The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1930-04-01
SOME SIDE SHOW!
Wet Show of Ten, Twenty, Thirty
Sort, Says Writer in Col
lier's" Magazine


entitled WET Blankets" The author
signs himself THE Gentleman at the Key
hole" The story is illustrated with fan
tastic caricatures: prohibitionists bedecked
IN undertakers wardrobe performing
clowns, a straw man with bottle in one
hand and a speech in the other, loud
monthed barker in front of an old-time
barroom advertising the biggest stein in
town" and the camel slightly damaged
but with a broad grin on his face.
The gentleman peeking through the
keyhole of House and Senate witnesses
burlesque which he wildly recounts for
Golfers readers. His estimate Of wet
leaders in both House and Senate is hui
morous enough but will hardly draw any
smiles from the thirsty who are expecting
repeal or modification Of the prohibition
law.
He says:
1.-The wet cause was never so unintelli-
:, gently represented on Capitol Hill as 1t is
at the present time. Out OF the vets
in Congress, that includes even the better
men who have gone, have come no leader
ship and no program. The old political
rule that you cannot beat somebody with
nobody is ignored. You cannot beat pro-
hibition without a substitute for it that
will eliminate the evils that have come
with prohibition and will not bring back
the evils of the saloon. This much is
clear"
And it is also perfectly clear that the
vets have an impossible task before them
in an attempt to restore the liquor traffic
without bringing back the evils of that
traffic, saloon included.
After lamenting the passing of Jim
Reed, Bruce, Wadsworth, and Edwards
from the Senate the Gentleman at the
Keyhole" says
In place of these we have Blaine,
nervous man with an unattractive man
ner, long-winded and confused speaker,
without charm, who empties the seats Of
the Senate and the press gallery when he
takes the floor
"He loves to run his head against a
stone wall His proposal to repeal the
Eighteenth Amendment was characteris-
tic. It was futile, as futile as shaking
your fist at a mountain or trying to sweep
back the sea. 1t was certain to be de-
feated in the Senate.
ut could do nothing more than con-
vince the country how impotent the vets
are and how hopeless opposition to prohi-
bition is. If he had planned something to
help the drys he could not have chosen
more wisely. And outside of Blaine in
the upper House there are only vets who
are practically silent, perhaps from pos
seSSing a discretion that Blaine was not
OF perhaps DcCduS6 J1lGy nave ulyo III LllC11
states whom they do not want to antag-
orize.
I'm the House the wet cause Is appar-
emily regarded as a circus. It's performers
are its clowns. Black is a smart young
man from New York who uses the wet
cause to advertise himself. Shafer, of
Wisconsin, is a more robust and noisier
Black.
la Guardia is ADLER, shrewder and bet
ter informed, but he is a sort of political
Pierrot. staging little shows such as the
producing of beer like 4 magician by mix
ing two liquids. He loves a laugh not
wisely but too we'll. Oliver. of New York,
makes a speech that reads we'll with
poor delivery and an unimpresSive man
ner.
"Linthicum, of Maryland. chairman of
the unofficial wet committee is nobody in
particular. Beck, of Pennsylvania, is an
able man, a great lawyer and fine speak
er. But he dislikes the company Of Black
Shafer and La Guardia. The wet show is
OF the ten. twenty, thirty SORT"
RHODE ISLAND WILL, VOTE