Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-30
Wickersham Report Viewed
AS Echo of Public DiscOrd

Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, while the
Columbia Daily Tribune brands it's sug-
geStions as "tepid," the Meridian Star
as "glittering generalities," and the
Champaign ews-Gazette as "compro-
missing bunk" The New Orleans Times
Picayune holds that "the net result is
most certainly discard" The Asbury
Park Press charges that government
by commission fails utterly" The Oak
land Tribune concludes, THAT the
issue remains, Is possibly injected as a
large one in politics, and the commits
sion has done no more than advance
thought and clarity a certain opinion,
are the items upon which there is
general agreement"
The report is interpreted as favorable
, to the dryS by the New Castle News,
the Rochester Times Union, the Lexing-
ton Leader and the Raleigh News and
Observer. The Topeka Daily Capital
concludes that "the commission could
reach no conclusion other than Federal
control in some way of the liquor prob
lem" The Houston Post-Dispatch says:
The disagreements strengthen rather
than weaker the report. These differ
ences of opinion indicate that even the
members who favor repeal or modifica-
ton, with one exception, agree that ma
tlonal prohibition gains should be con-
solidated, that it should be given a more
thorough trial. and that it has been as
successful as could be expected"
* X * *
1.-THE individual opinions of the mem
berS of the commission" according to
The Cincinnati Times Star, ARE about
the most worthwhile features of the
report. An unprecedented person, read
ing these opinions without previous
knowledge of the history of prohibition,
could scarcely fail to form the opinion
that the eighteenth amendment should
never have been put into the ConStitu-
tion and that some sort of change is
urgently needed The Dayton Daily
News AYERS that the report 'thundered
one thing in the index and another in
the book" and that lit has given the
impression of a confusion and an in
consistency within the commission which
detractS vitality from the substance of
the report" The Charleston IS. c.
Evening Post calls it "a true epit-
ONE OF the whole body of hypocrisy
which is called prohibition" and re-
marks that lit would perhaps have been
too sensational if a straightforward.
clear ana courageous conclusion had
been returned by group of men who
for year and half had been engaged
in exploring the fetid Swamps of pro-
hlbltion.' The st. Louis Times con-
cludeS: Instead of being an indorse-
menJ OF pfohbltlon, the findings are
quite the opposite. Ten out of eleven of
the commissioners in one way or an
other suggest revision or repeal as a way
out, with enforcement until such day
as substitute has been found. If the
die-hard prohibitionists find any com
fort in the decision of Mr.. Hoover's
hand-picked board, they are welcome to
1t. The facts are otherwise and the
future will prove it,"
The average man in his attitude and
thinking" remarks the Roanoke World
News, lis as frankly puzzled as is the
Wlckersham Commission in its contra
olctory findings. We in Virginia were
not satisfied with what We had in saloon
days and voted to change it. We are
not satisfied with what we have in the
days of the bootlegger, the moonshiner.
the rum-runner and the law evader.
But as yet no leadership has deyel-
oped to suggest a way out of the di-
Iemna. We are not going back to what
we had. Neither will we be content
much longer to continue the unfortu-
nate and unsatisfactory conditions we
have now The extremes of prohibition
intolerance are having their inevitable
reaction"