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Show National Topics Interpreted jL. by William Bruckart M Washington. It now appears likely like-ly that the Eighteenth amendment will bo out of Ponder Liquor the Constitution Control the middle of December, and Its Imminent repeal has set many of tho wiser heads t- thinking about control of liquor sales which thereafter there-after will be legaL It Is an Important Impor-tant problem ; It la recognized as one that Is exceedingly serious, and those who are really seeking to perform per-form tho proper functions of public pub-lic office in state and nation seem to bo moving In the right directions when they give consideration to sales control and to minimizing admitted ad-mitted dangers In legal liquor sales. The drys, of course, have not given up. They think they still can block repeal of the amendment There are only half a dozen more states needed on the affirmative side of the proposition to get the amendment amend-ment out of the Constitution, however, how-ever, and whenever thirty-six states have expressed their views, It Is made to appear as unlikely that a last-ditch move by tho drys will defeat de-feat the repeal program which President Pres-ident Roosevelt pledged In advance of bis election. Dry leaders here In Washington have guarded their plana with the utmost secrecy. They will not disclose dis-close what they plan to do to hold . up repeal. Undoubtedly, it will in- elude resort to court proceedings designed de-signed to prove that the votes already al-ready taken have been void on some technical ground. And I say It Is possible they may find such a basis, but Inquiries 'among nearly all of the recognized legal authorities have failed to disclose that any of them . ee how the drys can be successful. In view of the reports from some ' dry quarters that the method of vot- " Ing will be attacked as Illegal, It might be of Interest to recall that United States District Judge Clark of New Jersey held a few years ago that the. Eighteenth amendment never was In the Constitution at alL He decided that since the states had .voted - through their legislatures rather than through conventions, the amendment never had been ratified. But the learned judge was promptly overruled by the highest tribunal, which determined that the Constitution Consti-tution Itself gave congress the ut- Into the limbo of things that are gone but not forgotten. The Department of State, aware of a potential controversy, has made up Its ponderous mind, I am Informed. In-formed. While officials say there Is no announcement to make at this time, the Information I get Is that tho department has determined there must be a proclamation Issued when the necessary number of states have voted repeal. But It seems to be preparing to ward off trouble by an arrangement providing for the date of the proclamation to be the same as the day of the last vote. It appears, therefore, that when th9 last Convention has been held, a day or so will elapse before a certificate of Its action reaches Washington, and then the proclamation, previously pre-viously drafted and signed, will be formally Issued. A3 a practical matter, of course, the country will know pretty well what It con or cannot do long before the last convention Is held, and prohibition pro-hibition repeal likely will be celebrated cele-brated before the machinery In the Department of State gets around to grinding. As the campaign to repeal prohibition prohi-bition approaches an end, another campnlgn, backed "Buy Now' by the adrainls- Campaign On ra" an,d Ie? by NRA, Is getting get-ting under way. Just now, Gen. Ilugh S. Johnson, national recovery administrator, Is trying to get the country to buy, or those who still have money are being urged to "buy now." It Is a part of the general scheme to set commercial and Industrial Indus-trial wheels In motion, because If those millions who still have Jobs and who have been holding tightly onto their money will let loose of some of It for the things they need, there will bo a big difference In the total sales In the country. It Is a fact beyond peradventure of a doubt that thousands of persons, per-sons, their confidence 6haken, possibilities pos-sibilities of lost Jobs,, funds tied up In closed banks and i that sort of thing,-have simply refused to buy their normal quantity of merchandise. merchan-dise. They have been denying themselves them-selves many things which they ordinarily or-dinarily would buy, because of the uncertainty of the times. General Johnson Is simply asking them to return re-turn to their normal ways of living. It Is not confined to the individual individ-ual consumer, this holding off from buying. Retailers have been running run-ning with just as small a stock a3 Ihey can, and jobbers and wholesalers whole-salers have held down their inventories inven-tories to the minimum. The waiting wait-ing policy which the retailers, the jobbers and the wholesalers have followed, necessarily has reacted on the manufacturer. General Johnson has a dual purpose pur-pose in his "buy now" campaign. He has been promising those businesses that sign the NRA codes that efforts would be made to encourage new business, or a revival of old business, busi-ness, for them. Besides, It Is Imperative Im-perative to most of them that they obtain a greater volume of business. They cannot meet the needed expense ex-pense of higher wages and other code costs unless something like old-time old-time trade recurs. General Johnson Is trying to push the "buy now" campaign on that account as much as to force business upward. If business revives, of course, it means more jobs, and more Jobs means restoration of prosperity. President Roosevelt's program to buy farm surpluses of food for the" country's poor Surplus Food and. destitute Is for Needy Probably about the most popular thing he had attempted. I have heard little criticism around here. Most of the folks with whom I have talked have praised him for the move just as vigorously as they criticized crit-icized him and Secretary Wallace, of the Department of Agriculture, when they announced their scheme to pay a premium for pigs and for sows about to farrow In order to force hog prices higher. A large part of the pork from that wholesale, whole-sale, and I believe ridiculous, slaughter slaugh-ter of pigs went Into fertilizer. It was the most wasteful thing that. I have seen a government do. I believe be-lieve the consensus among observers most freedom in chosing between the ratification of a Constitional amendment by legislatures or by the convention system. So It would . -. seem, according to legal experts, that the drys have little hope in that direction. " It is quite possible, of course, that Borne one or two of the states scheduled sched-uled to vote between now and mid-December mid-December may upset the applecart by voting for retention instead of repeal, of the amendment. In which event, there would be delay. Government Gov-ernment officials tell me, however, that repeal Is almost certain. So the question for consideration, then, obviously Is, "how will its sale be controlled to avoid the old-time old-time saloon and its attendant evils?" In this matter, .the wets will go a long way with the drys In seeing that restrictions are thrown about the sale of liquor that will remove some of the curse that admittedly was tied up with the corner saloon. An Important wet leader told me that he wanted to prevent return of the saloon and Thumbs Down wanted to see on Saloon 80me "sensible means" provided for distribution purely as a matter of long-range policy. If such action ac-tion Is not taken, he said, there will be' another fight against prohibition staring the wets In the face at once. Since the wets want repeal, there- " fore, they can be counted upon, generally gen-erally speaking, to propose as well as support, any system that will make for elimination of those embarrassing em-barrassing features of liquor sales that brought on prohibition in the first place. , There are numerous schemes and aystema under discussion. Thus far, none of them seems to have crystallized crys-tallized Into a program behind which a majority of the strength can be mustered. Having seen prohibition flghta la numerous Instances in congress, con-gress, it appears that there is likely to be much hauling and filling In the state legislatures on the questions centering arouna control. That statement, state-ment, however, must not bo understood under-stood as applying to the real leaders on either side of the probliem. The small fry and the politicians who will want to feather their own nests are th folks who are going to make enactment of control legislation difficult diffi-cult , here Is the same as my own. But the program of using that meat, and portions of the surplus wheat and cotton and dairy products and fruits, ets., to relieve suffering, Is quite a different matter. In the first Instance, In-stance, everyone regards the latter course as human, a course that will do some good. The same can hardly be said of the former arrangement, dosnlto the claims of thi "hrntn And while we are discussing prohibition pro-hibition repeal it may be reported that there has been a decided difference differ-ence of opinion as to how It will become be-come operative. Some argument has been advanced that repeal will not be operative, even after thirty-filx thirty-filx states have ratified the. new amendment, until the Department of State, hero In Washington, issues a proclamation to that effect Others have claimed that action by the thirty-sixth state automatically will relegate rel-egate the Eighteenth amendment trust" economists who argue that higher prices will prevail as a result of the plan. - . - Present, plans call for the use of about $75,000,000 of federal money, funds contributed to the treasury by taxpayers of the 'nation, 'na-tion, in the purchase of the food and clothing materials. That ought to buy many meals in" any language you may speak, and food is food however it Is obtained. O. 1033, Wostcrn Newspaper Ualon. |