Evening star., 1932-08-28
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

Is doomed in the coming cleo
ton, that some kind Of change
/ is certain to be made, is revealed
pretty clearly by a simple ex-
animation Of figures.
The total vote in the coming Presi-
dental election will probably be some
where between thirty-six and forty mil
lions. We can infer that from the total
in recent presidential elections. The
total vote cast in each of the three since
woman suffrage doubled the electorate
has been:
l9ZU. .......ss'''''' 20, IOo'ofo
1924. ..............s... .ZS,OSI All
1928. 8................... 5o,6IS,fl4
OF the thirty-six to forty millions
who will vote Cor President in Novem-
ber, something like five millions will be
first voters" (About nine million new
voters will have the right to vote, but
only about five. according to the ma
tional habit, will actually do so)
These five millions will be young
men and women who this year cast
their first vote for President. They
are persons who are 81 or over this
year, but were not 81 in 1928. In
short, these are the voters who this
year are "a years old, or %, or % or 81.
booming Prohlc1tl0n.
These five million new voters, to-
gether with a slightly older group. are
the ones who are booming prohibition
They are the voters too young to know
what existed before national prohibl-
ton came. A young man or woman
who is 81 years old this year and casts
his or her first vote for President was
only nine years old when national pro-
@nI iv1
child of 9 he knew little or nothing OF
the way the liquor business was con-
Quoted at that time, or the evils that
attended it. What he knows is. the
sale of liquor as it is now conducted,
through speakeasieS and bootleggers,
accompanied by the crime they foment.
With a rather fine and appealing m
dignation these young voters are oe-
termined to end the evil that now Is.
Presently, after the change comes, un-
less We are careful, these young voters
will see again, within this generation,
the evils Of the old system. Then they
will be again indignant.
This constitutes the weakness OF
those who propose naked repeal,
blind Jump backward to what was be-
fore 1920 If that is all we do about
the liquor business, it is fairly certain
that after we have made the change we
shall merely have got rid OF new evils
only to go back to old evils.
In any event. it Is these new voters
and others a little older who in the
| coming election will put doom upon
prohibition es it now stands. For II
years the controversy over the eight
eenth amendment has been struggle
between old voters and new. The night
has been between older voters who In
1920 and preceding years had seen the
evil of the old system and In over
whelming numbers determined to END
1t: and on the other hand new voters
who know only the evil of the present
system of distributing liquor, and are
now determined to end that.
Dry Foes Are Young.
To such struggle between old and
young there could be but one OUT
p, come, for old dies, while young renewS
itself and increases. In the fight over
the eighteenth amendment the support
ers of it never had show. The sta
tistics of population worked against
them invincibly.
The first time the writer Of this
l article knew-knew as an impression
taken in by the eyes-that national
prohibition was fighting losing battle
was when he looked in upon. within a
week, meetings of the Anti-Saloor
League and the w. c. T. U. In those
two meetings there was hardly mar
or woman under so, hardly head that
was not white. About the same time
I happened to observe the membership
of the organizations opposing national
prohibition, and the mass of them were
young.
older voters, in a diminishing num-
Der, because as they become old they
die, are going to try to keep prohibition
as it now is. Young voters in increas-
ing numbers-because about 100000
yearVare going to vote against prohibi-
tion as it now is. And unless some
one sees to it that the change when
made Is carefully made, these new
voters will again in few years become
disillusioned.
Distinctly it is up to somebody-ur
to the moderates, perhaps-to see that
whatever change is now brought about
n the liquor business shall be some