Evening star., 1932-04-18
Prohibition Referendum.

III JIle OeIlOCIdllC dllu tScpuUIlCdH ia
tional platforms calling for a reference
to the people Of the vexed issue of
national prohibition grows apace. More
particularly has it been given impetus
in recent days by statements Of out
standing and undisputed "drys" and by
the action Of the Republican State Con-
vention of Missouri. When former Gov
Harry Flood Byrd Of Virginia, who has
supported the cause Of prohibition for
many years, at the Jefferson day BAN
quet Of the Democrats last Wednesday
produced q plan for the submission of
the liquor question to popular votes in
the individual States he created q SEN
sation. More recently Secretary Arthur
M. Hyde of the Department of Agri-
culture, returning from the Missouri
Republican Convention, announced that
he would not be opposed to the proposal
of that convention for a referendum on
prohibition. So another ardent dry
joined the movement Even more aston
ishing, however, was the statement of
Bishop James Cannon, jr., that he is in
agreement on basal proposals con-
tanned in the Byrd plan for a referen-
dunn. Bishop Cannon, however, makes
it very clear that he is opposed to having
the matter included in the national
political platforms, insisting that pro-
hibition has no place in party politics.
If both the Republican and the Demo-
cratic parties should write into their
platforms at their Chicago conventions
planks that substantially agree to
referendum, the prohibition issue might
to some extent be eliminated from the
national campaign. This is an &C
complishment which politicians in Re-
would like to see. 1t Is true that If
President Hoover personally should
espouse the dry cause while declaring
himself not opposed to a national
referendum, while his Democratic op-
ponent for the presidency at the same
time should declare himself for repeal
of the eighteenth amendment, the issue
would be drawn between the two can
didates, just as it was when Hoover
and Smith made the race in 1928, al
though party platforms Of Republicans
and Democrats then made no sugges-
ton OF referendum or change in the
national prohibition laws.
Some of the drys who are now favor
ing a referendum of the liquor ques-
ton to a vote Of the people are firmly
convinced that in such case their cause
would triumph Overwhelmingly. And
some of them are beginning to wonder
If they were not mistaken when they
opposed an earlier referendum on the
question. If they had themselves
forced referendum a few years ago
there seems little doubt that. the coun-
try would have gone again overwhelm-
ingly dry. Such action might have
effectually silenced the vets for a long
time to come.
The demand Of ardent drys that the
door be closed to any submission of
the liquor question to the people has
been obviously mistake. In effect 1t
denies to the people the right to vote
on a question in which so many of
them have manifested a great and con-
suming interest. 1t is difficult for any
group of leaders, vets or drys, to main
tain that the people have no right to
pass on such a question. The drys
themselves argued at length, when the
resolution for the submission of the
eighteenth amendment to the States
was before Congress, that the people
have right to decide the matter. The
vets today are using similar arguments
and are quoting from the dry leaders
of 1917 to support their contention that
the prohibition question should be sub
mitted to the people.
Drys argue that prohibition should
not be made political issue Perhaps
they mean that it should rot be made
an issue in a presidential campaign.
For certainly prohibition has been made
political issue in congressional cleo
tions for many years, and made an
issue by the dry organizations them
selves, who have indorsed or opposed
candidates for Senator and Representa-
tive according to their attitude toward
national prohibition. Prohibition will
continue to be a political issue in con-
gressional contests throughout the coun-
try this year, no matter what may be
included in the national party platforms
of the Republicans and the Democrats,
1t will be made an issue by the vets as
we'll as the drys.
--D&~@-
The democracy has further opportu-
Il, <aa.=ns..