The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1930-03-01
Hearings on Before the Judiciary
Committee of the Lower
House of Congress
VETS HAVE INNING
Usual C1anlor, But Arguing on
Nothing Except That They Want
Booze and are as Certain as
Drys They Will Fail
to Get it

to Get it
Congressional hearings on proposed wet
measures pending in Congress are now on
before the House Judiciary Committee,
presided over by Congressman Graham,
Pennsylvania wet For the first time in
ten years, the bars are down and both
vets and dryS will be heard. Vets have
the first inning and they are crowding the
committee room with their usual clamor
and noise, demanding either straight-out
repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment or
the modification of the Volstead act-any-
thing which will destroy prohibition and
bring back booze.
And most of the vets say they Go not
want saloons back, but at the same time
they argue for the sale of liquor in some
form They declare the dry law failure
and that it cannot be enforced. They
complain about what they call "intoler-
able conditions" and point to the number
of arrests and the cost of enforcement.
They want state option, government con-
troll or anything under which liquor may
be secured. There is much talk about
personal liberty and the rights of the peo-
pie to secure and consume liquor.
CLAIM OF ONE WITNESS
One witness, a writer for magazine as
wet as the BreaOerS' Journal, told what he
claimed he found in his trip over the
country. Liquor for sale everywhere-in
the driest sections and easily procured.
He told the ''eXact" number of bootleg
lers and Speakeasies in Washington, De-
troit and other cities, the "eXact" amount
of liquor consumed and the "exact" cost.
He discovered liquor parties attended by
mayors, commissioners and judges and
the corruption among officials.
The story told the committee was on
par with wet tales published in wet news
papers, but without any proofs of their
truthfulness. Tt was the usual wet rant
ing, nothing more.
He was followed by former Senator
Bruce of Maryland. Congresswoman Nor
ton, of New jersey, Mrs. Sabin, of New
York, head of the Woman's Committee
for Repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment,
and others. All of them want modifca-
ton or repeal and the legalizing of liquor
in some form. They are not agreed on
the form, but are running about in circles
as vets have been doing for the past ten
years.
DRYS WILL BE HEARD
Drys will be heard later by the COM
mittee and then the committee, which is
dry, will reject all the wet measures ex-
cept perhaps a measure for the repeal OF
the Eighteenth Amendment. That may
be reported out and voted on AND
KILLED. The committee hearing was
merely an opportunity for vets to blow
off steam. It will not get them anything.
Methods of vets in seeking change
in the Eighteenth Amendment and the
Volstead act are, for the most part, dis
loyal and un-American,' so says the ex-
ecutive committee of the national confer
ence of organizations supporting the
Eighteenth Amendment.
The charge was part of Statement
of facts and principles" issued by the exc
cutive committee of 20 dry organizations,
including the Anti-Saloon League, after
a conference in Washington. They said
they had "just begun to fight"
Pointing to recent modification pro-
posals, the statement said:
I'VE cheerful1y concur in the sentiment
expressed by the President that every
citizen has perfect right to agitate and
move for repeal of any part of the Con-
Stitution In frank and open manner.
"But to seek the repeal Of laws enacted
to make the Constitution operative, or to
seek SO to modify such laws chat they
would allow what the Constitution itsef
forbidS, is nuIIificatfou by indfrectiOn
IL AKaHA &AW