Evening star., 1928-11-27
BUTLER SEES HOPE
FOR c. 0. P. VETS
Claims Big Smith Vote Is
Proof of Changing
Sentiment.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.


Republican vets, having come up for
air after the Hoover landslide, are now
proclaiming that while the anti-prohib-
tionists in the party are down, they are
by no means out. Their principal
spokesman DR.. Nicholas Murray Butler,
president Of Columbia University. is aE
.Al4t; -: 'hat militant statement. II
is ecnoe5 ii; effect by the vets two
leading Republican newspapers, the
New York Herald-Tribune and the Chi
cago Tribune. Both Of those influential
organs while ardently supporting
Hoover in the presidential campaign,
frankly desisted from going along with
him on the prohibition issue They
favor modification of the eighteenth
amendment and the Volstead act in
some form or other, if not on the lines
projected by Gov. Smith
Ray of Hope Seen.
DR.. Butler sees a particular ray Of
hope, in the direction of changing pro-
hibition sentiment. in Illinois election
results on November 6. Hoover and
Curtis carried the State by an enormous
plurality. but the newly chosen State
Legislature is far Wetter than its pre-
decesSor. In the next General Assembly
at Springfield, the lower house will po
wet by a majority Of between IT and %,
while the dry majority in the Senate
will be smaller than at any time in the
last decade Writing former State SEN
ator Emil Thiele. Illinois director OF the
Association Opposed to Prohlbltlon, Or
Butler has Just said:
L have read with attention your
letter, which has just reached me,
describing the constitution Of the
Illinois General Assembly for 1929,
so far as it relates to the prohibi-
ton uuection. I congratulate you,
YOUR association and all of us on
this promising result.
1T is more important than ever
that the patriotic and reasonable
forces opposed to the eighteenth
amendment should develop and null
tiply the force of the crusade against
that anti-constitutional and dcmor-
alizing enactment.
IF it be assumed, as it certainly
NAV, that 100000 of the 15,000,-
600 votes cast for Gov. Smith were
opposed to the eighteenth amend
ment and that between one-third
and one-half of the 100000 votes
cast for Mr. Hoover also were OPP
posed to that amendment. 1t Is PLAIN
that if we keep the subject before
the people and can ever secure
direct manifestation of public opin-
ion on that, and that alone, we shall
be able to prove that the people OF
the United States are at least as in
telligent. as patriotic and as tenn
perance-loving as those Of Canada,
of New South Wales and New
Zealand"
The New York Herald Tribune, which
The New York Herald Tribune, which
prospectively will retain its reputation
as the Republican administration organ
after March 4, 1929. argues along the
same lines as DR.. Butler. Citing the
national election figures and alleging
that Gov. Smith would have carried
New York State If prohibition had been
the only issue, the metropolitan journal
says. THE Anti-Saloon League can find
small satisfaction in the popular figures.
Gov. Smith was regarded as the
UetteSt of the vets, and still he polled |
the largest total ever received by q |
Democratic candidate. Deduct from
Gov. Smiths total some of the vote he
received in the dry South: deduct
some more from the totals he had in
some Of the wet States, and we have
remaining a total which, added to the
wet Republicans who voted for Mr..
Hoover, may not give majority, but
is nevertheless so large that it must
command attention. In an election
where cross-currents affected results as
never before in the history of the coun-
try, those who believe that there is
every reason for a change in the present
lntolerable situation have every reason
for encouragement in this fight"
The Chicago Tribune, declaring that
''there is no machinery for Federal
referendum" on prohibition, proposes
that the States might be induced to
agree to cooperate in creating ma
chinery for that special purpose. For
instance" the Tribune says, there is
the governors conference, an annual
event, at which it could be decided to
recommend to the various Legislatures
that the question be submitted. That
could be done at any State election
Two simple questions would make the
test: % Shall the VolStead act be
repealed? and 90 Shall the eighteenth
amendment be repealed? The country
will start in the direction of honest
dealing with itself when it does this"
Copyright, 1929
The famous old American wooden