The American issue., 1931-02-01

fication.
Dean Edward T. Lee of the John Mar
shall Law School, presented n strong ap-
peal against repeal Of the prohibition laws
from the standpoint of the preservation Of
the public welfare he plead for the main
tenanee of the constitution in accordance
with Illinois loyalty to the federal govern
ment displayed in every crisis throughout
the history of the republic.
Dean Lee stated that for twenty-five
years he had made a trip in and out OF the
loop almost daily, and that his duties as
head of the John Marshall Law School had
kept him in the heart Of the city night
after night up until ten and eleven o'clock,
and that his observations were that condl-
tions under prohibition were vastly better
than under the license system.
Rev. A. M. PenneWell made the closing
arguments in opposition to the OGrady
repeater He said in part: 1--WE do not be-
lieve that the November referendum on
repeal constitutes a mandate to be obeyed
by the legislature: first, 1t was never the
intention of the legislature in passing the
Public Policy act to provide Tor more than
an expression of opinion; Second, to ae-
cept the vote on q referendum as man
date to legislators would be to destroy
party government. A legislator elected by
q
bound by a vote participated in by Demo-
Gratis and vice versa; Third, the November
vote for a repeal is a minority vote, it only
represents one-t third of the vote cast for
president in 1928. Tt is 5000 less than the
vote cast for repeal in 1922. NotWith-
standing the addition Of about 100000
voters in the past eight years, and the
further fact that the vets put on power
full campaign to secure repeal votes While
the drys of the state were divided about
voting on the referendum, only two out of
80 doWnstate legislative districts gave a
majority of the vote cast for senator IN
favor of repeal Cook county itself didn't
give a majority of the vote cast for sena-
tor, in favor of repeal.
MANDATE TO LEGISLATURE Is
EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT
"The Hon. Richard Yates running as a
well known dry, went safely through the
Democratic landslide to victory. feat &C
complished by only one other Republican
state candidate We believe that the vote
itself clearly indicates that large ma
iority of the voters of Illinois did not
favor repeal There is, however, a man
date not for repeal, but for sustaining the
law. and that mandate is the Eighteenth
Amendment to the constitution of the
United States We challenge the vets to
show q single law on any statute book
which came to be law after SO full con-
sideration by the public and so large an
approval, as the Eighteenth Amendment.
The first prohibition law in this country
was enacted by the Connecticut colony in
1645 forbidding the sale of Intoxicating
liquors to the Indians. In 1882 the charter
of the colony of Georgia forbade the man
ufacture and sale of Intoxicating liquors.
In 1774 a Continental congress advised the
states TO stop mailing grain. The move
ment for prohibition began with local op-
tion in the villages and moved up through
townships, counties and states to national
prohibition. We remind you that the
original constitution was framed by 80 men
and adopted by IL colonies by a total pop
ular vote of less than 100000. Twenty
three hundred amendments have been pro-
posed to the constitution and only "a of
these have been submitted by congress to
the states. Of the "a submitted only 19
have been adopted. The first congress en-
tirely elected by popular vote, submitted
the prohibition amendment by vote of
65 to 20 in the senate and 262 to 128 in the
house. The states were given seven years
in which to adopt or reject the amend
ment. They adopted it in l year and 28
days, "a states having state prohibition
before the amendment was submitted. OF
the 96 houses of the 48 states, 93 voted for
the amendment. We hold that the Amer
ican people have never in their history
spoken so clearly, so emphatically, and so
orderly as on the Eighteenth Amendment