The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-05-22

Shaking Reed
What People Discuss
A Red-Hot Issue
BY VI. Il. Tracy

by VI. r.. Tracy
Here is a Reed shaken In the
wind. and mes from Pennsylvania.
not Missouri.
Up to last Tuesday he was hap
PLY dry and willing to swear that
the liquor question had been settled
for all time. Like Secretary Mellon
he thought Ware was making an un-
necessary rumpus over a dead issue.
Now he's ready to sing a different
tune and to go farther than hum
ming it. too.
Prohibition has reached the point
in our national conduct, he thinks,
comparable only to the slavery in
the fifties."
He thinks the Government will
grow more and more inefficient II
this question isn't taken out Of pol
itics. that there is such intensity OF
conviction" on both sides
Correct. Brother Reed, but too late
for the fullest benefit. Al Smith has
beaten you 10 it. Democratic New
York came first and Republican
Pennsylvania can only make good
imitation.
f. - i.
What people want to think about
they will, Eighteenth Amendment or
no Eighteenth Amendment, Volstead
act or no Volstead act.
Go into any hotel lobby, stand on
the street corner, or visit any home,
and you will hear prohibition men
toned ten times, where the World
Court or the tariff or the income tax
or any other issue that Reed. Mellon
and their crowd thought so much
alive by comparison before last Tues
day, is mentioned once.
Law doesu make issues or sup
port them, but simply grows out OF
them.
They are never settled until pub
lie opinion does the trick. The law
just gets everybody into trouble
when it tries to go faster than pub
lie opinion or lags behind.
Owing to a confused state OF mind
six or eight years ago the profes-
sional performers were able to STAN
pede the country and put over a
constitutional amendment and an en-.
forcement act which public opinion
was not prepared to accept. and
which it never has accepted.
You can say that prohibition is no
longer an issue because it has been
written into the constitution, but
that Is nonsense.
Whatever vast numbers of people
disagree with remains an issue
and the more you try to cram it
Pdown their throats, the bigger issue
it becomes.
Prohibition is almost as much an
issue with the drys right now as
with the vets.
The difference is that they want 10
call out the Army and Navy. while
the vets want another vote.
4 J. T.
While the Coolidge administration
is not prepared to call out the Army
and Navy TO help the drys it issued
an order yesterday whereby the dry
car can appoint sheriffs. deputy
sheriffs policemen, etc. as his
agent, provided no State law inter.
feres.
He now has about $4,000 men and
women under his command, and il
he made use of this order to the
fullest extent. he could easily double
the number.
This is going pretty far-the first
instance. believe of scheme for
the wholesale enlistment of State
and local peace officers as law en-.
forcing agents of the Federal Gov.
ernment.
T. T.
An issue? Bet your life it's ar
issue.
It's an issue that is making liars
and hypocrites OF the best of us
that is bringing the whole structure
OF the law into disrepute, that is
doing more to destroy personal
| liberty and local self-government
than anything that has happened
since the Constitution was adopted
that is causing this country to be
come the laughing stock Of the
world.
! 1t is not an issue because Of the
booze hounds, brewers and distillerS
because a certain percentage Of the
people wants to get drunk while an,
other certain percentage wants to
get rich on their weakness.
It's an issue because great masses
of people have come to realize that
there is quite as much danger in
the Incorporate use of law as there
is in the Incorporate use OF liquors.
Mothers, just as conscientious and
| idealistic as yours and mine. are as.
founded at the effect Of this sudden
repression on the life OF the young
folks.
Fathers, who have no use for
strong drink and who would rather
give their right hand than see the
old saloon come back, are staggered
at the way bootlegging. illicit drink
ing and all the bad influences that
go with them have entered youthful
festivities.
Senator Reed of Pennsylvania is
not original in his change of view
point, but is simply seeing the stu
alton as millions have seen it for a
long time.