The Washington times., 1931-01-21
TAKES STAND
ON LIQUOR
At LAST
President, in Message With
Wickersham Report, ,EmergeS
as 1882 Hope for Dry Forces

Continued From Page y
not settled then it will be carried
forward into 1886.
A final and supreme effort is
TO be made to enforce prohibition
in the next two years, in order
to make q showing that viii con-
vince the doubters that 1t is pos
sible to obtain some degree OF
adequate enforcement despite the
majority opinion Of the wicker
sham Commission that there is no
adequate enforcement now, that
there never has been, and that
probably there never will be.
Into this effort, the Hoover ad-
ministration will throw all its
resources, and all the money that
Congress will provide.
The present Congress, OF
course, will do nothing with the
WickerSham report. 1t is ever
whelmingly dry, and besides 1t
has only some thirty-Odd days Of
legislative power left before 1t ex-
pireS by constitutional limitation
on March 4.
It is even doubtful If the new
72d Congress will be able to do
much. Unless there Is a special
session, it will not assemble I'M
til next December, which will
be on the eve Of the 1882 cam
paign, and Congress rarely
plunges into q controversy Of
such far.reaching proportions at
such q time.
RepOrt PIeaSes No One
AS was expected. the report
q the commission pleased
neither the vets nor the dryS,
although the latter, after reading
the anomalous conclusions, rushed
into print with high praise for
the findings.
The vets are furious because
the commission rendered a set Of
dry conclusions, based upon q
mass of extremely wet evidence.
They charged today that the
commission, after adducing an
array of facts and figures that
constitute q damning indictment
Of prohibition, yielded at last to
executive pressure and upon the
Indictment returned q verdict not
In accord with the evidence.
The drys are rendering lip
service to the report, wholly upon
the conclusions with which the
commission wound up its report
opposition to repeal Of the
amendment, opposition to mod
ifiCatiOn Of the VOlstead act, and
opposition to either national or
State governments engaging in
any plan Of manufacture or sale.
But the drys privately are
horror-Stricken at some Of the
evidence brought out in the re-
port, and particularly are they
apprehensive and uneasy over
the significant fact that seven
out of the eleven members Of the
commission put themselves on
record as favoring immediate re-
vision Of the Eighteenth Amend
ment, and the remaining four
indicated they favored such
action should enforcement not
show decided improvement m the
next few years.
Hoover States Opinion
It was the political aspect Of
the situation, however, that en-
gagged most attention in Washing
ton today.
On all sides it was accepted
that President Hoover has elected
to make his stand on 1932 on the
uryest side of the political river.
In his communication to Con-
eresS, transmitting the Wicker
sham report, he went further
than he has ever gone before in
eSpousing the prohibition end Of
the controversy.
Heretofore, on the few Occa-
siOns In which he SinGGTIy dealt
with prohibition he has confined
himseK entirely to the enforce
ment aspect Of the pPObIem. The
philosophical side Of it, the right
ness,O or WrOngnesS Of prohibition,
he has largely ignored or eVaded.
Yesterday, however, he not only
recorded with seeming fipality his
conviction that the Eighteenth
Amendment should not be re-
pealed. but he went ous Of his
way to deal q blow to the alter
native plan Of a substitute for the
amendment which would put the
whole question Of liquor control