Evening star., 1926-04-12
BISHOP ANSWERS
VETS ARGUMENTS
Right Rev. James A. Cannon
breaches on Dry Law at
Mt. Vernon Place Church.

Declaring that the same wet
sector" of the United States that made
enforcement of State prohibition laws
impossible before the adoption of the
eighteenth amendment was now try
ing to seek modification of the Vol
stead act. Biship James A. Cannon of
the Methodist Episcopal Church South
warned the congregation of the Mount
Vernon Place Methodist Episcopal
Church South last night that there
was an energetic effort on to stampede
Congress into letting down the bars
Tor light wines and beer.
Bishop Cannon, whose work has
kept him closely in touch with condi-
tions both before and since prohibi-
ton. gave an answer for all the ar
gumentS of the vets. Bishop Cannon
is to appear before the Senate subcom-
mittee investigating the prohibition
question this week.
In discussing the reasons for the
enactment of the law, Bishop Cannon
declared that by far the majority of
the States were dry by State laws,
but that liquor interests in the wet
sector. comprising Maryland, New Jer-
Sey, New York, Pennsylvania, MaSSa-
chusetts and Connecticut had flooded
the dry States with liquor sent in by
various illegal means. Virginia, he
said, was dry, but from Baltimore
came circulars to people all over the
State asking them to act as dlstrlou-
tors of LIQUOR which would be sent in
from Baltimore.
Answering the charge that the dry
law was not the wish of the people,
the bishop averred that it was absurd
TO think that members of Congress
would follow the wishes of their con-
stituentS in other questions, but were
blind to what the people wanted in the
liuuor question. If the people back
home wanted liquor he declared, these
representatives would have voted wet
or would have been replaced by vets.
The argument raised that the law
should be repealed because it was dis
obeyed is absurd on the face of it, he
insisted. I'VE might as well ask God
to repeal the Ten Commandments, for
surely they are broken far more wide
ly than the prohibition law"
The statement of United States At
torney Buckner of New York of the
huge sum that would be needed to
enforce the dry law in New York
State was answered by Bishop Can
non by the declaration that this was
due largely to the fact that the State
had no dry enforcement law. Here,
again. we have the same old wet
sector responsible" he said. he
pointed out the fact that the sta
tistics on the use of industrial alco-
hol, figures whose fairness and ac-
curacy, he declared, were open to
question, still showed that the greater
part of the diversion was in Phila-
delphia and New York, both in the
heart of the wet sector.
Citing some statistics as to the eff
feet of the law prohibiting the manu-
facture and sale of Intoxicating
liquor, Bishop Cannon declared that
in Virginia, in the eight years since
prohibition, deaths due to alcoholism
had been reduced one-half. Answer
ing the charge that drunkenness was
on the increase, he referred to re-
port of the Salvation Army that the
money expended in care for intoxi-
Gated persons and their destitute fam
lilies before prohibition constituted
half of the entire expenditures, while
in the last year the percentage had
dropped to ! per cent