The Wilmington morning star., 1945-08-16
Nv WESTBROOK PEGLER
1945, BY King Features Syndi

Nav YORK, Aug. 15.-Several statesmen
of both houses of congress have uttered in
dignant denials Of charge by psychlatrist
attached to a government lunatlc asylum IN
Washington that Congress drinks too much
If thew are right, as my observation leads ME
to believe they are then they are CIVIC slacKers'
because it will be remembered that when re-
peal was the dominating issue of the 1892
election, those who were opposed to prohlbi
ton took an obligation to drink our beloved
nation out of debt, the taxes to the
federal state, county and municipal govern
ments would swell the treasures and unem
ployment would be abolished as men were alb
sorbed into the breWeries, dlstlllerles, glass
works for the manufacture of bottles and
glasses of various shapes, the cork factories
and bottling plants, and the hospitals for serv-
ice as attendants to honorable casualties in
this phase of our war on want
We had figures to prove it, too, and the
failure of this solution to solve the problems
which it was designed to solve IS almost
enough to destroy ones faith In simple arlth-
metic. Nothing was solved even though we
became the hard-drinkingest people In the
world and even though all those predictions
did come true about the absorption of toilers
into the beer and liquor trades. Even before
the war and the rearmament program, taxes
continued to rise, Notwithstanding noble rake
off from our crooks, but Tom Dewey probably
was not more than couple of million out OF
the way when he said, repeatedly, during the
1914 campaign, that until the war industries
began to boom there were still ten million
workers out of jobs. Something, perhaps
decimal point had slipped, but it would be
cruel injustice to blame the people for the
failure because the statistics and the recent
growth of interest in clinics for lnebrlates
prove that we have tried.
My acquaintance among Congress is a re-
liable sampling and l have to say that these
patriots have not stood to- the bar as faith
fully as some other groups. On a recent after
noon, when the bell had rung and school~w
out SO to speak, republican statesman pull
ed out the drawer of his desk producing
Quart of squeezing and two glasses and we
had two apiece, then he put the equipment
back chewed Glove and drove expertly nome
to dinner. Others of my acquaintance drink
no more and some drink less or not at ell
and, since the death of rather dashing west
ern toss-pot who ranked high in foreign re.
lations and occasionally twisted the lion
tail or plucked sprigs from the beard of the
communist menace while high in his drains,
sometimes to the alarm of his colleagues,
have heard OF no statesman on the MIL WIN
reputation comparable to those of some OF
our more noted political spokesman for the
arts.
CHANGING back, I am inclined to hold that
it is up to the younger generation to 90 the
heavy drinking if they would preserve the VIC
tory which we of the prohibition era won Tor
them in a long and often painful contest with
Wayne B. Wheeler, Bishop Cannon, Deets Pick
ct and the Rev. Clarence True Wilson, dry
who was bosom friend of Clarence Darrow,
a wet and sometimes travelled with him TO
debates showing a drawing room, one With
a tumbler of milk the table between them
as they went over their lines, the other
with a glass of Maryland corn. We went
through some awful trials with the syn
thetics that our 'leggers and speak
easies provided to keep the rebellion going
but these Caribbean runs which have been
shipped in to take the place OF wholesome,
honest booze curtailed by the war are beyond
the reduced endurance of men and women
who, in younger years drank mule from Mason
jars and found it not too bad.
l have been inspecting my conscience md
suspect that l was insncere in stating in
those days that if we could have beer
again and light wine would all become
temperate and content. The corner saloon,
we said must never come back, but that was
a technically for the saloon in the middle
OF the block is still a saloon and as soon as
the licenses could be cleared we were SHOW
ing cocktails of atomic strength in dairy lunch
rooms right there in Washington and through
the agency of young mattresses, at that. We
never had mattresses in the old corner saloon
and lady trade was strictly forbidden except In
the palm room back behind. But the distaft
had Joined us in flouting the foul amendment
over the bitter years and their score of hans
overs and ulcers had earned them right tc
become mauldlin, untdy and idiotic on equality
with the men.
So fallible and emotional is memory that the
drys blame and the vets among us praise
Franklin D. Roosevelt for repeal when the con
test is recalled at all and most opinion holds
that the new deal. the money changers in the
temple and national recovery dominated thai
campaign of 1882. Actually, the issue was pro
hbition which Mr.. Hoover lacked the polltlca
wisdom to disown and Roosevelt was elected
] as wet, but he was not wet until
Smith had carried the banner and had peer
riddled by such dries as William McAdoo ane
Cordell Hull who were Roosevelt men, ana
because he had taken no stand himself on th'
, issue of repeal the convention dispersed very
doubtful of his ability to carry his own state
much less the nation.
50 THEY 6 Az