The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-01-18
A Timely Editorial
Upshaw of Georgia
(From the New York Times.)

Representative William David Up
shaw has been on the stump for
prohibition for at least fifteen
years. 1t is to be regretted that
not he, but the stern and rock-bound
Mr.. Volstead, goes laundering down
the ages as the putative father of
the federal prohibition enforcement
act. Mr.. Upshaw makes people like
him who disagree radically with
him. Unlike too many prohibition
lists, he has great sense of humor.
So the late Sir Wilfrid Lawson, an
implacable teetotaler, was the de-
light of the house Of commons for
his wit.
! Mr.. Upshaw wants to drive the
official house bootlegger" out of
/ the house office building. He has
given to the prohibition commission
er all information he has on the sub
| ject. He has not been animated
| by the petty spirit of the squealer
| and keyhole reformer." He doesn't
want to be disagreeable to his coll
leagues. He only wants to have the
prohibition law enforced against
thirsty members of the House. It
is shameful if representatives,
some of them, perhaps, orthodox
! drys in speech and vote, are violat-
! ing the Volstead act. 1t is intoler-
able if bottlegging is going on in
the house office building. Mr..
Upshaw's speech, renewing the
plea for sober officials" is packed
+, with good nature, humor and sin
cere Indignation.
He began with a plologue in verse,
| gibing Col. John Philip Hill of
Maryland, the fieriest wet in the
House. He told of an old fellow in
the southern mountains whose eight
day clock struck los times.. /.
In wild-eyed CONSERVATION I'm
Gle Joshua shook his wife by the
shoulder and said: "Melindy,
! old woman, wake up-git up!
It's the latest | have ever
known And / declare to the
gentleman from Maryland, the
governor of New York, the new
senator from New Jersey, and all
! that sympathize with their wet"
proclivities. that it will be the
! latest they have ever known
the latest that the world has ever
known-when the eighteenth
amendment to the constitution is
repealed by legislative process.
He quoted from signed letter
this instructive passage.
a professional bootleg
ger, told me a year ago, the
house office building furnishes
smy best customers, and as long
as those sblankety- blanks keep
buying | am going to keep on
selling" l have reported him
several times, but they let him
pay a fine and he goes right back
to bootlegging
Mr.. Upshaw believes that liquor
ssdestroys all patriotism and all sense
of party loyalty In support of
this theory he quoted this letter
from somebody in Plattsburg:
You have the right theory on
prohibition. Here is an addition
| for you:
Four and twenty yankees.
feeling mighty dry,
Took trip to Canada
And bought case OF rye.
When the case was opened
The yanks began to sing
"To hell with the president!
God save the king"
But it would be unjust to Mr..
Upshaw to picture him merely as the
rare talent that can make even the
bleak walls of prohibition look
sunny. Hear him in his high and
serious moment:
An official who takes an oath to
stand by the constitution ought to
obey the law by supporting that
constitution. And the man who
helps bootlegger to trample the
constitution beneath his feet and
defy the flag above his head
ought to resign from Congress
and every other position Of Off
cial leadership beneath the Stars
and Stripes.
| Impregnable truth. How many
of the men who applauded it talk
jovially in their private hours about
my bootlegger"?