AN OUTSPOKEN PROHIBITIONIST

Hokitika Guardian, 5 November 1928, Page 4

AN OUTSPOKEN PROHIBITIONIST

AIAYOR OF PHILADELPHIA’S DIFFICULTY.

A layer Alaekay, according : to the Philadelphia “ Bulletin ” of April. 13, 1028, challenged President Coolidge, Congress and all Federal authorities of the District of Columbia to “ dry up ” Washington and make it an example of prohibition enforcement to tlie rest of the nation.

Mayor Alackay said: Why does nob the President and the Congress give the rest of the nation a real example in the enforcement of the dry laws if prohibitum is enforceable Al.v stand has been taken, and everybody knows what it is.’’ Air Alackay said: “I have given Director Davis bis instruction. From now on tbe entire matter of tbe police activity lies in tbe Department’s bands. Dealing with speakeasies and the people who patronise them, Alayor Alackay said this.—

“1 have always been a prohibitionist, and T want the policy of prohibition to triumph, and T. am anxious to enforce the law to the utmost. To make Philadelphia dry—something that cannot in fact jbe done”—be said “I am caught between tbe upper and lower layers in connection with prohibition. T mean tbe people who say in public that the speakeasies of this city should .be closed, and who are the people in private who patronise these speakeasies. “When I became Alayor of this city I was left with 13,000 speakeasies on my door step by the previous administration. I say, and I say emphatically, that to make this city dry it would be necessary to double the police force, double the number of judges, increase the District Attorney’s Office, and build and maintain additional prisons. Doubling the police force would cost over 7 million dollars in city costs. It is time,” concluded -(Mayor 'Aladkay, “that the public itself faced the facts Are citizens willing to pay higher taxation in an effort to enforce prohibition?”

Such is the state of affairs in tbe city of Philadelphia, where even the Alayor, himself a prohibitionist, is unable to cope with the evils, corruption and social degradation which prohibition has produced.