Evening star., 1932-06-06

Proposals to induce both political con-
| ventions to adopt identical plankS IA
voring submission of prohibition to State
| conventions are received with some
skepucism. The idea Of removing the
! liquor question from the national cam
paign is looked upon as worth While, II
1 it can be achieved. The press recognizes
| that there is strong demand from
sections of both parties for some form
| Of resubmisSion, while at the same time
return of the saloon Is energetlcally op-
posed.
IF the Democrats and Republicans
| should adopt identical damp, or even wet,
planks," says the Chattanooga Times
Democratic, the drys would De IN
position to say, and no doubt would
say. that the vote did not mean any
thing" The Times feels tnat it would
| only prolong the deplorable farce" "
and that paper concludes: I'm the
meantime. other prominent citizens will
be finding their voices. just as Gen.
Pershing found his in Paris the other
day, when he described prohibition as
source Of racketeering." The Kansas
CITY Times independently feels that
the immediate question is how the TWO
parties will deal with the issue in con-
vention. and thus hand 1t on for pos
sible decision by the voters In Novem-
ber," Reviewing the events of recent
months, the Times suggests: For what
It may be worth for later political pur-
poses this year, the members of Con-
gress now are ON record as to their atti-
tude. As the votes have been lined up,
practically no issue can be made on the
degree of WetneSS or dryneSS OF one
party as opposed to the other. In the
votes taken in the Senate and House
combined. the parties were almost equa-
" divided hfore could be made of the
relative showing of wet and dry strength
| by sections of the country"
The Republican convention" ad-
vises the New York Herald Tribune
| (Republican). should adopt plank
pledging the party, in unequivocal Ian
guage, to give the voters at the earliest
possible moment an opportunity to
vote for or against the repeal of the
eighteenth amendment, through the
submission Of a repeal amendment to
State conventions. No other proposal
is as fair to drys and vets alike. Nc
other plank will satisfy the aroused
opinion of the Nation. Followed by
the adoption Of a similar plank by
the Democrats, the issue would be out
of politics for the campaign
X x
ut Is certain" declares the Chicago
Daily News independently, that the
platform makers of the parties would
be most unwise should they permit
themselves tQ be guided by the views
of the extremists on either side" The
Daily News holds that "the rapidly
growing sentiment that the illicit
liquor traffic must 60, In all its de-
| moralizing and destructive forms, dove
tails into the even stronger and more
widespread sentiment that the old
abuses Of licensed liquor selling must
not return" The Chicago paper con-
cludes: "The character and scope of
regulation are not matter which
properly can be set forth by the ma
tional convention of political party.
The details would have to be worked
out with infinite care by Congress in
cooperation with the best minds of
the country. The important duty of
the national conventions is to pledge
the parties and their respective candi-
dates unqualifiedly to work for early
submission to State conventions of a
substitute amendment for the eight
zenith amendment or suitable changes
in the latter. It is not in the province
of the conventions to 60 further. In
simple justice they should go as far
as that. Advocates Of prohibition, as
| well as its enemies, should accept the