Wet Wisconsin

One more state--Wisconsin--withdrew last week from, the field of Prohibition enforcement, handed the drying-up job back to the U. S., joined New York, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, on theWet sidelines.

In an April blizzard Wisconsin held a referendum on the question of repealing its State Enforcement Act. The voters called for the repealer by a 142,000 majority. The Drys blamed the blizzard, saying that farmers had been kept from the polls. With its members singing "How Dry I Am!'' and "Sweet Adeline," the State Assembly repealed the enforcement act. The senate followed suit. Last week Governor Walter Jodok Kohler, "in fulfillment of the mandate of the people," signed the repealer.

Governor Kohler has been a wet-Dry, a dry-Wet, in politics. In approving the end of Wisconsin's enforcement he warned Wisconsinites not to be misled "into the belief that traffic in intoxicating liquors . . . has become lawful or that the saloon will return. The Constitution of the U. S., the Volstead Act, and the Jones Law are still in full force and effect. . . ."

Wisconsin's action did not agitate U. S. Prohibition Commissioner James M. Doran. The U. S., he said, has received little or no assistance from Wisconsin's authorities, has done practically all of such enforcement as Wisconsin has had.