Evening star., 1935-12-02
|ANT|-REPEAL FIGHT
IS LAUNCHED HERE

OiiflCu Wy ViVOS Siioi SC
Conditions Are "Worse"
Than Before Prohibition.
Charging that repeal conditions In
Washington are worse" than the days
before prohibition, the united dry
forces today began to carry the anti
repeal fight into many corners Of the
District of Columbia through a series
Of meetings in the Protestant churches
of the city. The campaign will last all
week.
T. B. Jarvis, former executive Sec
retary of the Citizens Service Asso-
citation, fired the opening shot last
night when he charged bootlegging
flourished now more than 1t ever did.
Two meetings will be held tonight.
Deets Pickett of the Methodist
Board of Temperance, Prohibition and
Public Morals will address a dry rally
at Mount Vernon Place M. z. Church
at 8 o'clock.
The other prohibition meeting will
be at Shiloh Baptist, Ninth and P
streets, with Rev E. L. Harrison, pas
tor, as chairman. Speakers will be
John B. Hammond and James r.
Moss.
Proud to Fire Opening Shot.
In his address last night at Bright
wood Methodist Episcopal Church jar
Wis declared he was proud to fire the
first shot in the campaign against the
liquor traffc in the District of Co.
lumbia, destined eventually to bring
back prohibition here and eventually
throughout the Nation"
We had thought that prohibition
OF the liquor traffic had been accom-
plished when we got the eighteenth
amendment" said Jarvis. But with
politics joining up with the corrupt
distillers and brewers, who never
ceased to lie, deceive and spend mil
lions to defeat the best law ever enact
ed for the best interests Of man and
society, what else could have hap
pened but defeat for our dry program?
With big wet newspapers publish
ing everything possible against the
eighteenth amendment, and nothing
in its favor; with both political parties
lining UP with the wet interests, what
else could one expect than the return
of the liquor traffic
Churches Losing Hope.
"The churches. hopeful at first that
prohibition was here to stay, and that
the Government and the States would
enforce the law, soon became salts
fed, or at least lukewarm, on the sub
1ect and let down on their activities.
Then the interests that had lost so
much in money as revenue from the
traffic decided TO ask for a return of the
licensed traffic so their taxes might be
reduced. The thirst of so many had
become so intense that in their des-
peration they were willing to do any
thing to get back the old brass rail
with all its evils.
Now we are In o much worse con-
dftion in every way than at any
period before prohibition. The old
saloon, with all its evils, was never SO
attractive nor SO harmful as the pres
ent so-called liquor store. In the Dis
trict Of Columbia before the Sheppard
law was enacted, there were some 800
saloons; now there are over 1,700
saloons in the District of Columbia.
OF course the Liquor Control Board
does not call them saloons, but the
same or worse liquor is sold in all of
them, with the added attraction of
calling them respectable places for
young people and for ladies, even with
female bartenders.
P0isons Advertised.
"The liquor interests have spent
large sums Of money in advertisements
in leading periodicals and over the
radio, telling Of the good qualities of
their poisons. Never In the old days
were such alluring enticements held
out to q gullible public.
zone of the excuses the vets put
forth to get rid of prohibition was
that bootlegging would cease and
crime would be greatly reduced. They
made it 50 emphatic and repeated it
so often they even had a lot of drys
believing 1t. I ask both vets and
drys now, in the light of the last 1s
months, to tell the truth about condi-
tions. Police records here and In
every city In the country show a very
great increase in every class Of crime.
Drunken driving and drunkenness has
increased here In the District so great
ly that it has become alarming. A
movement is now on foot to buy q
farm where the drunkards may be kept
till they sober up. One never heard
of such movement during prohibi-
ton. ,
I'VE are now asking Congress to
enact the Guyer bill to give the Dis
trict Of Columbia law that will stop
all this drunken orgy and make the
National Capital q decent place in
which to live. We have already been
denominated one of the most crime
ridden cities In the United States. Let's
change It to the best CITY,"