Evening star., 1932-08-14
CONGRESS TO FACE
REPEAL SHOWDOWN
Wet Victories in Elections
i Likely to Speed Action in
December.

Senators and members Of the House
vino are now in Washington awakened
yesterday to the fact that when Con-
gress meets in December 1t will be
squarely confronted with the question
of submitting a new prohibition amend
ment to the States.
Especially will this be true in the
Senate, where the repeal question will
come up as the unfinished business at
the very outset of the next session.
Should an extra session for any reason
be called before December, it will come
up then.
The prohibition controversy, famed
by the recent declaration of President
Hoover in favor of change in the eX-
isting prohibition system, with return to
State control, but with the saloon out
lawed, took on added interest because
of this Senate situation. The possibility
that new prohibition amendment, in
volving repeal and a change in the eX-
1sting system. may be submitted to the
States next Winter is looked on as not
at all remote IN some quarters.
/ Three Proposals Faced.
The prohibition question was the un-
finished business before the Senate
when the recent session adjourned The
Glass amendment, the Bingham amend
ment and the Wagner amendment.
along with a motion by Senator George
w. Norris, insurgent Republican, of Ne
braska, to refer them all to the Judi
ciary Committee. were under discussion.
Senator Carter Glass, Democrat, OF
Virginia, already has charged that
President Hoover in his acceptance
speech took over the Glass resolution.
This resolution provides for the sub
mission of an amendment which would
repeal the eighteenth amendment, but
at the same time prohibit the saloon
and prevent transportation of liquors
into a dry State. Senator Glass in
the closing hours of the session got
a motion passed, 81 to 81, to take up
his resolution embodying the proposed
amendment.
Senator Hiram Bingham, Republican,
of Connecticut, offered as a substitute,
a resolution embodying a proposed
amendment repeating the eighteenth
amendment and, practically, calling for
complete State control, except that 1t
is intended to afford protection to dry
States against wet States. Senator
Robert F. Wagner, Democrat, of New
York, sought to amend the Bingham
substitute and advocated his proposal
for fiat repeal of the eighteenth amend
ment.
Motion Under Debate.
Senator Norris moved to refer all
these proposed amendments to the
Constitution to the Judiciary Commit
tee. That motion was under debate
and had not been voted on when the
session ended sine die.
Senator Norris pointed out not long
ago that his motion will be before the
Senate when it next meets. Senator
Charles L. McNary Of Oregon, aSSis-
tant Republican leader, has confirmed
the proposition that the prohibi
tion controversy is the unfinished
business of the Senate and, before
he left here for the West some days
ago. so advised the President.
Predictions in many quarters here
are that If the November elections show
a strong anti-prohibition feeling the
Senate will not only take up the ques-
amendment, but will be disposed to act
on it next Winter, without waiting for
which ends March 4, 1888, or in the
Great doubt exists in the minds of
practical parliamentarians in Congress
whether a two-thirds vote of both
Houses can be mustered for submission
of a new amendment on prohibition,
that is, for something which will repeal
or change the eighteenth amendment.
As is well known, drys plan to center
great energy on an effort to block sub
mission either in the present Congress,
two-thirds of both houses to agree on
newly elected Congress.
Clears Way for Unity.
At the same time it now is apparent
that the fact that President Hoover in
his speech has come out in support of
vital changes in the eighteenth amend
ment will make it less difficult than it
formerly appeared for the Republicans
and Democrats, and for all who favor
change in the present system, to get to-
gether en- a program; to agree to the
language of a new proposed amendment
and to submit it.
In the debates in the Senate just be-
fore the session ended, it was generally
conceded that it would be difficult to get
two-thirds of both Houses to agree on
the language Of a proposed amendment
and that two-thirds could not be had
for naked repeal"
The attitude taken by President Hoo
yer, which is looked on as similar to
that of Senator Glass, a Democratic
dry, is taken in many quarters to point
to the road over which two-thirds of
Congress may be able to travel to submit
n FNVnYlncn6 ~