State Prohibition Group Supports Volstead Act, Not KKK, Jan. 17, 1923

BAnti Saloon League Calls for Strict Enforcement. . . Proposed Measure Adopting Penal Provisions Volstead Act Approved. . . Dr. W.L. Poteat Gives Ku Kluxers Broadside. . . Masked Agents Law Enforcement Striking at Foundations of Society, He Says

The North Carolina Anti-Saloon League, in its law enforcement convention held here yesterday when on record unanimously in endorsement of the proposed bill to make the North Carolina prohibition laws conform to the provisions of the Volstead Act. The measure prepared by a legislative committee and approved by the board of trustees of the organization Monday night, was presented to the convention by Heriot Clarkson of Charlotte and John A. Oates of Fayetteville. Last night Congressman A.W. Barkley of Kentucky delivered an address.

The proposed legislation approved by the convention recognizes the requirements of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States for its concurrent enforcement by the act of Congress and the several states and to that end the measure would adopt the penal provision of the Volstead Act without repealing any North Carolina statute.

Dr. W.L. Poteat, president of Wake Forest College, who was re-elected president of the Anti-Saloon League yesterday afternoon, brought applause from the convention when he turned aside from an arrangement of the minority that still seeks to drag back the liquor traffic, to deliver a broadside at the Ku Klux Klan. He had been talking of law enforcement.

“I don’t see any masks on any of you,” he exclaimed. “I don’t see any white masks and I don’t see any black masks. A gang of men whoever high minded, however patriotic and fine their purposes, who band together to preserve the law under the cloak of secrecy are digging at the very foundations of our social life. We don’t want for law enforcement the assistance of an organization of irresponsible. The general tone and spirit of North Carolina is against any such organization and I believe that sentiment will express itself within the next few weeks in no uncertain terms.”

Dr. Barkley Speaks

“Rather appropriate $900 million to keep the American people sober than that they should spend two and a half billion dollars getting drunk,” declared Congressman Barkley at the concluding session of the convention last night, appealing for a crystallization of public sentiment that will back up the enactments that have been made to enforce the prohibition amendment.

. . . . From the front page of The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C., January 17, 1923