Evening star., 1927-09-06
WAYNE WHEELER, RUM FOE, DIES
AT HEIGHT OF BRILLIANT CAREER

leader-bore down on Mr.. Wheeler
considerably. After the close of the
session he ostensibly began a period
| of systematic rest and recuperation in
! his apartment, at 2S01 Adams Mill
| road. but it seemed there was little
| rest for Mr.. Wheeler. Propped up in
| bed there were two telephones within
| easy reach, and their bells tangled fire.
! quentIy. signaling calls from far and
wide for advice and counsel from the
actual head of the Anti-SalOon League.
1t was once written that nobody knew,
or cared who was president of the
Anti-Saloon League. In the public
mind Wheeler was not only the head
| of the Anti-Saloon League, but was
the Anti.Saloon League.
Backed by the league and the vast
religious organizations supporting IT,
Mr.. Wheeler fought long and stub
bornly for the eighteenth amendment
TO the Constitution and the Nolstead
act to enforce it, and when that bat
tie was won, he fought no less stub
bornly against every effort to modify
those enactments.
Typifying, as he did, the very spirit
Of the drys, Wheeler took the leader
ship around the halls of Congress,
about the Capitol, and even at the
=
move by legislative. administrative or
executive branches 70 the Government
which he thought would disturb the
dry balance which he and his co-Work-
erS had set up.
1t has been said that Wheeler was
abused for his activities by the vets,
but that his energetic fighting quail.
ties had at least earned the secret ad-
miration of some of them. While the
vets heaped about his head an unprec.
edented quantity of stingnig phrases,
the dry leader worked untiringly to
put more teeth into the enforcement
act. which they denounced so bitterly.
There was no move to amend the
NolStead act, however slight, that
escaped the sharp eye of this Ohio.
born lawyer. He was inquisitve to n
superlative degree of every bill touch
ing upon prohibition which was
dropped into the Senate or House bill
boxes, and he was lightnng-like in
striking at the measures he considered
Objectionable.
Haynes Incident Recalled.
He was never slow to make known
his opposition to Treasury decisions
which he considered adverse to pro-
hibitiOn interests. No treasury Of
HcldI from the secretary down, was
immune from Wheeler criticism in
such Instances. One of the long
fights made by him at the Treasury
was for the retention of Roy A.
Haynes as prohibition commissioner,
and this contest was carried to the
White House. Mr.. Haynes finally
lost out. but with his departure Lin
coin G. Andrews, Assistant Secre-
tary in charge of enforcement, who
was opposed to Haynes, resigned
from the service. Wheeler's friends
claimed he got at least a draw in
this skirmish.
Soon after enactment Of the Vol
stead act some one coined the word
"Wheelerism," which was freely
used on the floor of the Senate and
House by those who asserted that
the Anti Saloon League had set up
n super government" which cracked
the lash on the backs of Congress
as well as the officials of the ad-
ministration. ''Wheelerism' was the
target of invective wherever the
never -surrendering vets came to-
gether, and to the drys it was a
force that even the vets recognized
az almost all-powerful and against
which their shock troops We're sent
time and again in vain assaults