Evening star., 1934-07-17
WOULD PROHIBIT
|NT0X|CANTS' USE
Veteran Dry Leader Is Here
to Discuss New Amend
ment.

The nub of the liquor question is
not prohibition of traffic in alcoholic
beverages, but prohibition of the use
of these beverages, in the opinion Of
John B. Hammond of Des Moines,
Iowa, president of the Uniform Pro-
hibition Law Association, Inc.
Mr.. Hammond, now in Washington,
has taken up with Senator Morris
Sheppard of Texas the new proposed
constitutional amendment which pro-
poses to give Congress the power, in
its discretion, to enact uniform laws
restricting or prohibiting the "traffic"
in alcoholic beverages in the United
States.
Senator Sheppard stands sponsor for
the new amendment, as he did the
eighteenth amendment, which has
now been repealed. According to Mr
Hammond, the amendment should be
revised so as to give Congress the
power to restrict or prohibit the "use"
of alcoholic beverages.
veteran Dry Worker.
Mr.. Hammond is a veteran worker
in the cause of prohibition, particu-
larly in Iowa. He said today: "The
temperance forces climbed to the very
top of their bjective-national pro-
hibition-then slipped and fell to the
lowest depths from which they had
ascended. On their way up they met
and removed many obstacles to their
progress, and by judging of the fu-
ture by the past, many OF these
obstacles may be avoided on their re-
turn trip, and the return is bound to
be made, regardless of difficulties that
may be met.
In the start toward national pro-
hibition, the temperance forces were
delayed by misguided friends, led by
the Anti-Saloon League managers,
assisted by Senator Sheppard, who in
sisted and persisted In limiting the
prohibition of manufacture, importa-
ton, expectation and transportation
of intoxicating liquors to sales" To
accomplish that purpose the phrase
for sale followed each prohibited act.
Such a proposed amendment was in
troduced by Senator Sheppard In the
Sixty-third and Sixty-fifth Con-
crosses.
Congress Refused Draft.
Congress, however, refused to ac-
cept the draft containing the for
sale limitation, for the reasons that
it would not prevent the manufac-
ture, importation or transportation Of
liquors by cooperative organizations;
by home manufacturers for home con-
sumption; nor prevent owners Of stills
and fermenters from making liquors
out of materials owned and presented
to them by individuals or co-opera-
tives to have converted into liquors
for personal consumption and not for
sale, and Congress, instead, submitted
an amendment to the States, after
a four-year delay, without the for
| sale limitation, and the prohibition
OF liquors for beverage purposes, made
mandatory on Congress and the States
| to enforce.
AFTER the adoption OF the eighteenth
amendment the Anti-Saloon League
assumed the responsibility of drafting
statutes to enforce it (the Volstead
law). In that statute the discarded
I for sale theory was revived, so far
as it affected the manufacture, pos
session or use of liquors in dwellings,
provided that sales were not made
therein. Prior to this the home was
the most dangerous place in America
to distill liquors. Such places were
branded 'moonshine' and suppressed
with an iron hand. Under the Vol
stead law the family home was the
only safe place to distill and possess
such liquors. The home protection
farce of the Volstead law furnished
base OF supplies for the bootlegger,
booze and racketeer, made the
notification of the law easy to ac-
complish and doomed national prohi-
bition to certain defeat.
'Rigidity" Chief Obstacle.
after the repeal of the eighteenth
amendment the Anti-Saloon League
board of directors, by resolution, de-
clared that it was the 'rigidity' of
the eighteenth amendment that was
a chief obstacle to its success, not
mentioning notification which was.
| in fact, the principle obstacle, but