Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-23
=, BY WILLIAM HARD,

The prime thought of Washington
at this week end is that millions of peo-
pie in the United States, in the midst
of economic problems that depress the
world, are happily giving their princi-
pal efforts to preparing to fight presi-
Dental campaign in 1892 on the ques-
! ton of the impending demise or the
approaching resurrection of the demon
rum.
It would furthermore seem to Wash
| ington that they are going to have
their way and that the interesting
question, when do we eat?" is on the
march toward getting thoroughly po-
| litically eclipsed by the apparently more
| thrilling question, when de We drink?"
Tor not?"
The drys are out in the field at the
country corners and in the residential
| suburbs everywhere doing an evange-
| listic work of q type they have never
almost wholly on such organizations as
| the Anti-Saloon League, which springs
essentially from conferences of Protest
ant clergymen and which represents
an ecclesiastical leadership. Now the
dryS are going beneath this leadership
down to the grass roots among the
rank and file voters.
Local Work Authorized.
The national conference of organi-
cations supporting the eighteenth
! amendment" comprising within It's fold
the Anti-Saloon League and all other
prominent and powerful clerical and
lay units of the dry forces, has spe-
cifically authorized the promotion
throughout the country of local COM
,munity groups which shall consist of
! friends of prohibition of voting age"
and which shall be dedicated to the
full retertlcr and full enforcement Of
the eighss-5iiI1 amendment-and also
to the undivided support of eighteenth
amendment candidates irrespective Of
party.
This program is getting executed
Foundation" of which the president is
Oliver w. Stewart and of which the
! vice president Is Miss Norma c. Brown.
both of whom are highly experienced
and highly proficient veterans of the
arts of oratory and of organization
Under their ministrations the local
branches of the new Society for the
, Support of the Eighteenth Amendment"
are rapidly sprouting into existence and
will presently get arched overhead into
county branches and into State
branches wholly independent of the
churches and wholly representative of
straight non-sectarian and non-parti-
san voting determination.
Dry leadership Broadens.
Thus the prohibition movement is
passing out from under the complete
dominance of the organized dry clergy
men and is seeking for itself a broader
home among voters of all religious
faiths or of rsb religious faith, who in
practice will be trained to be ready Ia
1882 to do one of two things:
One Vote for their party candidates
If dry.
Two. Bolt them If not dry.
Meanwhile, on the other side OF the
prohibition struggle, the National AS
Amendment, the Won1en's Organiza-
ton for Prohibition Reform and the
Crusaders are by chance or by design
developing their most formidable
strength in almost precisely those States
which are most doubtful as between
Republican allegiance and Democratic
conversion in 1892.
The Crusaders furnish a special
anxiety to discerning drys. The Cru
SaQerS are young. MUSI VI VIC pIo-
hibition leaders are old. The Cru
Saders, who have accumulated $500
members in the National Capitol itself,
are for the most part young men who
are far from being particularly awed
by preachments from pulpits. Dis
tinguished Republican leaders have
fatty attributed some of the Republican
congressional reverses in wet districts
in the last election to the secession of
young people Of both sexes from the in
fluence of their churches.
Young Voters Big Factor.
The decline of church power and
responsiveness in certain denominations
is seen as a vital factor in the COM
plicated political outcomes of 1882. The
current losses of youthful church mem
bership in those denominations are held
to be producing now great gains In