Evening star., 1933-02-11
SENATORS G|RD|NG
| FOR REPEAL FIGHT
Blaine Resolution to Come Up
When Army Bill Is Out
of Way.
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
Friends and foes Of prohibition in
the Senate shaped their forces today
for the debate on the Blaine repeal
resolution which Is to come up immedi-
ately after passage Of the pending Wal
Department appropriation bill. probably
late this afternoon or Monday.
Senate leaders, preparing for the re-
peal debate, had an understanding tc
lay the resolution aside after q while
to consider the appropriation bill con.
tanning prohibition enforcement funds
already cut 10 per cent under budget
estimates by the House.
The slash In prohibition funds and
curtailment Of the activities Of dr.
agents Is the source of another contro.
versy, with ti-prohibitionists in the
Senate determined to press for further
reductions.
The Blaine repeater would give Fed
eral protection to dry States and allow
Congress to legislate against the saloon
It also provides for ratification by State
Legislatures.
Many for Outright Repeal.
Many Democrats want q resolution
calling for outright repeal and ratifica-
ton by conventions. The opposition to
the Blaine proposal is strong among the
House leadership and there is no assur-
ance 1t will be brought up there for q
vote this session. The temper of dry
members and the promised attempts to
alter the proposed amendment appear
to make lengthy consideration newt
able.
The bill carrying the prohibition
funds, the appropriation for the State,
Justice, Commerce and Labor Depart
ments, was reported to the Senate yes
terday, with the dry funds standing
where the House left them, So, ,44O, ,0O0'
The Appropriations Committee has re-
jected, IL to 9, the proposal of a SUBJ
committee that the fund be cut 10 per
cent.
Interest Stimulated.
Interest in the repeal question was
stimulated yesterday with publication
by Senator Barbour, Republican, Of New
Jersey, Of letter from Federal Judge
William Clark Of New Jersey, reply
ing to the Senator's request for his
views on the convention method of
ratification which, though not pro-
vided In the Blaine resolution, was de-
clared for in the platforms of both
Democratic and Republican parties last
Summer.
Clark was the Judge who, in 1880.
held the eighteenth amendment was
unconstitutional, basing this on the
contention that such an amendment
should have been submitted to conven-
lions instead OF Legislatures. The Su-
preme Court overruled him. He wrote
Barbour:
Il venture the prophesy that, If the
convention method Is not adopted now.
the American people will be forever
deprived Of the opportunity to express
their opinion Of constitutional amend
ments in one of the ways offered them
by the wisdom Of the fathers.
Or by conventions in three-fourths
thereof (the phrase by which this
method Is authorized) will become a
dead letter In our Constitution, the first
In our constitutional history"
Judge Clark said a State Legislature
has turned out to be q representative
body peculiarly untitled to express the
popular will as to constitutional amend
ments."
Clark said the convention method
would be fairer, quicker and not expen-
sive, as many have contended.