The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-09-23
LEGION PUSHES
LIQUOR ISSUE
TO DIRECT VOTE
Resolution for Nation Wide
Referendum Put FIatiy
Before Convention.
APPROVAL is FORECAST
Leaders Say Ex-SoIdierS
Have Minds Made Up
for Beers Return.
By United Press


By United Press
DETROIT, Sept. 23.-The Amer
lean Legion will vote on a resolution
to submit the prohibition question
to a nation wide referendum.
The resolutions committee voted,
25 to 10, to submit the question to
the delegates. Leaders say there
is no doubt the former soldiers,
their minds made up to demand a
return of beer, will pass the resolu-
ton.
A subcommittee was named 30
draw up the resolution.
The matter will be submitted to
the convention this afternoon. A
bare majority vote is necessary to
carry the resolution.
This marks the first time the pro-
hibition question ever has gotten
farther than the resolution commit
tee in legion convention. In the
past, such measures have been side
tracked as political, and not within
the province of the organization.
Strong for Return of Beer
Deliberations of the committee
were secret. The task of deciding
whether the proposal shall be re-
submission of the eighteenth amend
ment or modification of the Vol
stead act, was left to the sub
committee.
The temper of the legionnaires
has been strongly in favor of a
return of beer. When President
Hoover concluded his address Mon
day on the subject of national
finances, there was wild clamor
from the galleries and floor for
beer. AS he rode through the
streets the crowds roared 1--WE
want beer"
An indication of the shift toward
a decision on the matter was seen
earlier in the convention today.
when the report of the employ
ment commission was read.
Howard P. Savage, former. ma
tional commander, as chairman,
read the report, in which it was
suggested the convention give care
full attention to a prohibition reso-
luton when and if it had an OPP
portunity to express itself on the
subject.
Urge Five-Day Week
Savage'S employment commission
also advised the serious study of
further restriction of immigration
and recommended employees and en-
ployers consider the f1ve-day work
week and staggered hours as a
means of relieving the unemploy-
ment situation.
The bonus question probably will
not reach the convention until
Thursday. The legislative commit
tee to which it referred met Tues
day, wrangled an hour and a half
over the resolutions suggested and
adjourned.
Election OF a new national COM
mander to succeed Ralph T. O'Neil
OF Kansas seemed virtually settled.
with the office due to go to Henry
L. Stevens, Warsaw IN. CO attor-
ney.
Stevens, aged IS, if elected, will
be the youngest man ever to head
the former soldiers. He was a sec
ond lieutenant in the war.
Portland Is Selected
Portland, Ore, was selected to-
day by the legion as the site of the
1882 convention. No invitation had
been received from Chicago.
Echoing Mr.. Hoover's bonus and
pension moratorium appeal, Briga-
der General Frank L. Hines, fed
eral administrator of veterans af-
fairs, earlier today urged the legion
to exercise caution and extreme
deliberation" in drafting its legisla-
tive program.
Sharing the resolutions commit
tees interest in prohibition was a
proposal of Howard Coffin, close
friend of President Hoover, that the
wartime National Council of De-
Tense be revived to deal with the
economic emergency.
Making a sudden and dramatic
appearance before the resolutions
committee, Coffin declared that a
law enacted by the sixty-fcurth
congress permitted the President to
set up the wartime organization
for handling any other emergency
demanding coordination of ma
tional forces.
Coffin urged the legion to go on
record in favor of his plan at sew
eral conferences with the commit
tee, and it may be Endorsed in
original or modified form.