"To Cut Out . . . the Cancer"

Backed by many a rich man, the Anti-Saloon League fostered Prohibition. Backed by a few libertarians, the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment was founded to alter Prohibition. Last winter the A. A. P. A. announced that it would expand and grow potent under the leadership of a new chief, Major Henry Hastings Curran of Manhattan (TIME, Jan. 23).

Major Curran was selected for the administrative talent he had shown as Borough President of Manhattan (1920-21) and U. S. Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island (1923-26). Another recommendation was Major Curran's standing and acquaintance among tycoons of finance & industry. The frank object was to enlist for anti-Prohibition a roster of wealth and respectability comparable to what was recruited to "put over" Prohibition. This, it was predicted, would be a hard thing to do, because, regardless of their private convictions and habits, few wealthy citizens are willing to jeopardize their stand-in-the-community by pronouncing publicly against Prohibition. To be openly against Prohibition is unconventional. Moreover, many a rich man, untroubled by Prohibition himself, says it is "good for the working people," meaning higher production and purchasing power.

Early last week Major Curran reported his progress. He published the names of the first 70 eminent citizens to be installed on the A. A. P. A.'s directorate, which is to number 100. Dry citizens were startled to discover the calibre of the persons whom Major Curran had been able to enlist. The most prominent patron of the Anti-Saloon League lately has been Sebastian Spering Kresge, the 5-and-io-cent man. Now, as antagonists of Mr. Kresge, the A. A. P. A. points to:

Executive Committee:

Pierre S. du Pont.

Irenee du Pont.

Benedict Crowell, Cleveland, engineer, onetime (1917-1920) Assistant Secretary of War.

Charles H. Sabin, Manhattan banker.

Grayson M. P. Murphy, Manhattan

financier.

Directors:

Haley Fiske, president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Samuel Harden Church, president of

Carnegie Institute.

General William Wallace Atterbury and Samuel Rea (retired) of the Pennsylvania

R. R. John J. Raskob, vice-president of General Motors.

Stanley Field of Marshall Field & Co.,

Chicago.

Arthur Curtiss James, largest individual holder of rail stocks in the U. S.

Anson C. Goodyear, lumber.

Edward S. Harkness, Manhattan financier.

Thomas N. McCarter, president of the Public Service Co. of New Jersey.

Robert K. Cassatt and Herbert L. Clark, Philadelphia bankers.

Emory W. Clark, president of the First National Bank of Detroit.

Richard T. Crane Jr., president of the Crane Co. Lyman Delano, of the Atlantic Coast

Line R. R. Walter Douglas, president of Phelps Dodge Corp.

Julian Codman and Frederick P. Fish, Boston lawyers.

Frederick J. Fisher of the Fisher Body and Cadillac Motor companies.

William Gammell, Providence financier.

Charles Hayden of Hayden, Stone & Co.

Malcolm Jackson, Charleston, W. Va. lawyer.

Cornelius F. Kelley, president of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co.

William H. Metson, San Francisco lawyer.

And many another.

In Manhattan last week, a festive party was held in an art gallery. An aged gentleman, hero of the occasion, was placed on a throne and at his feet a "magic carpet" was unrolled, upon which his friends came and laid presents. The old gentleman's name was then inscribed "leading all the rest" in a book of gold and he was saluted as the Abou Ben Adhem of New York City. The old gentleman was Robert Weeks de Forest, president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of the Russell Sage Foundation, of the Welfare Council of New York City, of the American Federation of Arts, of the Survey Associates, of the National Housing Association, of the Charity Organization Society. The New York Times called him "Captain of Philanthropy" and the New York Sun called him "First Citizen of the First City of the Land." It was Mr. de Forest's 80th birthday.

Friends of Prohibition were perturbed by discovering that another new director of the A. A. P. A. is First Citizen de Forest's almost equally distinguished brother and law partner, Henry Wheeler de Forest, 72, who serves on the directorates of many a potent railroad and of such systems as Western Union and the American Express Co.

Friends of Prohibition were perturbed also by the language of Major Curran's report of his progress. Back of his board of directors is a membership of 750,000 citizens. "And behind that," he said, "stands the increasing determination of the American people to cut out of our Constitution the cancer that lodged there when the Eighteenth Amendment was enacted."

The A. A. P. A.'s immediate program is to increase the Wet bloc in Congress by working locally for the election of Wet Senators and Representatives. At last showing (TIME, Feb. 27), the Wet bloc in the House was 61 strong, led by Representative John Charles Linthicum of Maryland. The A. A. P. A. will also try to insert anti-Prohibition planks in the national platforms adopted at Kansas City and Houston.