21st Amendment

It was 1:30 p. m. by the gold watch he pulled out of his vest pocket and laid on his paper-cluttered desk when Texas' Senator Morris Sheppard rose in the Senate chamber one day last week. A small, prim man with greying hair and narrow eyes, his greatest claim to fame is being co-author of the 18th Amendment. The happiest, proudest day of his 57 years (30 of them in Congress) "came Aug. 1, 1917 when the Senate wrote national Prohibition into the Constitution. Every Jan. 16 since, all Senate business has had to halt while the "Father of the 18th Amendment" delivered an oration to commemorate the Amendment's effective date.

Now Senator Sheppard arose, not to praise Prohibition, but in a desperate last-ditch defense of it. Waiting at the Senate door was a Repeal resolution. To keep it off the floor the little Texan cleared his throat and said:

"Ten years ago lacking six days I addressed the Senate on the subject of the proceedings of the League of Nations. I now propose to take up where I left off ten years ago. . . ."

Thus began a pathetic one-man filibuster against Repeal. In slow measured words Senator Sheppard recited the decade's doings at Geneva. Monotonously he read from old documents. Slowly he meandered down long columns of figures. His dronings drove Senators from the chamber, left Vice President Curtis suffering silently and alone on the rostrum. Tourists in the gallery gaped down at the spectacle of one little Dry defying the U. S. electorate.

Author of the Repeal resolution was

Wisconsin's Elaine (lame duck). Asked he: "How long does the Senator think he may continue his debate?"

Sheppard: That depends on how long the spirit moves me. I can't tell how long I may speak when I am under the inspiration of a sense of duty.

Elaine: It may be indefinitely?

Sheppard: It might be indefinitely.

Elaine: The Senator does not anticipate concluding before 6 o'clock?

Sheppard: I do not.

Elaine: Or before 10 o'clock?

Sheppard: I do not--if I can hold out.

He held out until 10 p. m. when, no other Senate Dry having gone to his assistance, he suddenly and unexpectedly put his watch back in his pocket, dropped into his chair. Next day the Senate voted 58-to-23 to take up the Repeal resolution. During the two-day debate that followed Senator Sheppard uttered not another word.

Chief motive power behind Repeal in the Senate was no longtime Wet but a longtime Dry from Arkansas--Joseph Taylor Robinson. In 1928 Senator Robinson ran for Vice President as a Dry beside Wet Al Smith. In 1931 he was still doggedly opposed to his party's Wet turn. At a Washington meeting he thundered Bryanesquely: "You cannot write on the banner of the Democratic party the skull & crossbones of an outlaw trade." But after last year's Chicago convention, Senator Robinson, loyal Democrat, swallowed his personal opinions.

When the Repeal resolution came from the committee it contained two provisions objectionable to most Wets: 1) ratification of the amendment by State Legislatures; 2) authority for Congress to "regulate or prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors to be drunk on the premises where sold." It was Senator Robinson who offered amendments to bring the resolution back into line with the Democratic platform which promised ratification by majority vote of State conventions in 36 States, and complete withdrawal of Federal control of liquor within the States.

Agreed on the essence of its act, the Senate plunged into hot altercation over legal technicalities. The State convention method of ratification has never before been specified by Congress. Finespun arguments were developed over the power of Congress to require this method. Montana's Senator Walsh complained of the expense. New York's Wagner pleaded for referendum by the people rather than their representatives. The Senate favored convention ratification, 45-to-15.

Senator Robinson's other argument to leave liquor control exclusively to the States started a swirling debate around the ghost of the saloon. His deep chest heaving, Senator Robinson summed up after Senators Borah, Glass, Steiwer and Capper had been heard:

"Everybody condemns the saloon. I'm no champion of it and never have been. I have submerged my personal views, believing it my duty to take this course. . . . If liquor is to be sold at all, it must be sold either in saloons or State agencies and I don't think Congress ought to be committed to the policy that we're choosing permanently between those agencies. . . . The States have just as much ability to handle this question as Congress. . . . There is no ideal way of dealing with the liquor problem. We've been looking for such a way for almost a century and it has not been found. ... I have grave doubt in whatever form this amendment is submitted whether 36 States will ever ratify it."

Federal control over the saloon went out, 46-to-38.

A tense hush fell over the Senate as Vice President Curtis intoned: "The question is, Shall the joint resolution, as amended, be ordered to be engrossed for a third reading and read the third time? . . . The question now is, Shall the joint resolution pass?"

Kentucky's Barkley demanded a roll call. Not until the clerk reached "Borah" was the first "no" recorded. Packed in the galleries, professional Prohibitors gazed down at the scene like stone images. At last Vice President Curtis intoned:

"On this question the yeas are 63, the nays are 23. More than two-thirds having voted in the affirmative, the joint resolution is passed."

Mrs. Boole, in the gallery, sat down hard. Tears welled in her old hazel eyes. Below her on the floor a five-minute Wet demonstration erupted.

Last December, on the first day of the session, Speaker Garner gave the House a chance to vote Repeal. The House defeated it by six votes. Following the Senate's action, the Speaker called a Democratic caucus at which members were bound to support Repeal as a party principle.

Two days later the Senate resolution emerged on the House floor. Forty minutes of machine-gun debate followed. The vote sent Repeal to the States for ratification, 289-to-121.

First State to call its convention: Wyoming.

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