The Wilmington morning star., 1947-03-26
As Pegler Sees 1t
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright. 1947, BY King Features Syndicate
Incl

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright. 1947, By King Features Syndicate,
Inc.)
Many Of our most enthusiastic thinker
were children when the eighteenth amend
ment was repealed. They and probably mos
Of the elder survivors of the bitter struggle
will have no intelligent understanding of the
issue Of that time or of the contrast between
the liquor traffic as we see it now and the
pious fakery of the promises that we made to
ourselves strictly for the purpose of abolish.
ing prohibition. We said we would be willing
tU settle for eight wines and BEER although
we were hootch drinkers in the main with no
taste for wine, and the name of beer was in.
voked for its wholesome sound, reminiscent OF
harmless, family evenings in shady groves
run by our Teutons. We wanted repeal, abso-
lutte and unconditional, and we got it by sub
terfuge. Most Of us didn't expect all that.
Repeal was the big issue in the first Roose-
welt campaign of 1882 and Franklin D. Roose.
welt received great acclaim for the superses-
sion of the eighteenth Amendment by the
twenty-first. This he didn't deserve, for he
had been a trimmer when repeal was politi-
cally dangerous. Al Smith really carried the
target in the 1928 campaign against Herbert
Hoover. He was a Catholic and few of our
practical politicians privately believed he had
a chance. There was great prejudice against
Catholics not only in Southern states but in
some others. Worse still, Al was all wet. Pro-
testant organizations had imposed prohibition
in the first place and had fought to maintain
it ever since 1920. Some Of the protestant
clergy were so ~fanatical about prohibition that
they made it an article of religion to the
ne glects of other elements Of Christianity. The
prohibitionists maintained an arrogant lobby
in Washington run from a headquarters over
looking the Capitol.
Their manners and methods were a pat
tern for those of the union lobby and dictator
ship that grew SO strong under Roosevelt.
Like the unioneers, they scorned all COM
promise; all who opposed them were devils
and atrocities done in the furtherance OF their
cause were condoned or justified.
Crime had risen during the prohibition
years and President Hoover had appointed a
commission to study the situation. The people
generally thought this commission was study
ing only crimes attributable to prohibition.
In 1929, Mr.. Hoover said our contempt for
law was ominous but said that only 8 per
cent of the felony convictions in 1928 were
for prohibition crimes. Prohibition was a poll
teal weakness with him and the people sus'
pected that he was playing politics for the
support Of the Anti-Saloon League and allied
organizations. most of them Protestant church
groups. Later in 1929, Hoover admitted that
"Prohibition now contributes about IA per
cent of the prison population. Meanwhile,
iSVS VI, tO al A1llll q J." ILoN DCCh
extended to many other acts and the criminal
narcotics trade then accounted for about 80
per cent of the inmates of LeavenWorth and
Atlanta. In December, 1929, he said the en-
forcement of the prohibition laws had slowed
down the federal courts and the treasury.
which was responsible for detection. Although
he did not say so, the Treasury had become
horribly corrupt in that phase of its work.
The commission on crime voted against re-
peal, the return of the old-time saloon and
light wines and beer" as long as the Eight
eenth Amendment was on the books. The
opinions were conflicting but the members of
the commission did not agree with Hoover
that good citizens should obey law and repeal
laws which they disliked. He offered no lead
ership or help toward repeal and his defeat in
1882 was largely attributable to his reticence
on this.
Early in 1929, Walter Strong, then publish
er OF the Chicago Daily News, told Hoover the
city had fallen into the hands of the Capone
gangsters. The police and the courts were
corrupt and impotent and the federal govern
ment must intervene. About that time, Mr..
Hoover had been perturbed to observe in
Miami that Al Capone attracted more atten-
ton. possibly more favorable attention, than
he, the President of the United States. His
sensitiveness here was official, not personal.
He set the treasury quietly after Capone in
Chicago, and got him. The penalty imposed
for violation of the income tax law was eX-
cesslve and plainly was intended to be a
warning and a dramatic victory Of law over
a gangster who had actually conquered cur
second city.
Early in his first term, Roosevelt asked
Congress to modify the Volstead act, the en-
forcement act for the Eighteenth Amendment,
so as to ~"legalize the manufa cture and sale
of beer and other beverages Of such alcoholic
content as is permissible under the c~onstitu-
tom and to get money for the government
through Substantial taxes. We have collect
ed a lot of money but it hasn't relieved the
tax burden as we hoped it would.
In Congress-, both houses whoopingly adopt
ed the Twenty-First Amendment to repeal the
Eighteenth. It was ratified by So states and
prohibition was officially repealed on Dec. S,
less than a year after Hoover left office.
Repeal was outright but the amendment
forbade transportation of liquor into any state
or territory in violation of its own laws. The
national government has a theoretical duty to
protect dry states but is no more able to en-
force this provision of repeal that it was to
enforce prohibition everywhere.
The day the Eighteenth Amendment was re-
pealed, Roosevelt took to the radio to ask
'whole-hearted cooperation" in protecting dry
territory and to prevent the return OF the
repugnant conditions that existed before and
during prohibition
81. ask especially" he said, that no state
by law or otherwise authorize the return Of
the saloon either in its modern form or in
some modern guise''. His policy would be to
see that the evil social and political condi-
tons of the pre-proh1blt1on era shoolo Aot re-
turn,
In a short time, Forbes Morgan, an uncle
Of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, got a $1,000 job
as chief lobbyist for the whiskey trust. lie died