The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-11-17
FATE OF BEER
SQUARELY UP
TODEMOCRATS
Roosevelt Will Be Urged to
Act for Modification
Next Month.
FEW VOTES ARE NEEDED
Swing by Eight Men Enough
to Put Measure Over
in Senate.
BY MARSHALL MNEIL
Times STAFF Writer

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1.-THE
power to legalize and tax beer at the
short session of congress starting
Dec. 5 lies In the hands of President
Elect Roosevelt and other Dem
ocratic party leaders.
If they will demand that Dem
ocrats in the lame duck session live
up to their platform pledge, there
will be enough votes to modify the
Volstead act.
A poll Of the senate, leaving out
such standpat drys as Senator
Sheppard Dem, Tex, shows that
If such pressure were exerted on
as few as eight men, modification
would pass. A group of relative size
in the house apparently will control
the situation there.
Talk of urging Roosevelt to suggest
modification this session, to clear
the way for other economic legisla-
ton in the proposed special session
next spring, is heard. This, it Is
believed, will be urged upon him at
the coming Warm Springs con-
ference, late this month.
SOutherners to Switch
Senator Robinson CDem., Ark
minority leader in the senate, said
before the election he would con-
slider a Roosevelt victory mandate
to modify the Volstead act. Sen
ator Harrison (Dem., Mss, another
leader, has come out for modifica-
ton, and Vice-President- Elect Gar
ner has predicted beer by spring
The senate poll. indicates that
there now are about forty members
willing to modify the Volstead act
The remainder stumble on two con-
siderations: the platform declara-
ton that modification must be with
in the Constitution, which pro-
hibits the sale of Intoxicating liquors
and the question of how the bev-
erage, if legalized, is to be dis
tributed and sold.
The reply of Senator Costigan
(Dem., Colo), in reply to an in
quiry from the Scripps- Howard
newspapers, is indicative. Costigan
wired:
Before replying to your inquiry
prefer to examine proposed measure
or measures in relation to the
eighteenth amendment to the Con-
stitution."
George in Quandary
Senator George Dem., Ga.), also
is concerned about the constitu-
tional prohibition against intoMcat-
ing liquors, but apparently holds
the belief that beer of say 2.75 per
cent alcoholic content would not be
Intoxicating in fact.
Senator Kendrick CDem., Wyo)
is in the came quandary as COST
gan. Il am ready to vote to legal
lie manufacture and sale of beer
he wired, whenever am convinced
that I have constitutional authority
for such vote
Counting all votes, thirty senators
last session went on record foI
beer. Since then nearly a dozen
have gone from the dry to the wet
side, including Harrison, Robinson
Swanson, Hull, Fletcher, George
Kendrick, Barley, Schuyler and
Norris.
30 Strongly Wet
If Logan. Costigan, Smith, Cohen,
Stephens, Mcclellan, Nicely and Bal
ley were confronted with a vote as
a test of party regularity, and voted
for beer, modification virtually
would be assured.
The margin of victory would be
greater If such Republicans as Stei-
wer, McNary, Couzens, White, Wat
son, and others, known as "resub-
misSioniSts," come over to the modi-
fication side.
The answering wet strength in
the senate lies in the group of thirty
including Barbour, Bingham, Blaine
BrousSard, Buckley, Bulow, Coolidge
Copeland, Davis, Glenn, Halves, He
bert, johnson, Kean, La Toilette
Lewis, Metcalf, Moses, Oddie, Pitt
man, Reed, Schall, Shortridge, Tyd-
ings, Walcott, Walsh (MaSs)
Wheeler, Wagner, ShipStead and
Cutting.