The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-03-19
.9The Biggest Issue"

Much conflicting testimony about prohibition IS
going over the dam these days. But IN the Weiter
Of nros and cons the I-tod-you-so and the abls' IL
Is not difficult to mark the general trend
Two things are happening One is the rapidly
increasing public interest in the prohibition issue
The other is the apparent swing in public sentiment
toward repeal Of the eighteenth amendment.
Fresh evidence Of the dominant Importance OF thls
Question is found in the latest poll by the national
council OF the National Economic League. This or
zanizaton is made up Of selected group OF out
standing men in all states and all parties. including
college presidents jurists and public men generally
Members were asked to indicate on preferential
ballot the questions they considered Of greatest public
importance.
OF the thirty-odd subjects receiving an appreciate
vote only six polled than 1000 votes. The hVe
leading subjects we're prohibition, or closely related
ouestons with world peace in sixth place The high
est votes poled we're as follows:
Administration Of justice 22O9 prohibition 2o68
lawlessness disrespect for law, 1899: crime. 1872
law enforcement, 1873.
This poll, showing the preponderance OF public
interest in prohibition and closely related subjects
seems to be fairly representative Of the country at
large as indicated by the space given these subjects
IN the press news and editorial columns and in public
debate.
Not 50 long ago such public interest in prohibition
a an immediate issue was sufficiently weak for the
Republican and Democratic party leaders to believe
thew could prevent It becoming political issue
But that day is past.
AS to the trend Of this rising interest, there has
been widespread comment on the early return from
the Literary Digests national poll Perhaps the most
enlghtening study of the Digest figures is that made
nv Dr. Walter F. Wilcox, the Cornell university
statstician.
By comparing the present early returns with the
similar ones in the Digests 1922 poll, the Wilcox an
alyss reveals that in eight years there has been an
apparent 10 per cent decrease in voters favorng ell
forcenent and also 10 per cent decrease in those
favoring notification with 20 per cent increase in
those favoring repeal
OF the ten states covered it will be recalled that
eight we're middle western states hitherto considered
rv but only one of which, Kansas is dry In these re-
turns.
Wilcox concludes from his study that
In every state the swing Of opinion has been
toward the repeal of the eighteenth amendment That
swing was least in Kansas and greatest in New jersey
and New York; in each of these two about one-haif
of those ballotng now in favor of repeal.
THE proportion desiring some change, either modi-
fcation or repeal has risen from 81 per cent eight
years ago to 70 per cent row.
Startling as this shift in public opinion may seem
on the surface it really is only what we might have
expected from study Of historical precedents in this
country notably the slavery issue.
First the protesting groups usually satisfied to
demand some compromise solution such as moditlca-
ton. But more and more they swing to positive and
sweeping action. which today means repeal Of the
eighteenth amendment.