Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-12
DRINKING BAN AIM
OF SOCIAL LEADER
Mrs. StraWbridge Believes 1t
Can Be Made "Smart"
Thing to Do.
By FREDERICK WILLIAM VILE.

By FkEDEhICh WILLIAM VILE.
Women of the country-pioneers in
temperance and prohibition activities
-re about to return to the firing line,
but on altogether novel and widely d.
vergent lines.
One group. led by q Quaker hostess
of distinguished name, Mrs. George H
Strawbridge Of Philadelphia, is waging
a campaign to induce the FIRST families
of the land" as she calls them. to get
solidly behind President Hoover in his
desire for individual and personal law
observance. Mrs Strawbridge cites as
an example of what she has in mind
the innovation recently introduced by
prominent Washington family, which
this Spring began serving oone-dry
luncheon parties to Capital society
after years Of notably wet functions on
the same premises.
While this prohibitionist society wom-
an is organizing people OF her soclaI
standing throughout the country. an
other social leader, Mrs. CharleS n.
Sabin of New York, former Repuollcan
national committeewoman, Is nnKins w
''key women" all over the United StaCes
for the purpose of an AmaZonian drive
against the eighteenth amendment ana
the Volstead act.
Expects to Get Results.
The woman who hoiSted the dry
colors in this unique contest has per
shaded herself that when the Nations
so-caIled better class people" by visible
nersonal habits in their own MONIES
nake prohibition fashionable, the
cause President Hoover calls n lt,
Dominant issue" Will De LnmeaSuA 1 GU.
ADVANCED. Mrs. Starwbridge goes iur
ther than that. She is convinced tnaI
No advance is possible until that Klno
ne ne az eyamnIe is set in the higher-up
circles in question. .,,,o,, that
a vast amount of drinking In MONIES III
the United States is the result OF IIynls
tn do the smart thing, or 10 kGep up
with the ,Joneses." So Miss StraWprloSe
ero,1es that when the men and women
IN the INNER crust of society are nlnoeo
- adont a different line OF conouCeIEI
the effect among the lower crusCs VIII
be automatic. .;Sor. that
the nractice of abstinence IN the MONIES
will also have an immense HnISnSe a.
Young people and children. Inese; ~
IL contended, are taking their drinKlng
C,,es nowadays from parents and otner
GToun-ups. II parents and groWn-upS
viii n,,it serving cocktails before meas
80 serving alcoholic beverages 81
table. she is positive that youth VII
not fail, sooner or later, TO lose III
tereSt in booze.
Making Abstinence Smart
II will cease, in other words, to be
"the thing TO do" What the Phlla-
delnhia hostess-crusader aSplreS 10 &C
complish is to make abstinence VIC
thing" She creates the impression
that the White House shares her view
as to the all-powerful Importance OF
example in the circles of society which
are enabled. through wealth and posi-
ton, to set examples: g.
The reasoning of the dry Diana Is
challenged and controverted oy tne
lines along which the wet women are
working. The leader OF the anu.pro-
hibitionists. Mrs. Sabin. has just re-
turned from the West, where she went
tn do missionary work among womens
clubs. Girl Scouts, social service ana
other groups. She reports she founo
them fully alive to the perils inherent
in the present program OF national pro-
hibition." The women who snare Mrs.
Sabin's views hold that Pesioens
Flowers plea for personal observance
Of the LIQUOR laws fails to go to the
roots of the situation.
These roots, according to the argu-
n1ents now being addressed 10 Key
women" in the country, are lmoeooeo
in the theory that tremendous group
of people does not want prohlbltion'
and, disbelieving in it, declines 10 con-
slider that they are law-yioiators pc
cause they continue their drinking
habits. In this connection, the wet
woman crusaders put forth an entTeiy
novel idea They say the tnlng tnat
bothers them most is that as long as
the bootleg industry exists, and as long
as the public is able to obtain drink
ables to its hearts content. the people
will in time lose interest in trying to
change the liquor laws.
See Plentiful Supply.
The result. it is feared, will be whole
sale and habitual disregard of 1t, just
as the vets insist there has come about
with time a disregard Of the fourteenth
and fifteenth amendments to the Con-
stitution. It is pointed out that home
manufacture of strong drink Is keeping
the supply plentiful, along with boot
logging, although the bootleg industry
is more talked about.
The net result, SO the argument OF
the wet women runs, Is that the
eighteenth amendment will be nullifled
not by those who advocate change In
the law to bring the United States the
real temperance desired by all" but Will
he set at odds by the people who ignore
the drink provisions of the Constitution
and who will be too lazy and too In
different to agitate for change In the
law, President Hoover had that sort
of thing in mind when he lamented
the possibility that respect for law as
law is fading from the sensibilities OF
our people"
These, at any rate, are the rival
schools of thought which are now be-
ing quietly, but Systematically and
zealously. put before the foremost wom-
en- in the United States: The wet
women appear to be planning rather
more compact fighting and working
organization than the dry women. The
latter seem content to rest their case
on private missionary work among
worthwhile families. induce them 20
take the pledge not to serve liquor any
longer on formal occasions, and let the
power of example" accomplish cumula-
tive results.
BY the time President Hoovers law
enforcement commission swings into
action later in the year it is the pur
pose of both groups of women to lay
before the commission chapter-and-
verse evidence of such results as they
have respectively obtained. Both, Of
course are hopeful that the adduced
testimony will be so overwhelming that
corresponding recommendations Will
eventually be made to the President
and the country.
The net of it all is that these United
States of ours may be politically united,
cut on the endless theme OF prohibition
are rather considerably diSunited.
Copyright. 1927