.
AS a result, American ships are
certain to be dry" and whatever ef-
feet this may have on the passage OF
the subsidy bill, or on the possibility
of having the precise kind of mer-
chant marine that the shipping board
is aiming at, must be accepted.
(Copydight 1922. by The New York
Evening Post.