The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-06-22

Senate Oflice building, on June 22
 Senator Theodore Gilmore Cthe
 Man Bilbo of Poplarville, Miss, was
 the name around which this hear
 ing was to rally, and the invitations
 went out on stationery of the Sen-
 ate Committee on Agriculture and
 Foresry, of which Bilbo is @ nem-
 Der, although the Sheppard bill is
 before the committee on Military
 Affairs and, logically, any hearings
 should have been called by this late
 ter committee.
 In other words, there has been
 more to this crusade to dry up the camps than meets the eye. It was
 Bilbo whose name was used to call
 the hearing, and 1t was Bilbo who
 issued the statement calling 1t ofI.
 It was Bilbo political advice which dictated this strategy of a delaying
 action on the grounds that with the Congress now going into a two.
 months series of recesses, 1t would
 be mistake to stir up the animals, only to have the effects wear oil, Ike a hangover, before Congress would be in any position to do something about the Sheppard bill, even if 1t had mind to.
 That was the public reason. Per- haps much more important was the simple fact that the drys in Con- gress haven't the strength to push this one over. The most optimistic count dry leaders can make as to the number of congressman who are personal drys or vote dry Is Q mere 100, and they have trouble thinking of the names after they reach 50 It is doubtful if there are more than 60 in the entire dry bloc of both houses.
 MEET THE CAPTAIN
 @ While Bilbo and Pappy O,Daniel of Texas-what pair!-with Ed win 0. Johnson of Craig, Colo, have been the principal Senate packers of the bill since Senator Stleppard's death, and while CongreSsmen Jo- seph R. Bryson of Greenville s. C., and U. s. Guyer of Kansas City, Kan, have been the packers In the House, the real agitator for the Sheppard bill today is Edward Page GaSton, who has been known to greet perfect strangers by pulling . piece of candy from his pocket, proffering 1t with a big, friendly smile and saying, Have sweet?"
 Gaston probably would like to be known as Public Prohih1t!onist Num- ber One, but somehow he just misses. His printed literature about refers to him as Captain" Gaston, but his military service was to 1918. when he was a captain in the New York National Guard reserve.
 The Captain also likes to refer, in handouts, to the fact that who's Who has carried Captain Gaston's entry for many years" A checkup on Who's Who, however, shows that the Captain has been among those absent since Volume IT, published in 1882. The entry Is interesting in other ways, for 1t re- veals the Captain climbed Popo- catepelt in Mexico, and made reconnaissance of battlefields of Belgium, recovering effects of the dead" That adds to his military stature.
 MAN OF AFFAIRS
 Captain Gaston now makes his in a rooming house on Rhode Island avenue in Washing ton, and from his headquarters runs his World Prohibition Fedora ton, founded in 1909 but seldom heard of since, and his Patriot Guard of America, of more recent vintage. The Patriot Guards, says the Captain, now has committees in 40 states, with about 25 on each committee, which would give 1t a top membership of 1000. Among other things, the Guard stands for starting more public works in a relief policy of No Work-No Pay for able-bodied persons and grad ual suppression of legalized liquor trafflc."
 In backing the Sheppard bill, Gaston says he is doing 1t not as c prohibition matter, but purely to Increase the efficiency of the armed forces. Soviet Russia, says the Cap- tain, Is far more efficient than the United States on this point, for in the Red army only the soldiers sub- jected to cold weather get vodka.
 Captain Gaston has been 8 pro- hibitionist all his life. He was born to 1t Gin Henry, Ill), he says, from a long line of .Huguenot ancestors. He has never been drunk himself, but he has tasted everything, for scientific experiment.