The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1923-11-02
ALL THE KINGS HORSES
AND ALL THE KINGS
MEN
(Chicago Daily Tribunel

.gss sNShSdso Ddiiy lIlDuneD
Mayor Dever says that Chicago is
the driest large city in the United
States and that before his administra-
ton is over it will be entirely dry. He
says that he has 1000 policemen and
that it would be nonsense to say he
could not enforce the law.
Mr.. Dever had his picture taken with
Lloyd George. The picture was
printed in the newspapers and a great
many people saw it. Some may have
noticed that the mayors jaw was
} prominent. 1t is noticeable jaw,
square, determined, set and decisive.
The notable thing about Lloyd George
was his dome. His jaw was not weak
by any means, but it was part of
dome. Mr.. Dever's dome did not
overshadow his jaw. Lloyd Georges
did.
The observer might reason that Mr..
Dever's jaw was not always going to
take counsel with his dome but that
Lloyd George would never set his jaw
until the dome had been quite con-
WINGED that in human affairs the set
law would be able to hang on to what
ever it was set in. Lloyd George has
seen logic pushed out of line by human
, elements. He has seen the limitations
of 1000 policemen, particularly in Ire
land.
Mr.. Dever's antecedents are Irish.
His people had the policemen set on
= them. The police were on them for
centuries. The Irish had a conviction
that they ought not to take laws from
London. The police had orders to
make them take them, but they didn't,
and the British police are gone now.
They are back in London The Irish
were small minority in the population
of the British islands, but now they
are getting their laws from their own
parliament.
Prohibition is the conviction of
many, people in the United States. 1t
is not the conviction of majority of
the people in the city in which Mr..
Dever's 1000 police operate. A year
ago the people of the city voted on
question of public policy, for or against
Sheer and wine. The vote for beer and
wine was 100000. The vote against
was 10000, nearly five, to one against.
~ There are nearly half million peo-
pie in Chicago whose mother tongue
was Germanic. Nearly all of them
have a, profound conviction against
prohibition. A citizen who would
give his children beer will not have a
prohibition law on his conscience. He
=, will regard law which deprives him
: of beer as fanatical intolerance. He
thinks it is wicked He does not re-
gard it as a crime to avoid it.
There are 100000 people in Chicago
whose mother tongue was Italian or
Greek. Not one per cent of them can
believe that wine is bad morally or can
be made bad by law. All they can
believe is that the law is tyrannical.
The 1000 policemen would have busy
time in Little Italy when nature goes
to work on the grapes. There are
nearly a half million people of Slavic
and Lettic stocks. They have no
conviction for prohibition. The two
hundred thousand persons of Scandi
ravian stock may have little convic-
ton, but it is not much. The Ghetto
, has no respect for it. The law itself
allows the Jew his wine.
English and Celtic is the mother
tongue of little over Is per cent of
the people. The Irish are not prohi
bitionists. What politics regards as
the American vote is in this Is per
cent. In Chicago it has lived in Hyde
Park, Englewood, Lake View. Rogers
Park, etc. 1t has been prohibition. 1t
has voted saloons out of its neighbor
hoods. 1t is not all dry by any means,
but more than any other group in the
CITY COHlpOSltlOH II has DecH dlll-
saloon and it regards liquor as moral
evil. 1t is powerful. 1t probably is
large part of Mayor Dever's conscience
now. An American can drink and
yet be prohibitionist and it isn't
necessary to regard him as hypocrite,
either.
Mr.. Dever and his 1000 policemen
are endcavoring to make city which
is at least five to one convinced of the
unjustness of prohibition law subscribe
to it, accept II and obey it. That may
be his duty, as he sees it, but it can
not be DONE AS an Irishman he must
know it cannot be done. He has a
nori-enforceable law on his hands.
This is where the jaw of Mr.. Dever
guides him in one direction whereas
the dome of Lloyd George would lead
him in another. When law not only