Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-07-02


the War Finance Corporation saved
the state of Wyoming. Lots of peo-
Pile have forgotten that we borrowed
$4,000 900 from the government. But
we have got to pay all that back.
Cites Rail Merger Talk.
Il was in Kansas City the other
day after the President talked there
and 1 tell you the fellows up there
were boiling mad over that speech,
yes sir they were bitter. Now, ] say,
what's the use of his declaring him.
| self about consolidation of railroads.
That's something the Interstate Gem
merce Commission can work out and
he needn't get mixed up in it.
| { "lahother thing. that speech at
Denver was a mistake. Just as sure
! as you and l are sitting here today
beer Is coming back. The prohibition
stun is a farce. 1 voted dry. but I
| won't do it again. I'm not a drinking
! than a quart of whisky in all my
life. but this prohibition is terrible.
| 1t means graft and bootlegging and
| the stuff they sell the people is dan
gerous. I'll tell you why it's farce.
! ] travel from one end of the country
TO the other every year and 1 keep
my eyes open. Within fifteen min
| utes after you reach a hotel. you can
get all the whisky you want. And
| there's more high school girls drink
! ing whisky today than ever was
4 known.
Now, tell me. what's the harm in
! a good glass of beer or a little wine?
That's what we are going to. get
after a while and I believe it's a
4 mistake for the President to get
4 mixed up in that issue when lots OF
people are changing their minds
about it every day."
Says More Stills Operate.
| Irwin said he thought there were
more whisky stills In the west today
! than they ever had before. These
/ so called dry states have unuues-
| tionably experienced considerable of
a change since the federal amend
ment was adopted. President Hard
ing conceded that In his Denver
| speech when he said:
| IA good deal of testimony comes
| to Washington that some states are
| disposed to abdicate their own police
| authority in this matter and to turn
! over the burden of prohibition en-
| forcement to the federal authorities.
| 1t is a singular fact that some states
| which successfully enforced their
! own prohibition statutes before the
eighteenth amendment was adopted
/ have latterly gone backwards In this
regard.
! Communities in which the policy
| was frankly accepted as productive
of highly beneficial results. and in
! which there was no widespread pro-
/ test so long as 1t was merely q state
/ concern. report that since the federal
1 government became in part RESPONSE
BILE there has been a growing laxity
on the part of state authorities about
enforcing. the law. Doubtless this Is
| largely due to a misconceived no.
ton, too widely entertained, that the
4 H. 49,
taken over the real responsibility"
Expected U. S. Help.
-! That may be one explanation of IL,
| but western opinion OF the type of
| Charlie Irwin gives quite another.
AS long as the western states had
prohibition. they really had no effec-
tive way to stop people from bringing
| into those states in suit cases, trunks
and baggage all the liquor they or
their friends wanted. There was al
ways some wet state not far away.
The dry states along the northern
without much difficulty. Other states
got what they wanted from Califor-
MIA, and still others farther east
| bought from Missouri.
| Now those sources OF supply have
been virtually stopped and the local
! stills have sprung up and are doing
| a thriving business. The truth Is
these western states never had the
same problem of enforcement before
the eighteenth amendment as they
| have today.
| The advocates OF the eighteenth
amendment used to say that only the
federal government could prevent i'm
portations into the dry" states. So
! the latter fully expect the federal
government to make their communi-
/ ties bone dry" and most OF the
| trouble is not due to laxity of state
| enforcement, but to increased viola
! ton of the law.
| Any one who says the dry" states
of the west would vote against light
wines and beer II the people had q
| referendum is merely guessing. The
only thing that can be recorded at
| this time is that the sentiment Is not
SO unanimous for prohibition as It
| used to be and there is sufficient pub
1 lie disgust over "bootlegging" and
poisonous whisky to produce re-
action In favor Of q compromise
! proposition IL the 'drys" are ever tact
4 less enough to let such a thing come
| to a popular vote.
Copyright, 1921