Evening star., 1932-04-25
The Political Mill
By C.. Could Lincoln.

With Pennsylvania Republicans likely
to go wet" in their senatorial primary
tomorrow and with reports that the
demand for resubmission of the eight
eenth amendment is growing among the
Republicans IN such dry States as In
diana, Oregon and even Kansas, the
drive for a resubmission plank in the
G. o. P. national platform has advanced
another stage 1t would be rash to
claim that Indiana and Kansas have
turned wet" But 1t may be said,
however, that the sentiment in those
States against the eighteenth amend
ment has been on the increase in re-
cent weeks and months. The willing
ness of an appreciable number of can
didates for Senate and House to agree
to q referendum or resubmission of the
eighteenth amendment indicates that
the situation has changed to degree
at least where candidates for these
Offices are ready to stand on a reSub-
mission platform. Heretofore candidates
for these Offices would not have dared
to take such a position.
X X y
The Missouri Republicans, at their
State convention, electrified the oppo-
nents Of the eighteenth amendment by
placing in the State party platform q
plank declaring for the calling Of q
constitutional convention to deal with
the prohibition question. The leaning
of the Republicans in st. Louis toward
a wet plank Is not new. But that the
State convention should adopt such a
plank is another matter entirely. The
dryS throughout the country realize
more and more that there is to be
real battle over this prohibition issue
in the Republican National Convention
when 1t meets in Chicago on June IA.
And the drys are organizing as strongly
as possible to prevent the adoption of
resubmission plank in the party plat
form. Only this last week the dry
woman's organization meeting in Wash
lngton sent representatives to the White
House to read the riot act to President
Hoover. Some of the women openly
threatened Republican success at the
polls next November If the President
and the party did not take dry stand,
or at least a stand for enforcement of
the prohibition laws, with no suggestion
of q resubmiSSion of the eighteenth
amendment.
The dry Republicans, it appears, are
drys first and Republicans second. Or
at least that is the way 1t looks at
present. They wish the wet Repub-
iicans to be Republicans first and vets
second. But the wet Republican worm
has turned. Some of them, like the
dryS. prefer to have the party take
licking by the Democrats in the ma
tional election rather than have the
G. o. p continue as the chief defend
er of the dry cause. All OF this is nuts
for the Democrats, OF course. For the
Democrats have few If any qualms any
or1I dVsFT c q
deciding factor against them IN the
Democratic territory is the solid
South" The Democratic leaders have
no doubt whatever that the Southern
States will line up for the Democratic
national ticket this year. Outside the
South. the Democratic party IS ever
whelmingly wet. This has become more
end more true in the West as well as
in the North and East.
II does not meter so much whether
a wet candidate for President or dry
candidate wins in the coming national
election, c'tho1gh victory for one or
the other would have its psychological
effect. What matters most Is the num-
Der of wet or dry members OF the House
and Senate elected next November.
After ell, the members OF Congress are
the men who must resubmit the eight
earth amendment, II such action Is to
be taken. 1t cannot be resubmitted by
a President of the United States, The
number of wet candidates for nomirla-
ten for the House and Senate is in
creaeing rapidly in many States. In
c. c'mbents who have been dry In the
past are greatly worried. For the vets
have one big factor working for them
tod3y. That is hard times. Hard time
have made the voters disgruntled and
dissatisfied with conditions as they are.
Hard times have made necessary great
increases in Federal taxation. The
argument advanced by the vets that
huge amount of revenue could be de-
rived by the Government through the
taxation Of legaliZed beer. wine and
other alcoholic beverages is having its
effect on many people. The vets say,
too. that the Government had much
better benefit from this traffic than the
bootleggers, hijackeis, keepers OF speak
easies and racketeers.
**
The drys are not taking the situa-
ten lying down. They are organizing
fevcrishly all over the country. They
see the coming elections as a crucial
test for the dry cause, And so 1t is.
If the drys can hold their own in the
congressional elections, or at least pre-
vents the vets from winning many con-
gressional seats now held by the drys,
they will breath easier, no matter who
NAV be seated in the White House.
One thing the drys will have to reckon
with, however is the disaster which
will befall them if the @. o. p. and its
candidates remain dry and are de-
feated in November Such a happen
ing would probably result in the Re-
pub!icans losing faith in the dry cause
as a winning political issue. The drys
say that prohibition has no proper
place in partisan politics. They may
be right But the dryS made it a par
tisan issue in so many congressional
districts in the past that it is impos-
sible for them now to keep it out of
politics. The drys may hold their. own
in the coming elections. Despite the
Literary Digest poll, indicating that the
sentiment is strongly in favor of repeal
of the eighteenth amendment, the
country may be still dry according to
the congressional districts, and that's
what counts. The vets. who have
been cheering over the poll of the Lit
erarv Digest, would do well to reflect
on the fact that the poll taken by that
magazine two years ago showed almost
as many opponents of national prohi-
bition as the poll now being taken
shows. In 1880. to be sure, the oppo-
nents of prohibition were divided into
two divisions. one for outright repeal
and the other for revision, whereas In
the present poll the question was
merely whether the voters favored re-
peal or retention of the eighteenth
amendment. Perhaps, after all, there
has been much less change of actual
voting strength on this issue in the
last two years than is believed to be
the case. Certainly, despite the show
ing made in the poll of 1890. a very
strongly dry Congress was elected that
year.
After Massachusetts, and Pennsyl-
vania, where the issue between the