Evening Star Newspaper, January 26, 1932, Page 6

A-b WET PLAN DEBATED IN RADIO FORUM Beck Appeals for Home Rule, but Howell Scores Proposal. The proposal for resubmission of the | prohibition amendment for an expression by the people last night was defended vocates of the wet and dry cause, in the National Radio Forum, arranged by | The Washington Star and broadcast over a Nation-wide network of the Na- tional Broadcasting system Representative James M. Beck, Re- publican, of Pennsylvania, sponsor of an amendment to repeal the eighteenth and set up a substitute based on the “home rule” principle, first explained his measure, which it is proposed to bring before State conventions called specifically to pass upon the issue Senator Robert B. Howell, Republic- an, of Nebraska, his_opponent, then | offered his rebuttal to Beck's argument. | Cites Disrespect of Law. | Declaring that “the _eighteenth amendment was bootlegged into the Sonstitution,” Mr. Beck added that it “has inflicted upon this country a reign of corruption, hypocrisy and disrespect for law such as never before existed in our history.” He asserted that there is sentiment in favor of a change, and that whether the proponents are in the majority or minority can only be determined by resubmissior Senator Howell, at the outset, criti- cized the proposal for State conventions, but he added that objection was not 8o much to the machinery, but rather to the effects that a change in the Con- stitution would have “The constitutional amendment sug- gested provides for no definite plan, either State or national, for dealing with the liquor question,” he said. Asks Definite Program. w1 adopted, we would not know what system of liquor legislation Congress would enact, nor what any State would adopt. Before we are asked to vote upon a change in the Constitution the | opponents of prohibition should unite nite program of lquor inform the people hose to legislate to deal flowing from the RAIL SHOPS REOPENED 1,700 Employes Return to Work on Locomotives at Albany. N January 26 (#).— teen hundred men returned to in the West albany Locomotive shops of the New York Central Rail- road yesterd: Twelve hundred are in the day shift and 500 on the night ghift. The car shops still are closed Beve work —Rain er tonight, 46 degrees increasing moderate to fresh by tonight | lowest | colder | n'ght southerly { mir tomorrow winds be | elementary i and attacked by two congressional ad-| SENATOR HOWELL (left) CLASH ON DRY People Deserve Chance to Decide Problem, Beck Declares. Urges Bill. The text of Representative Beck's speech in the National Radio Forum last night follows: Fellow citizens: The question to be discussed 1s a very simple one. It does not involve the merits or demerits of the eighteenth amendment It only involves the right of the American pecple, it they so desire, to give a new mandate in the matter of prohibition Those who oppose such resubmission must do so on the theory that this provision of the Constitu.'n is a final- ity for all time. Those who favor such resubmission believe that the American people have an inviolable and ever- continuing 1ight to determine, from gen iation to generation, the nature of their Government If they have not such right then democracy is a fraud and a delusion In a democratic form of gov even the Constitution cannot for any subject from discussion and action by the people, and its amending article, Article 5, clearly shows that thae» who framed the Constitution did not iegard any who suggested amendments wanting i patriotism. It is strange, indeed tionists should now claim the eighteenth amendment they did not regard the Consti- as unchangeable when they added the eighteenth amendment and oyed that basic principle of ition—local self-government inconsistency in this respect proves nothing, yet 1 can invoke the principles of our Govern- n tonight | colder rTow; | easing ng fresh by to- tomorrow southerly w'nds becomt morrov West Virginia—Rain tonight and to- colder tomor- ment and the noblest of American trad regarded th of liberty the form of governmen interests of the people have mental verity change their when th | might requ Turns to Constitution. We regard the immortal Declaration | of Independence as the Magna Charta for Last 24 Hours. Temperature. Barometer. Degre Inches. 49 30.25 44 30.32 35 30.36 | 30.39 30.41 30.38 { sterday. Year | Year ago. 32. | Tide Tables es Coast and | determine their own des . 10:30 pm. 444 pm. The Sun and Moon. Rises Sets 1 5:22 Sun, tomorrow 7:20 5:23 Moon, today.. 9:09 p.m 9:17am Automobile lamps to be lighted one- | half hour after sunset 11:18pm. | 5:34pm. | | | was enacted | the s, and in its noble pre- Jefferson voiced forever, guag ‘the self-evident tituted from th whenever rnment be- s destructive of these ends it is ght of the people to alter and 1t.” To the same end the im- mortal preamble to the Constitution roclaims, as with the sonorous blast of a_trumpet, that “We, the people of the United States * do_ordain and establish this Constitution,” and thus sserted a then n truth—that eignty rested neither in the King nor in the state, but always and in- violably in the people, who had inde- feasible and ever-continuing right to tiny. The Constitution itself recognizes such right, for by article 5, under which the eighteenth amendment itself express and alternative provisions were made for amendments from time to time and it was one of many arguments which the pro- ponents of the Constitution made to the American people in the immortal Fed- earliest papers, that more liberal method abo] sove | had been devised in the Constitution to Rainfall, in inches in the month to date): Record 709 '82 Monthly g Capital (currer Month 1932. Average January .... 4.08 5 February March April May June July August .. September .. October Novemoe Decen Stations. Weather. remedy any defects in its provisions which experience might show from time to time. Nineteen amendments have thus been adopted, and while & few of these were | merely additions to the original Con- stitution, yet most of them, as, for example, the eleventh, sixteenth, ven- teenth, eighteenth 'and nineteenth amendments, involved important modi- fications and the Constitution of the fathers. None invclved a greater change than the eighteenth amendment, for it not only wrotc & code of penal law into the Constitution, but in large part destroyed the reserved police powers of the States Argues for Referendum. How, then, can it be contended that the American people have not the right to determine whether any part of their Constitution, and especially any amend- hould be either re led or modi- 0 assert otherwise is to chal- It makes the my fied lenge democracy itself. final | address a rhapsody of words, for if the | ernm u . Pr.cloudy Clear Clear Bt cloudy Rain Rain Cloudy Cloudy Cloudy Pt elouds | . Clouay Cloudy FOREIGN. (1 am., Greenwich time, todsy.) Temperature. Weather 40 Cioudy a . Austris Germany . Prance...... Switzerland holm, _Sweden Gibralter, ' Spain. .. 74 Raii (Noon, Greenwich time, todsy.) Horts (Faysl), Azores... 64 Partcloudy American people cannot undo a clearly demonstrated folly, and resume a previ- ously reserved right, then truly gov- 1t “for the people, by the people and of the people” has perished from the United States Such was the reasoning of the pro- ponents of the cighteenth amendment, when it was submitted to the people for their ratification, and if time per- mitted, I could quote the principal ad- vocates of such submission as stating | that to deny the people of this country the right to ratify the eighteenth amendment was to challenge their right to rule themselves, and yet today we |-are told by the same moral enthusiasts that such right should now be denied the American people. I the vehemence of such denial the fanatical “drys’ shut their eyes to the unquestioned facts of history, for when we advocate the resubmission of the eighteenth amendment to conventions in the sev- eral States, to be especially called to consider the question, we are told, in 8 recent statement of the Board of Temperance and Public Morals, that such method is “untried,” and yet the fact is that the original Constitution was ratified by such conventions and not by the legislatures. To give the people of the United States such an opportunity of self- expression, my associates and I, of both parties, have submitted a substitute for the eighteenth amendment, which, while giving to every State the right to determine how it will regulate or pro- hibit the traffic in beverage liquors ex- clusively within its own borders, yet gives to the dry States not only their reserved rights, but the added power of the Federal Government to protect (Current observations.) L] ly 't cloudy - them in the full enforcement®of their prohibitory laws. In other words, we (Continued on Tenth Page.) ‘ar-reaching changes in | passage of Lincoln’s Gettysburg | THE EVENING Radio Forum Speakers and REPRESENTATIVE BECK, Photographed last night at Radio Station WRC. —Harris-Ewing Photo. LAW’S REPEAL Wets Fail to Outline Concrete Program, Howell Avers in Reply. The text of Senator Howell's address in the Natlonal Radio Forum last night follows: Discussions of the prohibition ques- tion are futile in the absence of some definite proposal. BSome favor wine and beer cnly, others Government sale, and still others the repeal of the eighteenth amendment. The proposal selected for discussion this evening is found in Congressman Beck’s resolution pending in the House, and which wet leaders will seek a vote upon in the present Congress. How- ever, it provides for no definite form of liquor legislation, but merely that Congress shall submit a constitutional amendment and trust to luck for the legisiative solution. Mr, Beck's resolution would amend the Constitution by conferring upon Congress power to either prohibit or regulate the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors except, that if a State should enact liquor laws of its own, such State may be as sopping wet pleases. Saloons or no saloons, in such circumstances is 4o less. In short, the authority of Congress so far as liquors are con- cerned would extend only to the terri- t the District of Columbia and to the States without liquor laws. Neither could Congress authorize or permit the shipment of liquor into any State in violation of State law. Nor is ratification to be Legislatures, as in the past, conventions called in the States. is this proposed amendment. Article 5 of the Constitution declares The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem is necesss shall propose amendments to this Con- tution by State but by Such Sees Lack of Support. The amending process was not in- tended by the founders of the Govern- ment as a means by which the repre- sentatives cf the people should evade responsibility. Two-thirds of Congress must deem the amendment necessary. Congress is also responsible for the form the change in the Constitu- mitted for ratification s no evidence that two-thirds of Congress deems an amendment to the eighteenth amendment necessary That amndment was submitted by two- thirds vote of the Sixty-fifth Congress, and was ratified by the Legislatures of 46 of the 48 States. The action of the Legislature of my State, Nebraska, completed the necessary -three-fourths of the States to make the eighteenth amendment effective. A Congress has | been elected on seven different occa- sions since, and at no time has there been evidence of a material change in sentiment favoring legalization of the liquor traffic. Recent referenda in wet States, like Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Illinois, have shown a smaller wet vote or a less wet majority than similar earlier votes taken since national prohibitiop. Only 6 of the 48 States have no State codes to enforce prohibition, and in some of these there are local prohibi- tion acts in many countries and towns. Only last Thursday the Bingham resolution seeking to place the Senate || on record as weicoming a referendum in the States upon the question of the repeal or modification of the eighteenth amendment and its supporting legisla~ tion received but 15 votes. Mr., Beck's resolution is not a pro- |pesal for a referendum upon the | eighteenth amendment, but for the re- |peal of the amendment. Basically, therefore, the question is, do we favor or oppose & legalized liquor traffic? The proposal that the amendment be submitted for ratification to conven- tions to be called in the States is an innovation, so far as precedent is con- cerned, and does not make it a referen- dum. The Constitution makes no pro- vision for a referendum. ‘Wants Definite Plan. | The objection to the proposal, how- ever, is not 5o much to the method by | which it is proposed that it be ratified, | but rather to the effects of the change in the Constitution it proposes. Some of these are: ; | 1. The constitutional smendment suggested provides for no definite plan, either State or national, for dealing with the liquor question. If adopted, we would not know what system of | liquor legislation Congress would enact nor what any State would adopt. Be- | fore we are asked to vote upon & change |in the Constitution the opponents of prohibition should unite some | definite program of liquor legislation that will inform the people how they | Propose to legislate to deal with the | social evils flowing from the use of | alcohoic beverages. Until we know we | cannot vote intelligently. | 2. The amendment would provide for | the legalized sale of intoxicating liquor. | The only reason for urging it is to per- |mit those States desiring it to provide | for such sale. That would Inevitably | mean the return of the saloon or its | equivalent in a number of States. Al- | though the opponents of prohibition de- | clare’ that they are opposed to the re- |tun of the saloon, this amendment | contains absolutely no provisions what- ever to insure against it. This proposal seeks to legalize the thing that made the saloon what it was, the liquor that debauched our citizenship, corrupted politios and caused the other sociol | evils that gave rise to the demand for the eighteenth amendment. | 3. Liquor legislation would be subject | to constant fluctuation. One Congress | might provide for Government regula- | tion; the next, prohibition, and the | next, Government sale. The same | would be true of the Legislatures of | the States. Even brewers and distill- ers would be at sea. | 4. It would insure that the liquor question would be permanently in poli- | tics, not simply in a few States and lcongresslonll districts, as at present, upon but in each of the 435 congressional districts and in every district in which members of the State I.qlinuru are STAR, WASHINGTON, elected. The propaganda and confusion that we now have on this issue would be tremendously magnified. Opposed to Conflicts. 5. ‘Two sovereignties would be given control over the same subject matter, the power not to be exercised harmo- niously or concurrently, as at present, but confilcting. Instead of the long- established principle of Article 6 of the ! Constitution—"that the Constitution and | laws of the United States shall be su-| preme”—there would be a complete re-| versal of that policy, and in case of & | conflict between State and Federal ]nw,} the State law would be paramount. It is proposed that we adopt as a_consti- | lut?onll policy the right of a State to nullify a Federal law—the right to se- cede from the Federal policy by the adoption of a State law in conflict| therewith. 6. The concurrent power clause of the eighteenth amendment now assur- ing the States of the co-operation of the Federal Government in enforcing prohibition would be absolutely repealed. In order that States desiring the saloon may have it, dry States are asked by this resolution to surrender the guar- anteed co-operation of the Federal Gov- ernment and to assume the additional burden of policing the liquor that would flow into them from wet States, with- out any assurance of co-operation from the t States or the Federal Govern- ment. Dry States had experience with | this program before national prohibi- tion under the Webb-Kenyon law. They desire no return to it. 7. The amendment would increase | the difficulties of law enforcement by adding to the national borders the boundaries of the 48 States, each having a different system of liquor legislation. | 8. There would be nothing to pre- | vent the shipment of liquors through | dry States. Prior to the adoption of the eighteenth amendment bootleggers obtained liquors in saloon States, pur- chased a railroad ticket through a dry State and when arrested in that State | would make the defense that they were | engaged in interstate commerce. Simi- | larly, the drivers of automobile caravans | of liquor would invariably claim that | they were on a journey through the | State. The issue became one of fact in the trial of cases in prohibition States. ‘These abuses and others would be re- stored if this amendment were adopted. Scores Divided Policy. The dry States know by experience that neither the wet States nor the Fed- eral Government, under such & policy, manifest any interest in protecting dry territory from the Invasion of liquor | dealers” from wet territory. This amendment would guarantee saloons in | wet territory, but make impossible | effective enforcement of a prohibitory law in a dry State. This Nation, under modern conditions, can no more be part wet and part dry than it could remain. | as Lincoln declared, half slave and half | free. The choice is not between na- tional prohibition and home rule, but between national prohibition and saloon | rule. | 9. The home rule provided by this amendment would mean that in States dominated by the larger cities we | should have city rule rather than State | control. Every one familiar with the breakdown of government in our larger cities should hesitate to extend | that policy or increase the influence of | the populous wet cities where the liquor interests were last intrenched | The States had for 131 years every right which this proposed amendment would grant. Every conceivable form of regulation was tried—low license, high license, local option, beer and wine as a means of promoting temper- ance, and State and Government ccn- trol through the State and local dis- pensary plan. All of these failed. Pro- hibition was the only plan that re- ceived anything like a consensus of opinion in its support. The eighteenth amendment is the outgrowth of half a century of education and experience. a D. C., TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1932. The United States Supreme Court has unanimously upheld it against every attack. Mr. Beck's proposed amendment sug- gests a backward step and a return to conditions so intolerable that the peo- ple changed the Constitution to remedy them. The abuses urged under nation- ‘.1 prohibition would be multiplied by | any plan of legalized liquor sale. If there were no desire to legalize liquor there would be no object in advocating this amendment. more easily obtainable. Let us rather | preserve and maintain the eighteenth | amendment, continue our educational work in the home, the church and the school regarding the effects of alcoholic beverages, and elect to public office men who will - honestly enforce the law. Therein lies greater promise of prog- ress than in a surrender to lawlessness Abraham Lincoln once declared: “Liquor might have defenders, but no defense,” and further that one of the two great evils threatening our people was the liquor traffic. Salvagers Barred by Mascots. Under Mexican law, a stranded or wrecked vessel cannot be boarded for the purpose of salvaging for individual gain as long as there even 1if it is only the ship's mascot. Sore Throat? Not if he gargles when he gets home, with Bayer Aspirin! Three tablets crushed in a little water, one good gargle, and the soreness is gone; the danger of infection reduced. If your throat ever tickles after you've been out in the cold or damp, gargle as soon as you can find some Bayer Aspirin. Take it for any cold; two tablets at the first sniffle. For headaches, neuralgia, neuritis; or rheumatism. Instant relief from all such pain. Perfectly harmless, if s genuine aspirin; the tablet stamped Bayer will not depress the heart. All druggists. It's Just as B We cannot cure the | evils of alcoholism by making liquors | | is life aboard, | which binds the Soviet to buy $12,000,~ ig as it Seems —you have the unrestricted choice of Every Suit, Overcoat and Top Coat in the house—excepting only Evening Clothes Fashion Park and Glenbrook —the highest grade; the most perfectly fash- ioned clothing in America—barring none. Suits selling up to $75 Overcoats selling up to $85 $20.95 By reason of the extraordinary deep reduc- tions, alterations will be made at actual cost. Why such sacrificing? The answer is plain —and significant. In order to maintain the standard we set for the Mode—every season must take care of its own stock—regardless of the reduction. That’s the purpose of these semi-annual clearance sales—and the reason for such tremendous cutting—TO MAKE SURE OF COMPLETE CLEARANCE. Ready NOW at $29.95! The Mode—F at Eleventh SPINDLES REPLACE WINGS ON NEW PLANE Building of New Type Rotor Heav- jer-Than-Air Machine in New York Revealed. By the Assoclated Press. NEW YORK, January 26—The Times says a new type of rotor heavier- than-air craft is being completed be- hind locked doors in an improvised lab- oratory here, and will be tested some time within the month at one of the New York flying fields. The story says I. C. Popper is the in- ventor-builder and the venture is backed by a group headed by Julius Pollack Carter. Popper gave credit for the principle involved to John B. Guest, & West Coast physicist and inventor. The craft has queer looking spindles insead of wings. . Ttaly has signed a treaty with Russia 000 of Italian products during the year. THE AVENUE AT SEVENTH half-way | measures as Saks retires from business! Weinclude ead; and every article in our entire store at the phenomenal Sale reductions! AKS was never a store to do- things by-halves—and we will not start now. We will leave you as the same kind of store we always have been—sincere, thorough and dependable. ND so—in this surprising Re- tirement Sale — there are no half-way measures. Deep and sen- sational as the reductions are, we in- clude each and every piece of mer- chandise that we own. Every piece of Clothing for Men and for Boys. Every article of Furnishings for Men and for Boys. Every Hat for Man or Boy. Every pair of Shoes. And every other item of every nature. Even merchandise on order will be in- cluded. No half-way measures! This is a great chance to save very substantially on Chaulffeur Clothing! Outfit your Chauffeur in a fine Saks uniform now—take advantage of Retire. ment Sale reductions. Complete equip- ment—Suits, Overcoats, Topcoats, Rain- coats, Caps, Puttees, Gloves — ALL REDUCED DRASTICALLY! All Sales for Cash! All Sales Final! Alterations at Cost! B e