The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-04-07
DRYS GROOM
WILLIS FOR
WHITE HOUSE
Ohio Senator May Make Race
For President in 1923
Under PrOhi Banner
BY HARRY Is. HUNT
SEA Service Writer

Washington, April line Anti
Saloon League Of America. having
written the eighteenth amendment
into the constitution, but finding its
enforcement to date to have been
both half hearted and inefficient, is
Yeputed to be getting "all set to
make pLohibition enforcement the
deciding factor in the nominate on
and election of the next president.
Leading the list Of presidential
eligibles, under the league specif-
cations, is said to be Senator Frank
b. Willis of Ohio.
Willis has been suspected for
the past eight years, of harboring
presidential bee. A regular among
regulars ON al Republican economic
ISSUES, Willis steps out of the ranks
when il comes to the matter of pro-
hibition ana displays IA dry insur
rency that not even Morris Sheppard,
who introduced the amendment, can
surpasS
Willis and the Anti Saloon League
sort of grew up together. His old
home in Ada, o., is not far from
Westervillc, the birthplace and still
the headquarters Of the league. Will
lis fought the leagues fight in his
carly political battles in Ohio, and
it was in no small part league sup
port that sent him to Congress, made
him governor Of his state and finally
Il senator.
Willis will put i'm the next several
months, while Congress is adjourned,
featuring and speechmaking through
out the country. He is a speaker
In / L. hith IA
handsome, forceful and with a voice
that needs no microphone to relay
il to the farthest corner Of u Chau
tauqua grove. Willis is expected by
lis league adherents to scatter far
end wide the seeds of q personal po-
pularity that will produce a crop Of
hardy proWillis, pro-prohibition
fans in time for the presidential cam
paign of 1923.
As a pre- idential possibility on
primarily condition platform Will
lis would IL eXpSc ed to pledge the
creation OF an independent enforce
nient unit, the one and only job of
which would be to see that the liquor
i'd was clamped down and kept down.
One of the chief handicaps to en-
forcement from the leagues view
point, is that it is handled by a sub
ordinate bureau of a department that
must look after lot of other things
besides prohibition.
The grooming of Willis for pos
.ible entry in the 1923 contest is of
particular interest because it brings
a second Ohioan into the field of
likely contenders for the G. o. 2.
nomination that year. And oddly
enough Willis Buckeye rival for G.
q. P. favor is expected to be none
other than the debonaire, bald-h
ed, genial, Mich las Longworth, po-
itical protege Of wet Cincinnati, re-
Gently chosen as speaker-to-b be of the
next Congress.
Promotion to the speake Eship is
unde rstood to have inocculated
Longworth with an active case of
presidential itch, which equals in
virulence, if not on vocal volume,
that of his fellow statesman. So
far Longworth is soft-pedaling men
ton Of 1923. Willis, too, Or that
matter, will disclaim any open ac
tivity to influence the result Of that
still distant day.
But an unmistakable light CLEANS
in the eyes of each Of them when
1870 IS lllcHtlOHcu. neal DuCk-eyeS.
Plans for 1923, however, whether
by individuals or organizations, seem
premature.
If President Coolidge makes good
and desires a second term in his
own name, his party probably will
hand him the nomination. That's Il
party tradition that would be hard
to violate without repudiating his ad-
ministrat ion.
And the next three years may so
solve the prohibition enforcement
problem that a presidential cam
paign on a straight wet-and-dry is
sue may not seem necessary even to
the most ardent enforcement advo-
cate.