Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-19
Analysing the ''Woman Wet"
The Writer Finds She Is Actuated by Some of the
Motives Behind the W. c. T. o., and Suggests
a"Get Together" Meeting.

In NCE It seems to be impossible to
write too much about vets and
drys, this writer seizes upon the
~ opportunity presented by the
meeting here of the Women'S
| Organization for National Prohibition
Reform and proceeds now to try to de-
scribe that fairly novel human Speci-
men-the woman wet.
Looking over several hundred in
stances of that specimen in the con-
vention rooms of the w. o. N. p. r.
this last week, young impreSSionable
reporters were principally impressed by
their smartness, their elegance. their
good care of their clothes and their
good care of their looks. They were
Individually a striking crowd from that
point of view. They went farther to-
ward an altitudinouS average Of social
charm than any other convention that
Washington has witnessed in our days.
Beauty column writers were delighted
by the spectacle presented by the
rostrum where the dark-eyed, ash
haired blonde president. Mrs. Charles
r. Ssbin, and the black-haired olive
brunette secretary, Mrs. CORTLAND
Nicoll, stood together.
Society column writer's were delighted
by the prevalence among the delegates
of such names as "Bayard" and "Du
Pont" and Putnam" and 'Pierpont"
and wendell" and Roosevelt" and
Van Rensselaer," and Root"
Very Serious, Nevertheless.
Hence arose a certain sensitiveness
among the delegates against current de-
scriptions of their movement as one of
society women" and the smart set"
There was some justification for their
feelings in this matter They were, it
is true. society women" numerously;
but they were also, for the most part,
very serious women.
The roll Of their records shows them
to have served much on school boards
and hospital boards and charity
society boards and visiting nurse asSo-
citation boards and the boards of all
the other standard sorts Of philan-
thropieS and benevolenceS and social
services.
These women, in considerable num-
bers, were smart Set" but not fast
smart set" The fast smart set"
women, as a social group were not
present. They are not interested IN
public tolls. They are not interested
in reforming anything. They were
back home in their drawing rooms
drinking tea or cocktails, which they
find they can secure without reform
activities.
Their Prohibition Analysis.
The smart set" women present
were there precisely because of their
reformistic tendencies. The economic
analysis of their situation is this:
Under prohibition it has been the
men of well-to-do families that have
chiefly succumbed to the ravageS of
bootleg liquor. In order to drink much,
it has been necessary to have money.
People with money have been able
peculiarly to exempt themselves from
the prohibition law. 1t is they that
have been the main support of the
bootlegger. It Is they that have Suf-
fered most In their physical and moral
health from the services of the boot
logger. Well-to-do women, as a class,
have seen more drinking in their homes
under prohibition than before 1t. In
so far then as they are interested in
sobriety and scandalized by excuses in
the use of liquor, or in other words, in
so far as they are reformistic and up
Afty women, they tend to be critical
of the eighteenth amendment.
Thus a strange paradox appears:
women join the Women'S Christian
Temperance Union because they want
more sobriety. Other women, differ
emily circumstanced, join the Wonens
Organization for National Prohibition
Reform and work for the repeal of the
eighteenth amendment because they,
too, want more sobriety.
That Is the obvious economic reason
for all the pearls and diamonds in the
convention of the wet women here last
Tuesday and Wednesday, and at the
same time 1t is also the obvious social