The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-02-09
NEA Service Writer,


 Washington.-The engineers are working on Washington, much as If they were trying to drain q pond. The object Is to make the capital dry and that task, as everyone knows, is prodigious.
 Senator Robert Beecher Howell, the engineer from Nebraska who wrote the nome raid" bill lately de- bated by the senate, has been doing most of the work. But the engineer in the White house, MT Hoover. has an important role Tn the job. It was he who sharply took issue with How ell when the senator casually re- marked that this city was scandal ously wet. spurripg Howell to make | exhaustive research and to frame 1 the drastic enforcement law for the District of Columbia which has be- l come the major item of prohibition ! legislation considered at this session. Engineer Hoover also once called | on congress for an enforcement code for the district, although he has not signified whether the Howell bill has l his approval.
 Howell is Sincere Engineer Howell Is one of the dry | western progressives. He Is earnest and sincere and more cautious in the interests of soundness than some of | the other progressiyes. He seldom gets excited himself or excites any one else, but he sometimes sinks his teeth into something like this local l enforcement problem and applies | himself to 1t with honest and vigor- ous effort.
 He happens to be one of those l dryA. in q group which also includes his colleague Norris, who believes | ,,.in xphu nrnhihft inn i enforcement has been such flop has been q lack of desire for en- | forcement in successive administra- 1 tions. Nebraska, of course, is much dryer than the capital.
 | Howell, now 8G years old, is a l kind and pleasant gentleman. not a rcformer in the commonly accepted sense of the word. although person. ally dry. He is q graduate of the U. s. Naval academy and maintains an interest in the navy. He also went to law school and seven years after moving to Omaha from Mich igan was successively elected state engineer and city engineer of Oma- hn.
 Utilities Fight Made Him Howell made his big mark In pol tiles by successful prosecution of fights for municipal1y owned utili- tieb and such state legislation as en- couraged them. For 10 years, be- ginning in 1913, he was general man. ager of the city department operat- ing public water, gas and ice plants
 He was elected to the senate in 1922 and reelected in 1928. after cam pagining with small portable radio brOadcastlng station.
 FeW persons other than Howell are especially anxious to have his District of Columbia enforcement bill
 passed and 1t is doubtful whether ii will reach President Hoover for Sig
 nature in this session.
 Howell, however, Is in dead ear
 nest. He has the quaint idea thai
 ifa q national disgrace to have the capital full of liquor and bootleggcr,
 when that same capital is supposed to be the seat of enforcement and in' sIsts that congress should set up ar
 example for the rest of the country
 by making Washington mode
 city" as regards enforcement. The
 model city" idea was proposed tt
 congress by Engineer Hoover after
 Engineer Howell had called public
 attention to conditions.
 The Howell bili has become tho
 center of all the senatorial prohibi'
 ton debate partly because there
 were both vets and drys anxious tt
 hOller about that great Issue follow
 ing publication of. the Wlckershan
 Tcport.