Evening star., 1927-10-18
SENATOR WILLIS MILITANT DRY.
SENATOR EDGE AGGRESSIVE WET
Leaders in G. 0. P. Far Apart
on Prohibition Law Now
on Statute Books.
Former Sees No Convention
IsSue-Latter Would Send
Question to People.
BY ROBERT BARRY.

BY ROBERT BARRY.
On the Republican flank of the Sen
ate aisle the desks of Senator Walter
E. Edge of New Jersey and Senator
Frank B. Willis Of Ohio. are side by
side.
Mr.. Willis is militant dry; Mr..
Edge an aggressive wet. The Ohioa n
wrote most of the so-called little
Volstead act"-the Willis Campbell
bill, a drastic supplement to to the
original enforcement statute. The
Jerseyite is author. Of a half dozen
bills to pull the teeth of the Volstead
code.
1t was the Willis. Campbell bill
which prescribed the right of the
medical profession to prescribe beer
or wine tonics. Mr.. Edge will sponsor
in the next Congress legislation to
permit physicians to prescribe alco.
holic beverages, including whisky,
for the sick.
This preface is given to show how
far apart the two senatorial neighbors
are on the prohibition issue. To each
of them was put the question what
the Republicans may be expected to
do in 1928 respecting the problem, for
y
policy.
The response OF Senator Willis
might not be hard to guess.
Sees No Chance for Repeal.
PERSONALLY, / do not believe there
will be any contest in the Republican
national convention with reference
to the eighteenth amendment, or it's
enforcement" he said. 1.-THE Repub-
lican party has always stood by the
Constitution and will continue to do
so. Any effort to obtain Endorsement
of repeal of the eighteenth amend.
ment or the enforcement law would
not get far in any Republican con-
vention.
mo one Of the leading political par.
ties will go before the country on q
platform for the modification Of Ire
enforcement act or notification of the
amendment. No man will be elected
President who breaches and practices
notification of the Constitution and
the law. Any party that challenges
public opinion by nominating a candi-
date opposed to law enforcement and
the eighteenth amendment will go
down in political defeat"
Edge States His Position.
Few men are better qualified to
speak for the Republican vets of the
North Atlantic seaboard than Senator
Edge. He said frankly he saw little,
if any, prospect of a ripple in the 1928
G. o. P. convention over prohibition.
''I, for one, am not inclined to de-
mand that the party, in convention,
shall adopt my viewpoint about this
problem Mr.. Edge said. 1T Is not
that I shall retreat from my own posi-
ton or compromise my views in the
slightest. Nor does that mean / agree
with the policy. most emphatically
do not.
''But it would be wholly futile
gesture to attempt to have the entire
Republican party accept my ideas. I
know perfectly we'll it would not. Why
then attempt, at this time, something
foredoomed before we started?"
To that sentiment, which would
appear to dispose Of all suggestions
that the vets in the Republican ranks
might become militant in the party
convention, Senator Edge added:
"As a matter of fact, the bettering
of this deplorable situation should be
a strictly non-partisan responsibility.
To date the battle has been so waged."
Progress Of VETS Outlined.
Senator Edge was asked this ques-
ton:
LAS a wet. eager to obtain modifica.
tion and liberalization of the pro-
hibition statutes, do you believe such
a prospect as you have outlined meas
ures with the progress which the vets,
In both parties, have been claiming?"
II hardly think it necessary for me
to reaSsert the extent of the progress
which has been recorded for modifi-
cation Of existing statutes" the Sena-
tor replied. zone after another. pro-
hibition officials, when free to speak,
admit the law in it's present form is
unenforceable and that 1t has bred
wholesale corruption. Our problem is
to have translated into popular ac-
ton at the polls the popular senti-
ment which prevails in opposition to
the law in its present form.
VIII Continue Fight for Repeal.
''I shall continue to exert every in.
fiuence possible to bring about the
changes which common sense dictates,
but at the same time I am not going
to delude myself into thinking that the
forthcoming Congress will do anything
to alleviate the present state OF az
fairs"
Does that lead you to believe that
neither Of the major political parties
will do anything?"
"I assume both will adopt the law
enforcement formula" Senator Edge
said. Senator Reed Of Missouri, as a
nDllo DDrcnDlDTl0Nc