Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-11
DRY WASHINGTON
IS DEMANDED BY
TEMPERANCE BODY
Dr.. Clarence True Wilson Pic
lures DISBURSEMENT in
Nations Capital.
SUGGESTS MODIFICATION
OF FOURTH AMENDMENT
Tradition That MANS Home Is His
Castle" Covers Too Much Ter.
ritory, He Thinks.

MetnodlSt Board OF temperance, Pro-
hibition and Public Morals to the
movement to make Washington the
Nations model dry" city are removed
by DR.. Clarence True Wilson, general
secretary of that organization, in an ar
ticle in the current Golfers.
DR.. Wilson, picturing the disillusion-
ment awaiting those Christian men
and women who come =. to the Capital
of their country for rest and comfort
strengthened and invigorated," de-
clares: THE hideous fact remains:
Washington, the capital of dry America,
governed directly by dry Congress,
buys and drinks liquor. What sort of
an example is that for the rest of us?
Two exceedingly simple answers to these
good people must be made: Washing
ton must be made bone-dry, and WASH
ington can be made bone-dry."
DR.. Wilson proposes several steps that
might be taken to accomplish this pur-
pose, one of them being possible "modi-
fication" of the fourth amendment.
Discussing this phase of the program
and the difficulties confronting officers
who must have search warrants before
entering private homes, the writer
states:
Old Tradition Distorted.
THAT ancient tradition that a mans
home is his castle covers too much
moonshining in the District of Columbia
as we'll as elsewhere. Criminals who
sheer at our Constitution. who violate
its sacred amendments, who brew and
distill, who buy and sell liquor, who
drink and serve drinks, have no right
to the protection of that old tradition
Officers of our Government-local
and national-may smell the mash
which is being cooked in stills behind
the doors of private houses. They may
have utter personal conviction that the
laws of their country are being defied
behind closed portals. But they may
not enter that door and do their duty
unless they have clear and sworn proof
that LIQUOR has been sold on these prem
Uses. Thus are our conscientious officers
of law baked, their morale weakened"
DR.. Wilson rues the day when the
protection of the fourth amendment is
destroyed, but he argues:
But there is nothing in the Consti-
tuition which is meant to protect those
criminals who arc usirg small part
of it as a clock for their nefarious pur-
poses, who are perverting the law OF our
land to shield them from the righteous
anger of those who uphold It.. The
fourth amendment Yves never intended
10 TeIlQSI uiNNsidGS Ii1dt AlOiAAC WAACASAAA
our officers have every right to suspect
that law is being violated. II neces-
sary, therefore. it should be modified
so as to prevent the sacred protection OF
the household from shielding violation
of the Nations Constitution. A well
founded suspicion. based on outside evil
dence, not inside. should be ample to
warrant writ of search"
No Local Enforcement Law.
DR.. Wilson springs what he calls a
surprise" on his readers by informing
them that there is no local enforce
ment law in the Capital since the Shep-
pard act was superseded, in all but q
few sections, by the Volstead law.
men of the 1912 on the force available
for prohibition work. The entire force
should be made available for enforcing
the dry act through such law as that
already proposed by Senator Howell and
recommended by Attorney General
Mitchell, he says.
Another court is needed here to dis
pose of liquor cases land the time has
come when Severer sentences should be
imposed upon minor bootleggers." The
law, writes DR.. Wilson. should be more
literally interpreted by the courts, but
If this is not to be done, it is still pos
sible, no doubt, for Congress to make
use Of language which will indicate its
purpose"
Or. Wilson reveals that he can 60 to
a store ION H street" md buy whisky
labels and whisky bottles, and he be-
lieves severe penalties should be visited
upon such merchants. He thinks there
should be school for dry agents and
officers in order that they should come
into court with convincing cases. He
also advocates the proposed Sheppard
Low L. rr1Ri1f I,
seller of illicit liquor.
"Hill" Not Bone Dry.
AS to actual conditions in wet Wash
ington, DR.. Wilson states that the
downtown. section of Washington has
always been considerably wetter than
the hill, ," although he states in another
portion Of his article that 1.-The fact is
that on, under and around the hill
wherein our National Legislature sits
bordering egislation-actual and pro-
posed-to enforce the eighteenth amend
ment liquor is sold and bought"
He states that "in society the old
time aristocrats. who are numerous in
Washington. are in the main abstain
ing, while the tables of influential social
leaders are becoming increasingly dry.
1t is the newly rich who still drink,
many of them apparently with nervous
anxiety to do the fashionable thing"
The diplomatic immunity enjoyed
here presents a hard nut to crack, ac-
cording to DR.. Wilson, who draws an in.
tereSting picture Of the situation. 1.-The
diplomatic receptions are very wet, as a
rule; just as wet, in fact, as the guests
desire them to be. AS one Canadian
said. If you don't empty your glass it
won't be filled again. If you do empty
1t, 1t will be filled Immediately.
THE whole matter Is at the discretion
of the guests. At a reception not so
long ago, given at the legation of one
of the Latin countries, several servants
were kept constantly busy filling glasses
which had been emptied, the prevailing
drink being champagne But 1t was
noticed that most of the drinking was
being done by the Latin nationals, not
by visiting Americans, many Of whom :
seemed to be content not to sample the
champagne at all, while others tasted
it gingerly by way of experiment"
Foreigners Laughing.
The article states in conclusion that
Washington must have her own strin-
gent prohibition law. We must unseat
those faithless officers Of our Govern
ment who, In violation Of their oath.
patronize bootleggerS. What laughing
stock we are to visitors from q foreign
shore, who, visiting our Capital that
they may return to their homes to tell
their countrymen what manner Of peo-
pie We are, find alcohol in Washington
itself!'