The American Issue

PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY BOARD MEETS

Adopt Resolution in Which They Vigorously Commit Themselves to Support Eighteenth Amendment and Law Enforcement and Demand That All Political Parties Do Likewise

The following resolution was adopted at the mass meeting on Sunday afternoon, May 27, conducted under the auspices of the department of moral welfare of the Board of Christian Education of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church:

"Whereas, Constitutional government in America is facing a crisis, and a national offensive is necessary to meet such a crisis, and prohibition is a fact and not a theory; and

"It has been demonstrated that it is a good law and by it labor is enriched, business enlarged and public savings vastly increased, and it is morally and economically the greatest adventure ever achieved by a free people; therefore, be it

"Resolved, That this meeting held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, May 27, under the Board of Christian Education, Department of Moral Welfare of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church U. S. A., make the following request of conventions of all political parties meeting in 1928 for the purpose of adopting party platforms and nominating candidates for the office of president and vice president of the United States:

"1. To include in the platforms adopted by political conventions a positive, clear-cut declaration pledging the support of party nominees to a program of vigorous and efficient enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment and the necessary supporting legislation.

"2. To nominate candidates who are positively and openly committed to this policy of effective prohibition law by their utterances, acts and records. The strongest prohibition law enforcement plank would be neutralized and practically worthless if its adoption by a convention should be followed by the nomination by that same convention of candidates whose utterances, acts, and records have branded them as personally hostile to prohibition, or as unwilling to co-operate actively in securing effective enforcement, or as unappreciative of the great comparative importance of this effort to 'promote the general welfare.'

"3. We authorize the Department of Moral Welfare of the Presbyterian Church to transmit these resolutions through the proper channels to all the political party conventions.

"4. We recommend that all ministers, church officers, Sunday School teachers, presidents of our Presbyterian colleges and seminaries in agreement with the foregoing declarations should actively support by word and act these principles."

The following is part of the formal general report of the Board of Christian Education adopted on Monday, May 28:

"In view of the fact that the present General Assembly is meeting in which was known as the Indian Territory, in which there was never located any phase of the legalized liquor traffic, and since the entire program of prohibition enforcement is facing a crisis, the Eighteenth Amendment in particular, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church U. S. A. calls upon all political parties to include in their platform declarations in support of the Eighteenth Amendment, and all supporting Federal and State Legislation, and to nominate candidates who are positively and openly committed to effective prohibition enforcement by their utterances, acts, and records."

"In my formal acceptance of your nomination, I shall give to the people of the country my views in full upon all of the issues of the campaign. In the way that if its adoption by a convention should be followed by the nomination by that same convention of candidates whose utterances, acts, and records have branded them as personally hostile to prohibition, or as unwilling to co-operate actively in securing effective enforcement, or as unappreciative of the great comparative importance of this effort to 'promote the general welfare.'

I know that you can do it, give the delegates my warmest thanks for the confidence they have reposed in me and my assurance that, with their support, I confidently expect to lead the historic Democratic party to victory in November."