Evening star., 1932-04-13
DRY CONGRESSMAN
BES|ECED BY GROUP
OF WOMAN VETS
Offices of ProhibitioniStS In
vaded-FeSS Refuses to
Pose With Visitors.
MRS. SABIN TERMS U. S.
"NATION OF HYPOCRITES"
Voteless District of Columbia Dele
cation Joins States in
Reform Plea.


lators their plea for repeal of the eight
eenth amendment
AS members Of the Women's Organi-
zation for National Prohibition Reform.
they invaded the Office of every Repre-
sentative and Senator listed as a dry
and demanded reSubmiSSion of the pro-
hibition amendment to the people.
Led by Mrs. Charles H. Sabin of New
York, former Republican national COM
mitteeWCman, they assembled on the
east steps Of the Capitol and voiced
their opposition to existing conditions
under the dry law.
Charges Hypocrisy.
Chairman Sabin, in a speech for
sound pictures, attacked the law, which,
she said, has made us a nation of
hypocrites." She said:
we are here 1000 strong. represent
ing nearly 100000 women from Al
States and the District of Columbia
members of the Womens Organization
for National Prohibition Reform.
we are about to enter a presidential
election and members of our organiza-
ton are pledged to vote only for those
candidates who stand for repeal of a
law which has made us a nation of
whole moral fiber"
After being photographed in a body
on tie Capitol steps, the women split
up into delegations and called upon
dry Senators and Representatives.
The Ohio delegation, under the lead
ership of Mrs. Amasa Stone Mather of
Chagrin Falls. Ohio, called upon Sena-
tor Simeon D. FeSS, chairman of the
Republican National Committee a dry
Photographers hurried over to Fess'
Office. in the Senate Office Building, but
the party leader refused to be photo
graphed with the -prohibitionists.
Fess Refuses to Pose.
Absolutely not" Fess replied to a
photographers request for a picture
with the women.
Two Missouri representatives, John
j. Cochran, Democrat and Henry F.
NiedringhauS, Republican, came out on
the Capitol steps and were photo
graphed with the Missouri delegation
to the Women's convention now in prog
reSs at the Mayf1ower Hotel
The voteless District of Columbia del
egation joined with delegates from the
States and added the plea OF Washing
ton anti-prohibition women for dry law
reform.
cIN lGSlIIC VI NIOCoplCdu plCpdI dILOIiS
for militant woman vote against pro-
hibition in the November elections was
reflected in the reports of al States and
the District, presented this morning
when the conference resumed its
sessions.
Eight new State divisions, reporting
fort the first time called attention TO
the organizations invasion of so-called
dry territory. Twenty-Five State
divisions reported their membership had
either doubled or tripled in the past
year.
Urge Wet Delegations.
The conference adopted unanimously
this afternoon a resolution urging the
chairmen cf the Democratic and Re-
publican National Committees to in
Struct all State chairmen to urge dele
gates to the National Convention to
support planks for repeal of the eight
zenith amendment.
Another resolution, also adopted
unanimously, stated that whereas ma
tional prohibition has proven a disas-
trous constitutional experiment, eco
nomlcally unSound and SubverSive of
our form of Government, resulting in
moral deterioration of the body poll
tics, in widespread crime, corruption
and contempt for the law
Therefore. be it resolved; That the
members Of the Women'S Organization
for National Prohibition Reform remain
non partisan until both major political
parties shall have held national con-
ventions, announced their platforms
and nominated their respective candi-
dates, and until after the National
Executive Committee (of the women S
in rlU uTh
after full discussion a majority vote
shall determine which platform and
which presidential candidate this or
ganization shall indorse and support. ="
Four Banquet Speakers.
-Four speakers addressed the woman
prohibitioniStS last night at their
annual banquet-Breckinridg Long,
who was an Assistant Secretary of
State in the Wilson administration;
Representative Florence P. Kahn, Re
publican of California; Howard Lee
McBain, professor of constitutional
law of Columbia University, and Mrs.
Henry MoskoWitZ of New York, per-
sonal publicity director for Alfred E.
Smith during his campaign for the
presidency in 1923.
Long urged repeal of the eighteenth
amendment, because, he said 1t Is i'm
properly a part of the Constitution.
Mrs. Kahn attacked prohibition as
Threatening the very stability of our
Government Prof. McBain charac-
terized prohibition as the most i'm
portant public issue that has confronted
us since the Civil War" and urged the
vets to band together, take leaf
from the book of the Anti-Saloon
League" and go into every congress
sional district and senatorial cam
paign" and force the candidates into
the open" Mrs Moskowitz urged re-
peal so that this country shall return
to that freedom CT individual choice
that will once again bring with it a
moral standard based on strength of
character and not on the lash of the
whip"
In declaring the eighteenth amend
ment Improperly part of the ConSti-
tuition" Long pointed out that the Con-
stitutlon rs an outline of a limited
method OF procedure" and lit does not
make any law nor declare in law. but
provides how the law shall be declared" d"
The law contained in the eighteenth
amendment was never submitted to the
President of the United States for his
approval or dlsapproval. # was not
passed by the Congress sitting in its
legislative capacity, but was passed by
the Congress sitting as a constitutional
| body and in a Constitution-makin
| capacity, as distinct from its legislative
capacity.
Beyond Supreme Court.
Furthermore, this law is not. as in
tended by the Constitution, susceptible
| of Interpretation by the Supreme Court
for the very simple reason that when
it became a part Of the Constitution,
whether properly or improperly. 1t as
saimed a characfeyb slIr1erior tn the Sill