The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-03-01
BONE DRY ACT
DYING, WAKE
IS WET PLAN
Rejoicing to Mark Exit of
Wright Law, Source of
Arid Pride.
MNUTT SIGNS TODAY
Beer Control Legislation
Also to Get Official Ap-
prOvaI Stamp.

Indianas obnoxious" Wright
bone dry law will be a dead letter
today.
Governor Paul V. McNutt, amid
group of cheering legislators who
have arranged the obseQuies, will
sign its death warrant.
He will affix his signature to the
bill calling for complete repeal of
the Wright law and then sign the
beer control legislation fostered by
the Democrats.
The latter calls for sale and taxa
ton of bottled beer and wines,
when legalized nationality, and for
prescription whisky for medicinal
purposes.
Whisky Is Available
The latter is made obtainable i'm
mediately with the Wright law re-
peal.
Prohibition of whisky, even for
medical purposes, is one of the rigid
provisions which caused both Re
publican and Democratic parties to
call for Wright law repeal in their
platforms last fall.
1t was the Democrats who used
the term obnoxious" in referring
to it. They promised outright re-
peal, and today that promise will be
kept by the Democratic chief eXecu-
tive, as it previously had been by the
Democratic legislators.
McNutt also has predicted that In
diana will vote to repeal the
eighteenth amendment.
Convention Section Near
The bill calling for a convention
on repeal will be signed shortly. 1t
passed the house, 83 to 7, Tuesday
afternoon and the senate, 80 to g.
Tuesday night.
A straight wet and dry election
will be staged for 400 delegates,
upon a call issued by the Governor
before May 20. The call will be
not more than forty-fve days be-
fore the convention, under the bill
as amended in the house.
McNutt has indicated that he will
issue it as soon as possible after the
bill is signed, in the hope that In
diana may be among the first states
to ratify repeal.
Being in the vanguard of anti
prohibition progress is a new role
for the Hoosier state.
Passed in 1925
Passage of the Wright law in
1925 made this the most arid COM
monwealth north of the Mason
Dixon line, so far as prohibition
enforcement legislation was con-
cerned.
The law forbade doctor prescrib-
ing whisky even if a patient were
dying. 1t carried heavy penalties,
not only for bootleggers, but for
buyers.
So drastic was its provisions that
it was pointed to with pride by w. C.
T. U. and Anti-Saloon League lead
ers throughout the land. They con-
sidered it their masterpiece.
Although it bore the name of
Frank Wright, dry Republican, for
mer member of the house, it was
written under Anti-Saloon League
auspices during the regime of the
late Rev. E. S. Shumaker.
Put Over by Khan
DR.. Shumaker attained national
fame as a martyred dry crusader
when he later served a penal farm
sentence for branding the Indiana
Supeme court as wet"
His dry law reform" was put
over when D. C. Stephenson and
the Ku-Klux Khan had G. o. P.
legislative control. Stephenson is
serving a life sentence for murder
in the Indiana state prison.
The Wright bill was signed by
former Governor Ed jackson, who
later pleaded the statute of linz
itations to escape a bride sem
tence.
Jackson at one time admitted to
former Acknowledgement Arthur
P. Gilliom that he wanted some
whisky for his wife's illness. Mrs.
jackson then was a leading mem
Der of the w. c. T. U. and Gill
lion made the request public in a
letter in which he urged Jackson
to advocate repeal of the whisky
prescription clause.
Jackson remained mum.
Not until the Democrats secured
power in this session was repeal