Evening star., 1934-01-11
Cites Campaign Statement.

"1 anneal to the President tonight"
pishon Cannon said to his audience.
Gas acting executive Of the Dlstrlct ol
Columbia to send to the Senate mess,
age to amend the District control plil
so as 70 strike out the features OF tne
old time saloon, or to veto II "nen IL
comes to him. ....,,+
Can the President be consistent
when he accepts this bill without pro-
test or veto?" ,. pooso-
velts campaign statement that tne
Democratic party did not want tne
retI1rn of the oid-time saloon or the
saloon in any modern guise. he then
dissected the District control measure
to show it permits the existence Oh
saloons or their equivalents.
''The bill strikes out every protec-
ton of any character" he SAID. ~
is supposed to be model 1or tne
Nation yet it calls for sale OF lntoHl-
eating liquors by the drink, perhlts
glittering display of bottles ana even
q perambulating bar.
ssThere is not one feature lacking
that went with the old-tlme saloon:
not one iota of protection Is contained
in that bill except one proWslon-that
the drinker has to sit on STOOL OF
at a table"
Beer Bill Unconstitutional
The speaker called attention to every
utterance of the President against tne
saloon and then pointed to his message
to Congress asking enactment OF
beer bill for revenue.
And" said Bishop Cannon, Con
gress passed an unconstitutional Dill
authorizing a beer which was intoxi-
eating. This bill was not passed IN
ignorance that the beer was intoxi-
eating, but at the behest OF the brew
ers. BY virtue of this bill, saloons
were established all around us.
The bishop read newspaper clipping
naming former Secretary of the Treas
ury Andrew Mellon as the owner OF
a distillery. and pointed to the fact
that he was chief of Federal enforce
ment of prohibition during much OF the
existence of that law.
The United States never had any
efficient Federal prohibition enforce
ment under Presidents H 6,
Coolidge or Hoover, he said, and this,
more than anything else, undermined
the eighteenth amendment. He blamed
the drys in large part for lax enforce
ment, saying they should have insisted
on adequate appropriations and forces.
Nothing so puzzled me-" he declared,
'as why Hoover on March 4, 1929, de-
clared prohibition was going to be en-
forced, and then never made any seri-
GUS effort to do it"
Liquor Problem National.
The statement of the leagues policy
was drawn up by the Resolutions Com
mittee which Bishop Cannon has head
ed for many years. Excerpts from 1t
follow:
I'VE hold that prohibition is the only
justifiable governmental policy in re-
spect to the liquor traffic. We favor
the application of that policy to the
largest practicable unit of government
in which it is supported by public SEN
timent"
In the present machine age the liquor
problem is more than ever national in
Its character. 1t is a national evil which
requires national legislation for its
abatemend and eradication. Therefore,
while in favor of the extension of
local, county and State prohibition as
rapidly as public sentiment will war
rant, we also favor the immediate
introduction in Congress of a resolu-
ton for a constitutional amendment to
empower Congress to restrict, limit or
prohibit the traffic in intoxicating
liquors or of all liquor containing al
cohol The mere existence of
power in the Federal Government
which Congress could exercise or not
as it saw fit would tend to make the
traffic better respect the existing law.
The frequent election of members of
Congress and the discussion of the
question of political campaigns would
tend to insure that whatever Federal
legislation was enacted would be re-