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Mrs. Richard Aldrich, New York socialite, was introduced as "a woman of leisure." Said she: "The contention of the wet and noisy minority is only the voicing of self-indulgence. ... Its arguments appear very childish. . . . The statement that Prohibition has worked no changes in railroad discipline is quite childish. . . . The wet minority of leisure, occupied in establishing social bootlegging, is now alarmed lest the lives of its illegal employes be in danger. Hosts and hostesses have only to be less childish and there will be an end to the strange alliance between liquor and ladies."
Amos Alonzo Stagg, athletic director at the University of Chicago: "Since Prohibition hundreds of thousands more children have had a fairer start in life than before. The saloons were our substitutes for the movies, the theatres, the motor car, the radio, the seashore, reading and all. ... I can state with absolute confidence that drinking is not a problem at the U. of C., that only a very small percentage of the students drink at all."†
Rev. John Callahan, "Bishop of the Bowery," chaplain at Manhattan's Tombs Prison: "There were 44 saloons in the Bowery ten years ago. There isn't one today. Hundreds of men there were homeless and friendless. Today they' ve got homes, wives, children, bank accounts, automobiles, radios and life insurance. I hope and pray to God Almighty that the 18th Amendment will be kept in the Constitution."
Col. Raymond Robins of Chicago, oldtime Bull Mooser: "Even the Wets piously declare they do not want the saloon, but a rose by any other name is still a rose. . . . The saloon is simply a place where men drink liquor, even if we painted it white, sold lilies at the door and had Uncle Sam for a bartender."
As a final snapper to their side of the argument, the U. S. Drys, Consolidated, prepared to close their case this week before the Judicial Committee with such professional advocates of Prohibition as Clarence True Wilson, lobbyist for the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition & Public Morals, and Dr. Francis Scott McBride. lobbyist for the Anti-Saloon League of America.
*Wet critics disputed this figure, contended that such memberships overlap.
*For a canvass of U. S. magazines' attitudes on Prohibition, see p. 42.
†This statement was disputed at the University of Chicago. Declared Dexter Masters, editor of Phoenix: "About 40% of the men on the campus drink liquor. Women drink in almost the same proportion." In 1927 the university authorities complained to the U. S. Prohibition Unit against the ease with which students secured liquor.