Evening star., 1932-06-12
BY WILLIAM HARD.

The prohibition plank TO be adopted
at the Republican National Conven'
ton next week will be neither wet mol
dry but amphibian. 1t Will nave
sawdust top and web feet,
Mr. James r. Garfield the Presi.
dents platform carpenter, left Aere !oi
Chicago with two rough-hewn planks
in his possession One Of them had
more saWdust on 1t than the other. II
carried on its surface many words de-
nouncing alcohol and notification. Al
its bottom it carried ''resubmisslon
OF the eighteenth amendment.
The other one carried 'resubmis-
sion" of the eighteenth amendment
with simply a thinner veneer OF verbal
protective coloring.
Virtually every United States Sena-
tor, wet or dry, who is a delegate 70
the convention. has approved 'resub-
mission" Postmaster General Brown
possessor of the southern delegates 10
the convention, has also approved re
submission" The southern delegates
will tend strongly TO approve his ap-
proval They will seem to the conven-
ton TO reflect the views OF the Presi-
dent.
Intimate visitors of the President
state that he will accept "resubmls-
sion" II the convention demands 1t
Other intimate visitors Of the President
state that he is as dry as ever and vii!
repudiate any wet plank adopted by
the convention. The answer is that
dry" has become a relative term. 1t
Is related to the conventions three
RS
The conventions three RS are re-
tention. resubmission, repeal. There
is also limping fourth r. Referendum
This fourth r would call for an ad-
visory vote of the whole people prior
to any action by the Congress toward
changing the Constitution. 1t would
interpose an additional step between
thought and action. 1t is a postpone
ment device 1t found hardly any
favor among the Republican State con-
ventions which chose delegates to the
approaching Republican National Con-
vention There will be virtually nc
delegates in the Republican National
Convention instructed for referendum
The convention will therefore, in all
probability. choose only from among
retention and resubm!ssion and repeal
If the southern delegates are re-
sponsive to Postmaster General Brown
ideals there will be an overwhelming
majority of all delegates in the con-
vention for resubmission. The dele
gates from the northern and eastern
resubmission States plus the southern
delegates will be irresistible. The con-
sequences for the President as viewed
in the dry light of the pronouncements
of the National Prohibition Board ol
-trof fa0v Mt 6rC To ho
some.
The National Prohibition Board OF
Strategy, embracing almost all of the
most eminent leaders of the dry cause
in the United States, has officially de-
clared that resubmission would be
nothing more nor less" than q scheme
for attracting the opponents OF pro-
hibltion" and nothing more nor less
than "a sop for wet support" 1t has
even officially declared that it would
be far more insidious and would far
more greatly deceive the public" than
an outright demand for repeal
The reason for this attitude by the
National Prohibition Board of Strategy
is that the human brain. in Washing
ton, so far, even with the help OF all
known treatises on logic, has been un-
able to devise, under the Constitution,
any resubmission proposal which would
not carry with it the possibility of COM
plete or partial repeal.
A resubmission Senator stated the
case today exactly by saying
TO resubmit the eighteenth amend
ment means that the Congress, by q
tWo-thirds vote of each house. shall
send to the States proposal dealing
with the Constitution. That proposal
under the Constitution, can be only IN
the form OF an amendment to the Con-
Stitution. This amendment could not
be: The eighteenth amendment is here
BY retained That would be too humor-
GUS even for people with sense OF
humor. You cannot have an amend
ment simply repeating an amendment
already in existence The new proposed
amendment would have to be new. 1t
would have to say, for instance, The
eighteenth amendment is hereby re-
pealed.' Or it would have to say, The
eighteenth amendment is hereby, in the
following respects, changed II three
quarters OF the States should decline
to ratify the proposed new amendment
then the old eighteenth amendment
would be retained That is true. Never
theless, there would always be the pos
sibility that three quarters of the States
might consent to ratify the proposed
new amendment. Therefore, resubmN-
sion means possible repeal, or, at any
rate, possible revision. admit 1t.
admit it because it cannot be denied.
y
In practice, therefore, resubmission
along with giving the States q chance
to retain the eighteenth amendment,
gives them also inevitably one OF two
other Chances chance to repeal it or
chance to revise it. Neither OF these
two last chances is genuinely desired
by the National Prohibition Board OF
Strategy.
What is hoped by administration
leaders is that the National Prohibition
Board Of Strategy will prefer Mr.. Hoo
yer personally to any thinkable Demo-
cratic nominee and will realize that
Mr.. Hoover, in order to get reelected,
has to harmonic the Republican plat
form with one most distressing sociolog-
ical fact.
That fact is the desp-down controlling
fact in the convention at Chicago. II
Is as follows:
The Republican voters in the dry
States-whether Maine in the East or
Kansas in the West-are very largely
old-stock Americans who draw their