The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-11-30
DRY LEADERS
SIT TIGHT AND
WAIT REBOUND
Vets Given Plenty of Rope
to Hang Selves, Hint
of Spokesman.
NEED MONEY TO FIGHT
Arid Army Expects Cash to
Flow In After Fight
Opens in Congress.
BY RAYMOND CLAPPER
United Press stan Correspondent

lCopvright. 1892. by United Press
WASHINGTON, Nov. 30.-In all
this breathless haste over repeal
and beer, drys are biding their time.
You hear little about them. You
see little of them. When you cor
ner one of them in his obscure Of
t1ce in Washington and ask what
his crowd is doing, he is apt to look
at you with an odd twinkle and
reply slowly:
we are not doing much of any,
thing except giving the wet crowd
more rope. Only a few of them
know what they are up against"
1t isn't that the repealists are up
against a highly organized dry ma
chine, such as the late Wayne B.
Wheeler used when he was prac-
tically prohibition dictator for a
decade. There is no Wayne Wheeler
in the dry army now.
Drys have little money. Their
morale has been shot badly by the
two national conventions and Presi-
dent Hoover's recantation of what
he once had tagged the noble ex-
pertinent.
Wait for Vote
Their board of strategy has been
called to meet here next week to
talk matters over-Which will be
after the house has voted repeal &C
cording to the program Speaker
John N. Garner is hopeful of rush
ing through. They hope to put more
pep in their activities after that,
provided they can agree on strategy.
DryS are-they viii tell you pri-
vately-counting on a backswing
from the recent anti-prohibition
tide. They believe that anti-prohi-
bitionists are galloping into a peril
cd OF what one of the drys calls
a beer anarchy, when regulation
will have been rescinded or will COL
lapse, when saloons, legal or illegal,
will open, and when generally a
state of open notification and UNI
regulated traffic will run riot, with
corner drug stores selling the new
2.75 or per cent beer.
And as they conjure up this pic
ture, they see the white ribbon
army of church-going mothers. who
were the backbone of the original
prohibition army, re-enlisting for
the duration to save their children
from sitting next to beer drinkers
at the corner drug store soda foun-
tain.
Sees Money Coming Beck
That about boils down the dry poo
sition at the moment as nearly as
the attitude of a group holding va
rious views can be summarized.
This thing will start our money
coming in again." one dry repre-
sentative said. 1T will be the best
thing to wake up our people to what
has happened since Jim Reed left
the senate When he was going
after us, he was the best thing we
had. Every speech he made would
start new contributions coming in.
The pendulum is just about ready
to swing back"
Looking ahead, these drys figure
they have repeal checkmated,
whether it is attempted via ratifica-
ton by state legislatures or via state
conventions.
If by legislatures, they figure
that fewer than $50 members of SEN
ateS of thirteen states will be suffi-
Gent to block ratification.
If, as is more probable, ratifica-
ton is proposed by means of con-
ventions, then they have ready the
budget of questions recently pre-
pared by Edward B. Dunford, Anti
Saloon League general counsel ano
one Of the best informed lawyers in
the country on prohibition law and
court decisions.
Each of these questions suggests
dilemma or raises a point on
which drys might go into court and
tie up action.
Many Questions Outlined
The questions are based on the
fact that previous constitutional
amendments were ratified by legis-
latures and that the country has no
experience and no law to control
the process Of ratifying by conven-
tons.
This dry legal authority asks:
OF how many delegates should
such convention consist; by what
districts would they be elected?
Would not these and all related
matters become a political football
in each state?
Would not wet legislatures seek
to gerrymander the districts to give
wet sections more influence and dry
legislatures to give dry districts a
predominating control?
Other questions ask what control
to prevent corrupt practices could
be set up, what would be the tenure
Of delegates, and whether they could
continue indefinitely in event of diS