We favor the repeal of the 18th Amendment.
To effect such repeal, we demand that the Congress immediately propose a Constitutional amendment to truly representative conventions in the States called to act solely on that proposal.
We urge the enactment of such measures by the several States as will actually promote temperance, effectively prevent the return of the saloon and bring the liquor traffic into the open under complete supervision and control by the States.
We demand that the Federal Government effectively exercise its power to enable those states to protect themselves against importation of intoxicating liquors in violation of their laws.
Pending repeal, we favor immediate modification of the Volstead Act to legalize the manufacture and sale of beer and other beverages of such alcoholic content as is permissible under the Constitution and to provide therefrom a proper and needed revenue.
"I am simply gibbering with excitement," cried Mrs. Charles Hamilton Sabin, chairman of the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform, when she read this platform plank, adopted (934-to-213) by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week. It had been framed by a minority of the Resolutions subcommittee, later changed into a majority report of the whole committee which turned its back on a proposal only slightly less Wet.
Comparison. The Republican Prohibition plank adopted three weeks ago caused no one, Wet or Dry, to gibber with excitement. Its 526 words contained a cautious compromise and a large loophole. Like the Democratic plank it shunned the saloon. Like the Democratic plank it provided Federal protection for Dry States and proposed resubmission of the liquor issue by Congress to State conventions "truly representative."
Unlike the Democratic plank it specifically released party members as individuals from supporting Repeal or even Resubmission. Unlike the Democratic plank it did not call for immediate legalization of beer. Unlike the Democratic plank it proposed, rather than simple Repeal of the 18th Amendment, substitution of a new amendment redefining liquor's status in the nation. The tortuous Republican language was: "A proposed amendment the provision of which, while retaining in the Federal Government power to preserve the gains already made in dealing with the evils inherent in the liquor traffic, shall allow States to deal with the problem as their citizens may determine, but subject always to the power of the Federal Government to protect those States where Prohibition may exist and safeguard our citizens everywhere from the return of the saloon and attendant abuses."