The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-06-09

W. Ia cerneQ. inueeu, as
the situation now is
outlined, neither prohibitionists nor
anti-prohibitionists propose to allow
any grass to grow under their feet.
The motto of each side seems to be:
now or never"
Observers here believe that Post
master General Jim" Farley, continu-
ing the political astuteness OF the last
campaign, rather caught the prohibit
tionists taking a nap. l mean that the
prohibitionists were plodding along
throughout the country with their eff
forts but were putting forth no real
campaign attacks. Mr.. Farley broke
out suddenly with a brand new idea
and laid the pressure of the Roosevelt
administration on the movement to
repeal the Eighteenth amendment.
OF course, when Mr.. Farley told the
country that by ratification of the re-
peal proposal it would automatically
end the extra taxes that had to be
levied under the public works bill, he
was favored by condition not avail
able to the prohibition supporters. He
was, therefore, in a position to offer
some inducement that had not been
presented before, while thus far the
prohibition arguments have lacked any
new elements of showmanship.
/ advert to showmanship because 1t
will be remembered that it was type
of showmanship that started the big
repeal drive and worked the country
up to fever heat on the prohibition re-
peal question through the last campaign
and in the newly elected congress. Mr..
Farley merely restored life to the
movement. 1t is generally conceded
that defections have occurred in the
ranks of the anti-prohibitionist in
rather large numbers. 1t is obvious,
too, that the ardor was cooling in
good many sections of the country.
Mr.. Farley sensed those things and
he capitalized the situation that was
presented to him in an almost cut and
dried form.
Thus, the postmaster general has
again demonstrated his usefulness as
the right hand of the President. Not
only has he added to, or rather re-
vived, the momentum of the repeal
move but he has employed the circum-
stance to solidify the Democratic party
organization. He addressed letters to
thousands of party workers in the
states where there may be some
doubt as to the success of the repeal
proposal. Those workers naturally
are responding. 1t is obvious that
some of them will balk at the idea but
the information we get here is that
the bulk of the party workers will do
just the thing Mr.. Farley has asked
and will get busy for repeal as party
movement. The full effect Of the post
master generals quick move can be
measured from the political standpoint.
1t must not be overlooked that the
drys are busy, too. For example, two
great conventions re-
Drys Are Gently were held in
Not ydJe Washington. One
was the Southern
Baptist convention and the other was
the Northern Baptist convention. One
group engaged directly in the prohi-
bition fight and adopted resolution
by which the delegates agreed to
avoid patronizing businesses selling
beer. The vote to adopt such policy
was lopsided, but one of the ministers
told me he had some difficulty in find
ing a place to eat in the Capital City
where no beer was sold. Nevertheless,
the impracticability of such a policy
does not overshadow the fighting spirit
that is displayed.
Another illustration: scattered
throughout the auditorium where the
sessions were held were signs and post
ers which read ''No quarter to the
liquor interest; thousands of quar-
tiers to fight them,' or words to that
effect.
These facts are cited because they
constitute evidence of what is going
on throughout the country. The in
stances were with reference to only
one church, but there is much the same
attitude on the part of all the churches.
Their leaders and those who, though
not participating directly in the church
movement, are sincerely dry, are not
going to be licked while they twiddle
their thumbs. l recall having written
in one of these letters several months
ago that the question Of repeal was
probably going to be decided around
the firesides of hundreds of thousands
of homes in the land. The circum-
stances now developed convince me
more strongly than ever that such
will be the case.
The vets are claiming buoyantly
that they will win repeal Dry lead
ers here are just as certain that they
can stop repeal. On the side of the
vets is the gigantic vote they devel-
oped at the Chicago convention of the
Democratic party and the compromise
position forced on the Republicans in
convention in the same city. The Re
publicans did compromise, because the
resubmission plank did not represent
the original position of either faction.
On the other side, the drys point to
the fact it is necessary for repeal to
fail in only thirteen states to defeat
the proposal that restores liquor con-
troll to the states. And when you look
over list of states, you will note a
good many of them that have voted
dry over and over again.
But we must not forget the power
full leverage that Mr.. Farley exerted in
the matter of taxes. / think it is
fact that there is not state in the
union where taxes are not the subject
of complaint. The taxes laid by the
federal government also have been
criticized plentifully during the depres-
sion. So when the President saws and