Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1929-08-17
MRS. WILLEBRANDT'S BLUNDER

Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt
has proven the contention of the As
ISOLATION Against Prohibition that
the 18th Amendment and its accom-
panying Volstead Act legislation are
impossible of enforcement. The evil
dence may be found in her articles
now appearing in the New York
Times.
Here is the story of city teacher,
who conceived the idea of taking
afternoon instructions in law, who
from an insignificant practice was
elevated to one of the highest posi-
tions in the land by the support of
her sex and vouchsafed unlimited
power for the time being by the wave
of prohibition fervor. Being good
speaker, she attained prominence
until as woman, she was made AS
sistant Attorney General and as
signed to the prohibition side of the
contention, although as she I'M
fortunately admits, she had never
been teetotaler, until the rigorous
legislation made her 50.
She made Negroes, the special OBJ
jects of her vitriolic attacks and was
influential and powerful enough to
cause the removal of prominent
white officials in various parts of
the country, boldly setting aside all
precedents by having "stool pigeons"
incarcerated in prisons to spy upon
the wardens of Federal prisons and
using the Federal courts to secure
fraudulent commitment papers.
This was done under the admin
istration of Attorney General OF the
limited States, John W. Sargent. We
said at the time that she was riding
for fall" and she has landed IN a
position as humiliating and as DIS
creditable as that occupied by some
of her worst victims. In her trst
article, she INDUCES in a brazen
laudation of her own achievements
and attempts to impress the public
with her transcendent ability as al
practitioner at the bar.
She has admitted that she had no
brilliant law school record to back up
her claims to transcendent ability,
virtually admitting that according to
the English standards of legal
capabAity, she could not have secured
a fourth rate legal certificate, much
less aspire to recognition as an Eng
lish barrister. She rode upon the
crest of politics to prominence, which
has no solid foundationNn fact.
She admits that her armOr was
pierced and that she had an expensive
cry, when attacked by enemies, who
knew best how to penetrate her most
vulnerable armor Of defense. She
says:
III
To the charge that I am bigot
and injected the religious issue inl
tie last campaign, the unstinted
faith and support of my many Cath
oiic friends is the best and perhaps
the only reply. For intolerance and
bigotry are motives of the heart and
lie deep.
1t so chances that the man most
for securing my appoint !
ment by President Harding is Frank J
Doherty, an attorney of Los Angeles,
a Catholic. When the cartoons were
me as a sort of modern
witch burner, / could stand it no
longer and called Frank one Sunday
afternoon and said, "Surely you and
Sarah do not believe these things of
me?" And with the friendly reas-
smance in his warm Irish voice, all
my "front" collapsed. l laughed
alter as l paid the bill for my record
ong distance and most expensive
cry. What satisfaction my weak
ness would cause a lot of folks who
thought / was "leather-neckedp 1
10 enjoy clean fight, political, legal
II otherwise, but most of US have
spot where we can really
'e hurt and the charge of religious