THE CABINET: Dry Hope

Minnesota sired the sire of the National Prohibition Act. Pleased indeed was he. Andrew John Volstead, last week to learn that President Hoover had reached over 47 other States and 99 other candidates to choose a Minnesotan and a good Volstead friend as his Dry Hope, under whom the President purposes to consolidate all Prohibition activities. The appointment of Gustav Aaron Youngquist. Minnesota’s Attorney-General, to be U. S. Assistant Attorney-General in charge of Prohibition & Taxation, had hardly reached St. Paul before Sire Volstead’s daughter, Mrs. Laura Volstead Lomen, hurried to Mr. Youngquist’s office to be the first to congratulate him, to express her father’s pleasure.

But Prohibitor Volstead had no hand in advancing Mr. Youngquist to the Hoover sub-Cabinet. Almost entirely responsible for this appointment was Mr. Youngquist’s new chief, U. S. Attorney-General William DeWitt Mitchell, also of Minnesota. For five months President Hoover and his astute Attorney-General had cast about for a successor to Mrs. Mabel Elizabeth Walker Willebrandt. Candidates there were galore from every State but the President’s requirements were high: a thoroughgoing Dry, possessed of a sound legal mind and ample industry, beyond the influence of front-page publicity. Such a man Mr. Mitchell told President Hoover he would find in Mr. Youngquist. Acceptance of the appointment followed only after long persuasion, for Mr. Youngquist had aspired to become Minnesota’s next Governor.

During Mrs. Willebrandt’s tenure of office, the Prohibition & Taxation division of the Department of Justice grew from the smallest to the largest. President Hoover contemplates making it even larger by adding to its prosecution of dry cases the major job, now performed by the Treasury, of actual field enforcement of the Volstead Act. Lately the President set his friend, John L. McNab, to plotting out a system whereby this transfer and consolidation within the Department of Justice may be effected (TIME, Oct. 14). If and when such a plan becomes operative, Mr. Youngquist will be No. 1 U. S. Prohibitor, catching leggers with one hand, punishing them with the other.

Gustav Aaron Youngquist was born in Sweden* in 1885. Aged 2 he was brought to the U. S. by his parents. He studied in St. Paul, worked as a farmhand. By stenography he kept himself in St. Paul Law School until he was graduated in 1909. His first six months practice at Thief River Falls netted him only $110. He moved on and in 1914 grew a mustache to enter politics in Polk County. Married, four times a father, he served a fortnight as a captain in the Army Air Service during the War. He was appointed Minnesota’s acting Attorney-General in February 1928, was elected to the office last November. A tax expert as well as a Prohibition enforcement officer, Mr. Youngquist has appeared often and well before the U. S. Supreme Court.

Fully aware of his role as Dry Hope— the man President Hoover expects to pull Prohibition out of its manifold troubles— Mr. Youngquist stated that he had never taken a drink himself. He added: “I am a dry politically and personally, but I am not a fanatic on the subject.”

*In Sweden liquor is not prohibited but “administered” by the government. The plan, developed by Dr. Ivan Bratt, has decreased Swedish drunkenness 55%, added measurably to the government’s revenue