The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1932-06-09
JOHN D. R., ASKS
REPEAL; VETS GLAD
Lifetime Dry's Action De.
nOuncing 18th Amend
ment-Praised
ABSOLUTE ABSTAINER
Demands Political Parties
Take Strong Stand in Con-
ventiOn Platforms

New York, June Humiliation
reigned in the wet camp today, for
John d. Rockefeller, Jr., a lifelong
dry has decided that the eigh-
teenth amendment ought to be re-
pealed.
The oil magnat's change of opin-
ION, disclosed in a letter to DR..
N1cholas Murray Butler, brought
expressions of amazement and
sharp disagreement from support
ers of the prohibition amendment
which Rockefeller and his father
helped make the law of the land.
In expressing hope both major
parties would adopt repeal planks
and remove the question from par
tlsan strife, Rockefeller made it
plain he had not altered his views
on temperance. He said he had
been a tee totalar all his life.
Neither my father nor his IA
ther ever tasted a drop of intoxi-
eating liquor, nor have l." he said.
He and his father had contributed
$35O,O00 to the Anti-Saloon League
to support prohibition legislation,
he said.
Slowly and reluctantly" he said
we had come to believe the amend
ment had not been supported by
public opinion sufficiently to hasten
the day when the value to society
of men with minds and bodies free
from the undermining effects of
alcohol would be generally real
iZed."
Rather, he declared, he found
drinking generally has increased;
the speakeasy has replaced the
saloon, not only unit for units, but
probably two-fold if not three-fold;
that a vast army of law breakers
has been recruited and financed on
colossal scale; that many of our
best citizens; piqued at what they
regarded as an infringement of
their private rights, have openly
and unabashed disregarded the
eighteenth amendment; that as an
inevitable result respect for all law
has been greatly lessened; that
crime has increased to an unprece-
denied degree"
Rockefeller told DR.. Butler, presi-
dent of Columbia University and
prominent republican foe of the
amendment, he was in complete
sympathy" with a resolution DR..
Butler will seek to have the re-
publican national convention in
corporate in its platform.
The resolution calls for repeal by
submission to state convention,
pledging the party to fight the sa-
loon and urging the amendment be
obeyed while in force.
The oil magnate said sufficient
time ought to be given before re-
peal became effective to permit the
states to insure control of the
liquor traffic. He declared, how
ever that he did not favor coupling
repeal with an alternate measure
offered as a substitute because it
would be difficult for people to
agree and unlikely that any one
method will fit the entire nation"
Mrs. Ella A. Boole, president of
the Women's Christian Temperance
Union, commenting on the letter,
asked:
will people who have refused to
obey the prohibition law agree to
obey the restrictions that must of
necessity be a part of any other
law"
Bishop James Cannon, Jr., of the
Methodist Episcopal church, South,
said the amendment had been sue
cessful and that certainly we do
not propose to exchange what we
have-far better than the legalized
traffic and saloon of the old days
for something that is unformulated
and untried."
DR.. D. Leigh Colvin, chairman of
the prohibition national commit
tee, declaring Rockefeller made
wild statements" said government
figures show "the source Of liquor
supply is not over 35 per cent what
it was before" and that crime has
decreased.
DR.. Butler, on the other hand.
hailed Mr.. Rockefeller's support
and said it would have "a very
great influence in the public opin-
ion of the country" and Mrs.
Charles H. Sabin, chairman of the
Women's Organization for National
Prohibition Reform, praised the oil
WAN for bic Ooo,,ra ono