Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-24

continued from flfSL GdSe.t
election in New York last Fall. His
wet views, the drys insist, brought
about his political downfall. Between
zoe, 900 and 100000 drys, mostly Re
publicans, voted for Franklin d. Crist
man, Republican Independent dry can
didate for the Senate, making it pos
Sible for Justice Wagner, Democrat
to win over Wadsworth.
Senator Wadsworth's address today
was regarded as due notice that II he
is to be candidate for the Senate again
in 1928 against Senator Copeland, who
comes up for reelection then, it will
be on a wet platform, a platform
calling for the repeal of the eighteenth
amendment, SO far he has made no
announcement of his plans with re
gard to the 1928 senatorial race.
AT the outset OF his address today
Senator Wadsworth declared that pro
hibition has no place in the Constitu.
ton of the United States. The Con.
stitution, he said confined the Gov.
eminent itself within it's limits and
denied to it the doing Of certain things
injurious to the liberty Of the citizen
The eighteenth amendment, he said
violates the Vitally important original
conception of the Constitution.
Praise for Andrews.
Getting to the practical side of the
wet and dry issue as it has developed
in this country, Senator Wadsworth
said that the Federal Government had
done it's best to enforce the prohibit
ton law, but that millions of citizens
today are violating it, paying no at
tention to it; that a big business has
grown up out of the law violation, the
bootleg business, one of the largest
businesses in the country today.
He cited the appropriations, now
running nearly $30,000,000 a year
made by the Federal Government for
the enforcement of the Volstead act
He cited the use of the Coast Guard
and other agencies to curb the use OF
liquor for beverage purposes. He paid
high tribute to Gen. Lincoln c. An.
drews, head of the prohibition en-
forcement, whom he described as a
man imbued with the highest ideals,
owing no obligations, political or
otherwise, and bringing to his work
splendid energy.
And yet we all know said Senator
Wadsworth, that shake-up after
shake-up among the prohibition
agents in the field is found neces-
sary." Senator Wadsworth contin
ued:
I'm an effort to prevent the use OF
industrial alcohol for beverage pur.
poses the Government has treated
that product with poisonous chemi.
Gals, with the result, now well known
that scores of people have died. Gov
eminent agents themselves have en-
gagged in systematic violations of the
law, spreading corruption all about
he 60 rfKsfnNR NJ NV
The employment of agents prevaca-
tours long denounced and detested
in certain countries of the Old World,
is now common in America.
Not satisfied with the measures
employed by the Government and by
the States-Some of the States have
enacted laws of extraordinary sever
ity-great public conventions, held un-
der the auspices of organizations de-
voted to the cause of prohibition, have
passed resolutions demanding that the
Regular Army be called out to compel
obedience of the law at the point of the
bayonet and that the bluejackets of
the Navy with battleships, cruisers,
and destroyers be enlisted in the effort.
And, to cap the climax, the leading,
prohibitionist of the State of New
York called upon the Pope at Rome to
lend the weight of his influence in sup
port of the law.
Enforcement Called Failure.
"An intelligent observer witnessing
such a spectacle might we'll venture
the observation that there must be
something wrong with a law which
gives rise to such conditions shot
through as they are with hypocrisy,
corruption, violence and death.
Employing all the forces of the Gov
eminent, we are endeavoring to pre-
vent any one of the 10000, 900 peo-
pie under our flag getting a drink,
and we are met with the persistent
effort of millions of those people do
ing their best to get one. We can
not deny that this is the case, or do