The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-07-04
Fight in EJery Block Looms in Capital
War Izgixt Shoppers and Liberty Boys
New Wet Organization to
Make Life Miserable for
SIeuths.
BY RODNEY butcher
NEA Service Writer

or may not be true that the Amer
lean people never had real chance
to vote on prohibition.
What they were unable to decide
with ballots, they may be able to
decide with baseball bats, rocks and
perhaps even guns.
The game is to be played in
Washington first, but both sides are
admittedly anxious to spread it to
the rest of the country.
In this corner, ladies and gents,
is the Citizens Service Association
for Law Enforcement, sarcastically
dubbed the Shoppers by their op-
ponents.
In the opposite corner are the
Liberty Boys of '27.
Let's go! Gong!
After the Scofflaws
The object of the Citizens Asso-
citation, which first entered the field,
is to make life miserable for viola
tors of the Volstead Act, and also
for gamblers and PETERS if. there
is time to attend to them.
The object of the Liberty Boys is
to make life miserable for the
shoppers.
The master stroke in the associa-
lions campaign is to have ''mem-
Der in every block" who will report
violations to the associations paid
field secretary, who will in turn re-
port to the police and see that they
act.
The counter-plan of the Liberty
Boys is to have Is members in
every block to make the Snooper
wish he hadn't snooped.
Want 10000 Members
The Citizens claim 1000 members
and the Liberty Boys have begun a
drive for 10000.
The Liberty Boys call the dry
spies "stool pigeons" and the lat
ter, while apparently reveling in the
nickname Shoppers, can't think of
anything awful enough to call the
Liberty Boys.
Hire Ex-Dry Agents
The Citizens Association grew
from the ruins of the Church Serv-
ice Association, whose aims as they
affected the cellars of the ordinary
citizenry aroused such criticism that
it soon died.
The present organization, prom
ising to concentrate on bootleggers
rather than home consumers, is I'M
der the presidency and spiritual
guidance of the Rev. w. S. Aber-
nethey, a very prominent Washing
ton preacher, and under the execu-
tive direction of Harry N. Douthitt,
former prohibition agent now act
ing as the associations paid field
secretary.
Offer Real Fight
1t was a case of organized Snoop-
ers against unorganized scofflaws
until the Liberty Boys got into the
field. Many prominent anti-prohi-
bitionists such as Senators Bruce
and Edwards and John Philip Hill
had denounced the Citizens Associ-
alton, but the Liberty Boys offered
the first serious menace.
G. G. Lowe, a retired army captain
and magazine writer, with the aid
of Attorney Frank T. Fuller, organ
lied the anti-antis.
In almost no time at ali he was
issuing more press releases than
Wayne B. Wheeler himself, persuad-
ing prominent men to join, issuing
badges and membership cards and
organizing a campaign which in
cludes an enrolment station in
every block" where a merchant ~
other citizen could distribute the
badges and cards at Is cents apiece.
Sarcastic Inscriptions
The badges are inscribed:
Liberty Boys of '27. Hold your
breath-SnooperS are near!"
Labor union officials and neigh
borhood merchants have come to
headquarters to order as many as a
hundred badges at time for their
members or neighbors as the case
might be. Posters have been issued
for the enrolment stations"
The first duty of a Liberty Boy
is to search out the Shopper in his
block and then to do his stuff" says
Lowe.
1--WE certainly do not advocate
violence, but no Snooper need expect
to spy upon his neighbors and at
the same time lead a happy life
now that we are in the field. I
hope we'll soon ridicule the snooper
AMIlc