Evening star., 1932-01-22
WASHINGTON CITED
. IN DRY SYMPOSIUM
Or. Wilson and Capt. Stayton
Discuss Question Before
Hebrew Brotherhood.
Continued From Page BID.

UP of politics than any other one re-
form movement.
DR.. Wilson concluded with an appeal
that prohibition be given as long trial
as the liquor traffic had in the history
of the country.
When he took the platform, Capt.
Stayton differed with DR.. Wilson as to
the purpose of the amendment being
merely to break up the liquor traffic"
Capt. Stayton ccntended the law was
designed and actually worded" to pre-
vent 'the use" of liquor and, he de-
clared, II leave it to you to decide
whether it has done that"
Capt. Stayton quoted the Wickersham
Commission report to show, he said
that because the liquor business once
provided the Nation with one-fourth of
its total revenue, the noble experiment
has cost us at least S2,000,000, 900 a
year, or $4,000 900, 600" He quoted
Billy Sundays famous assertion that
prohibition meant the turning of jails
into factories and the renting out of
hell and left it to the audience to de-
eide whether this had been done.
Stayton Quotes Statistics.
DR.. Wilson, in his speech, said he
would refrain from using statistics and
he told a story in which statlsticians
were characterized as liars" Capt.
Stayton quoted figures compiled by a
statistician hired by the Anti-Saloon
League, reminding his audience of DR..
wilson's Characterization, to show THAI
in 1919, the last wet year" there were
l78 600 arrests for drunkenness; that in
1921, the first full "dry year." the total
went to 2O2 900, and that in 1922 1t had
reached 276 1000.
These figures were printed each year
in the Anti-Saloon Leagues annual re-
port and I notice that when they had
increased each year-when the figures
hurt-the Anti-Saloon League stopped
printing the statistics" Capt. Stayton
remarked.
Capt. Stayton pleaded for a return to
"the standards Of honor and manhood
which marked American life before pro-
hobition, when we were not losing faith
in our form of Government which
bothers with such silly measure as
prohibition and when the people Of the
world, in turn, were not losing faith
in us"
If prohibition takes the credit for the
prosperity, Capt Stayton contended
then it must be obliged to take re-
sponsibility for the depression. DR.
Wilson had likened the prohibition
activities to the gyration OF a chicken
with its head cut off, pointing out that
a decapitated chicken does have more
activity but that it dies. Capt Stayton
answered this assertion with the OBJ
servation that ut doesn't take chicken
10 years to die"
In his conclusion, Capt. Stayton
pleaded for a riddance of prohibition
and the handling of the liquor issue by
the individual States.
LET us believe" he said. that we
can rule ourselves better than a king
or an Anti-Saloon League"
A question was promptly put to Capt.
Stayton inquiring If it is sportsman
ship for the vets, who lost fight, to
break a law that was enacted" He
like for George Washington to break
the tyrannical stamp tax law enacted
by Great Britain"
81 didn't ask you that" his interro-
gator parried.
mo but I'm asking you" Capt. Stay
ton returned.
We'll, I don't know anything about
that" the man faltered
Il didn't think you did" Stayton re-
piled as he turned away.
And the symposium was ended.
At the conclusion of the speeches, DR.
Simon congratulated both men on their
fair and friendly attitudes in their ad-
dresses.
"If both sides of the prohibition ques-
tion could be put down side by side to
the American people in the same spirit
they have been presented here tonight"
he said, "thered be far different at
titude on this greatest social question
which confronts the Nation today"