Evening star., 1932-05-01
PROHIBITION FIGHT
AG|TATES C. 0. P.
Party Drys Admit Stand-pat
Position Can No Longer
Be Maintained.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

money matters, tremendous prohibi-
ton battle is being fought 1t is al
most exclusively a Republican battle.
The belligerentS include high per-
sonages in the executive and legisla-
tive branches of the Government. The
objective around which the contest
RACES is the precise form Of the pro-
hibition plank which is to be written
into the Republican national platform
at Chicago in June The best minds Of
the party are wrestling with a problem
which they now believe may be the de-
Gliding issue-the determinant whether
Herbert Hoover is to be a one-term
President or succeed himself for another
four years.
Hitherto it has been the Republican
vets who took the initiative in pro-
posing modification plans. The initi-
ative during the past 80 days has passed
to the Republican drys. During that
very recent period Republican leaders
have brought themselves to the point
change has come over the prohibition
situation. They have become conscious
that a standpat and a standstill atti-
tude cannot be maintained 1t would
astontsh the country to know the names
OF many stalwart drys who concede
that 1t can no longer be ignored. and
are prepared to chart their course ac-
cordingly.
Dry Leaders Face About.
So much can be said-and it Is said
on indisputable authority-namely, dry
leaders both in and out of Congress,
nave now turned their faces in the
other direction. They have not gone
completely wet-far from it. But they
are no longer ncorriigibly dry in the
new deal. 1t is stating their case as
exactly as 1t can be put at this writing,
when 1t is still incompletely formulated.
10 say this: The dryS are as leyal as
ever to the principle underlying the
eighteenth amendment, but are now
willing that the people be given oppor-
tunity to pass on the question. They
are now In mood to accept the princi-
pie OF letting the country express itself
under orderly constitutional processes,
opinion differs as to the form which a
referendum should ultimately take and
precisely how far it should 90.
Not quite, but in more or less chrono-
logical order, the log of events which
have produced these changed condi-
lions lions. especially in dry Republican
i. Former Virginia Gov. Byrd's Jeff
erson day declaration in favor of local
option.
2. Bishop James Cannon, jr.'s prac-
tical Endorsement of Gov. Byrds posi-
ton.
3. Ohio Gov. Whites address to the
state w. c. T. U. indicating marked
change in his previously uncompro-
missing dry views.
4. Action Of the Missouri Republ-
can State Convention, followed by Sec
retary Of Agriculture Hyde's announce
ment Of resubmission views.
5. Plan OF Senator Brookhart Of Iowa
Tor legalizing constitutional amendment
by referendum.
6. Statements by F. Scott Mcbride
OF the Anti-Saloon League and DR..
Clarence True Wilson of the Methodist
prohi6ition forces rejecting approval
OF referendum idea.
7. Conversion of former Senator and
9. 0. P. National Chairman William
M. Butler of Massachusetts, to resub-
mission program.
g. Michigan Republican State Con-
ventions support Of referendum move
ment. - M
g. Statements by Senators Kendrick,
Democrat, and Carey, Republican, both
OF Wyoming, that they favor resub-
mission.
Each Ranks as Strong Dry.
Each of the men named ranks as
strong dry. Their swing toward a ref
erendum Is motivated on varying
grounds. But, by and large, 1t springs
from the thought in Gov. Byrd's words,
that mo law is stronger than the pub
lie sentiment to sustain it." None of
these dryS is an advocate Of repeal
Practically all of them favor (as again
succinctly put by Gov. Byrd 'remov-
ing the issue from party politics and
submitting it directly to the people
themselves for decision" What that
means, in plain English is eventual
local option-to let States that want to
be wet, go wet, and States that want to
be dry, remain dry.
This writer has been talking to GER
tain unofficial persons who are now
ferent schools of Republican dry
thought. They are neither professional
politicians nor professional drys. Their
interest Is in preserving what is still to
be preserved Of prohibition and in pre-
venting the G. o. P. from going down
to defeat on the issue in the 1882 elec-
tions. Their contacts are reaching all
over WaAhington--into both ends of
Pennsylvania avenue. They declare
unhesitatinSly that "the ceiling has
cracked"-that there Is a dawning
consciousness that modification Of it in
some form is inevitable. Just exactly
what is to take its place-theres the
rub. On that score there are many
counselors and many plans.
The drys have been jockeyed into
the position of opposing the right of
the American people, under their popu-
lar form of government, to change their
laws. It is acknowledged by the drys
that the strategic position into which
they have thus been forced tends to
grow steadily more precarious.
Fear Return of Saloon.
What is worrying Republican drys of
eminence, who are no longer opposed in
principle to the referendum idea, is the
question of the saloon. Can the saloon
be abolished in States which vote
themselves wet? Is 1t not bound, in
some form or other, to return and to
become again the source Of community
evil which vets and drys alike today
freely admit that 1t was? What is
tormenting pro-referendum drys, too,
is what sort Of protection an amended
SOAloOltuI4OA Sd4l ShoA dAbCO w 0NoICO
which vote to remain dry.
Referendum drys insist that 1t would
be fatal to the Republican party to ask
President Hoover to run for reelection
on a resubmission plank or on any
other plank representing a concession
to the vets unless something definitely
constructive is offered, first, to safe
guard the rights Of dry States, and,
secondly, to keep the banished saloon
banished. The fight in the Chicago
convention, there are already strong
indications, will revolve conspicuously
around that point.
Washington waits most anxiously of
all for some hint of the attitude of
two Republicans before all others
Herbert Hoover and William E. Borah.
The President has not spoken. There
is merely an impression that he would
not oppose the party will If it should
be expressed in a referendum plank.
He has authorized no statement to that
effect Senator Borah is not ready to
disclose his stand beyond admitting