| Show With Beer Lawful Wets Start Trudging Long Road to Repeal B By Bi RODNEY NEA Service c Writer WASHINGTON April 3 Nearly S-Nearly Nearly two years of ot beer beer and and then repeal repeat That seems to be the most reasonable guess now being made by the wets v ho are working to get states to ratify ratio ratE ly fy the repeal amendment recently passed by congress It assumes the thedr's drys drs will be no more fortunate in persuading 13 states to hold out against it than they have been in stemming the wet tide Ude of the last few years Ratification this year Is still theoretically theoretically theo theo- possible But some legislatures legisla tures turca have gone home without setting up machinery for election of state conventions and others are unwilling to call special elections in this year when economy and expenditures for tor relief are so Imperative Most meet only bl biennially in fri odd numbered years and a few probably wont won't act before 1935 So it Is generally believed now that the requisite 36 states wont won't have ratified rati rati- fied lied through conventions before the end of 1934 and possibly not until the following sprang There will be special elections of convention delegates in perhaps half haIt the states which have conventions A Afew Afew Afew few states may hold them in connection connection tion with their spring primaries of ot 1934 But very few have any statewide statewide statewide state state- wide election this year which means that many will wait for 1934 HOW now CONVENTIONS WORK Before they get through the states will have held the greatest national referendum in the history of the world Thirteen already have set dates for their wet dry elections for 1933 and another state for 1934 Legislatures Leg of seven ot others rs have provided provided pro pro- vided for referenda leaving the dates to their governors Bills setting up the ratification machinery machinery machinery ma ma- chinery are pending in many other legislatures The first states in Jn line are Michigan Michi Michigan gan an with an m election April 3 3 and Wisconsin electing delegates a day later Elections and conventions are arc likely likely like like- ly to operate generally on the same procedure through which we use the presidential electoral college The constitution had never before been changed except through ratification of amendments by state legislatures so for a while the situation as to the form the conventions would take seemed rather chaotic They were taking all kinds of strange shapes But Joseph H. H Choates Choate's voluntary committee of lawyers got together with Jouett Shouse's s 's Association Against the Prohibition Amendment and drew up a model bill for the thc groping legislators They held that votes should be statewide and that delegates should be elected be-elected elected at large rather than from counties or congressional districts This principle has b be been n adopted in most ratification bills Introduced in the last few weeks PERFUNCTORY VOTES Under that pr provision the t tion on conventions will be mere matters mat mat- of form Delegates will simply g go through the motions of casting their vote as os would so many pre tint electors since ince they will be bound in advance In states where both wet and dry delegates have been elected by by county or district vote vote there there doubtless will be some debate although although al al- al- al though the conventions convention's vote will wUl be known Where final action has hu be been taken provision has usually been made for two slates one slates one for repeal and one for retention of the eighteenth amendment amend amend- ment But lately it has haI b been en argued that the constitution implies that the conventions should be deliberative bodies which has led to provisions for lor third slates of delegates dele dole gates none gates none of whom are arc expected to be elected Nominations of ot d delegates legates are to jo be made in various ways Michigan provided provided pro pro- vided that the probate judge the county attorney and the county clerk nominate a wet and a dry The drys challenged that proposal al in the state supreme court but failed to have it declared unconstitutional The nominating nominating nomi nomi- boards went ahead and nomi nomi- nominated nominated nominated the wettest of the wets and the of the drys WETS VETS AND DRYS BUSY The Association Against the Prohibition Prohibition Pro Pro- Amendment has fought a pro a In South Carolina to leave nominations nominations nomi semi nations to the governor contending that this method wasn't sufficiently representative There have been proposals proposals pro pro- in some states to save money by having the governor appoint legislators leg leg- and delegates The association has been active in nearly all states through its Washington headquarters and its state units working against against what it considered bad bills bills' and advising legislatures as to what those of other states were doing Drys also have been active being particularly bitter against statewide elections of delegates claiming that their adherents adherent in rural sections would be put at a disadvantage by large foreign elements in the big cities In Kansas the drys undertook to rush through a convention bill in the belief that defeat of ratification m in a adry adry adry dry state at the outset would have an excellent effect for their cause But the bill was stalled by adjourn ment |
