Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 139, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1919 — BOOZE’S FORLORN HOPE. [ARTICLE]

BOOZE’S FORLORN HOPE.

July 1 has not yet arrived, and, as the friends of an unlimited percentage of alcohol see it, while there, is booze there is hope; not more than a forlorn hope, to be sure, but something worth struggling for. Representative Dyer, of Mississippi, republican, a member of the judiciary committee, which has been wrestling with the question of repealing the law providing for prohibition to go into effect July 1, finds that “the matter has developed far enough in our committee for me to be able to state definitely that there is no opportunity in our committee to obtain a favorable report on such a bill. Mr. Dyer does not give up hope, however. Notwithstanding authoritative opinions to the contrary, he is convinced that the president has the authority to abrogate the law, and therefore urges him “to issue a proclamation to the effect that the war is ended and that the demobilization of the troops has been complied with sufficiently to meet the law and, therefore, there is no need for the wartime prohibition, so far as it affects light wines and beers, to go into effect.” iThe ingenuity of the friends or booze appears to be inspired by their desperation. If judgment may be forced from the difficulty with which the peace treaty is being framed, we are somewhat short of the end of the war. We still have some hundreds of thousands of fighting men standjng guard over the Huns and sleeping on their arms. Complete plans have been made for these men to move farther into Germany in case the Germans refuse to sign the treaty. This is pretty clear evidence that the war is not ended by any means, however hopeful we may be that the near future 'will see its official encr ing and however inconsequential those hundreds of thousands of fighting men may be in the matter of demobilization. What the president will do in response to Mr. Dyer’s appeal can not, of course, be forecast, but if he continues to be as shrewd a politician as he has frequently proved himself he will do nothing. As discriminating an eye as his must see that booze is now in the throes of dissolution, and that the application of no kind of political oxygen can defer its demise, and, furthermore, that any political doctor who undertook such treatment would hardly be called on again even for advice in regard to the ills of the body politic. Indianapolis News>