San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-09-20
SPLIT DEVELOPS
IN ORGANIZED
DRY RANKS
Church Councils Report
!, Says Prohibition Has
Been Failure.

WASHINGTON, D. c.. Sept. TO-
After presenting solid front for five
Years, distinct split at last has
developed in the organized dry forces
of the country and political leaders
in Washington are engaged in serious
speculation as to what this significant
fact may portend in future efforts to
modify the Volstead law.
The cause of the cleavage is the re-
mcrkably blunt analysis of five years
Of prohibition, concluded today by the
Federal Council Of the Churches of
/. Christ. This report badly stated
that prohibition has not accomplished
what its sponsors hoped for II, and
that il has been attended by such
increases in crime and social evils as
to create grave doubt as to its benefits.
LOSES GROUND.
The concluding portion of the coun-
ellis report today frankly stated that
prohibition has lost ground in popu-
lar favor in the last five years and
that the considerable sections" Of the
people who formerly favored bone
dryness now would reverse themselves
if given an opportunity.
Leaders of the Anti.Saloon League,
the militant organization generally
credited with jamming prohibition
through Congress, are boiling with
indignation by these admissions by
such q religious organization as tho
federal council, embracing as it does.
virtually every denomination in or
sanizcd churchdom.
SCORE REPORT.
Thus far the league leaders have
contented themselves with sporadic
criticism of reports, reserving their
heavy fire until the complete text was
available. Now all Washington is on
tiptoe for the shooting to begin.
After a conference today, league
leaders agreed to issue general
manifesto on Monday, which, while
not admitting anything in the report,
will call on all friends Of prohibition
to stand by" to meet this next
peril.
The appeal will be issued over the
signatures of Bishop Thomas Nichol-
son, president Of the Anti-Saloon
League; F. Scott Mcbride, its super
intendent; DR.. Howard Russell, its
founder, and Wayne B. Wheeler, gen.
eral counsel and executive agent.
VETS JUBILANT.
DR.. Clarence True Wilson, one of
the leaders of the league and Of the
Methodist Board of Temperance, Pro-
hibition and Public Morals, charac-
terizedr the report as written either
by fool or someone paid by the
other side," but did not participate
in the conference.
Foes Of prohibition who constitute
small but aggressive bloc in each
succeeding Congress are jubilant over
the admissions made in the report.
They contend the churches now have
confirmed, by their own investigation,
what they in Congress have been con-
tending all along. r.-
One statement in the councils re-
port struck many congressman as sig
nificant. 1t was that unless the new
enforcement machine under General
L. G. Andrews succeeds in remedying
the evils of the present system, it
seems safe to predict there
will, be a lessening of administration
pressure to secure funds for enforce.
ment, and an increasingly receptive
attitude on the part of Congress to-
waYd modification of the Yolstead
act"
ISSUE TO HEAD.
This thinly yelled warning was &C.
cepted as q part of the story that has
been persistently circulated around
Washington for some weeks that the
administration is intent upon a years
intensive drive for strict enforcement,
and IL, at the end of a year, it is
found to have been unavailing, Secre-
tary of the Treasury Mellon will in
form President Coolidge and Congress
that the law is unenforceable and
should be modified.
woMAN's BENEFIT ASSOCIATION.