COST OF PROHIBITION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 870, 14 January 1930, Page 9

COST OF PROHIBITION

AMERICA’S DIFFICULTY IN KEEPING THE LAW AMENDMENTS PROJECTED United P.A. — By Telegraph—Copyright Reed. 9.5 a.m. WASHINGTON, Mon. The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee recommended the expenditure of nearly 35,000,000 dollars for prohibition enforcement in the next fiscal year. This is the same amount as was expended last year. Tile definitive report of the Law Enforcement Commission has been transmitted to Congress by the President, Mr. Hoover. The report emphasises in the preamble the difficulties of prohibition enforcement, and says: “It is impossible wholly to divide the observance of prohibition from the large question of the views and habits of the American people with respect to their private judgment as to statutes and regulations that affect their conduct. “One must, to reach conclusions of any value, go into deep questions of public opinion and criminal law. We must look into several factors, such as the attitude of people both generally and in particular localities, toward the laws in general, and specific regulations. We must note the attitude of the pioneer toward such things. “We must bear in mind the Puritans’ objections to administrative laws. We must not forget many historical examples of large-scale disregard of laws in our past.” MACHINERY INADEQUATE The report says no reliable figures are available to show the extent of the enforcement of prohibition. The arrest of more than 80,000 persons under the Prohibition Act in 1929 indicates "a staggering number of focal points of infection.” The report mentions the difficulties of protecting 3,700 miles of land border, the 300 miles frontage of the Great Lakes, and the 12,000 miles of sea border. The small Federal personnel is inadequate to cope with the huge problem. The commission suggests the transfer of prohibition enforcement from the Treasury to the Department of Justice, and suggests numerous steps for the codification of laws and methods of handling minor case 3, and other defects. The commission is opposed to the creation of new judges or courts to handle prohibition. The National Law Enforcement Commission, which was appointed by Mr. Hoover on May 21 iast, is strictly impartial on the question ot prohibition. The chairman is Mr. George W. Wickersham, who was AttorneyGeneral in Mr. Taft’s Cabinet, and one of the most distinguished lawyers in the United States. The other members include Mr. Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War under President Wilson; Professor Roscoe Pound, Dean of the Harvard law School; four judges, M.r. William Grubb, Mr. William Kenyon. Mr. Kenneth Mackintosh, and Mr. Paul McCormick; three practising lawyers, Mr. Frank Loesch, Mr. Monte Leman, and Mr. Henry Anderson; and one woman, Miss Ada Cornstock, who has been president of Badcliff College since 1923. In a preliminary report the Crime Commission set up by the President, Mr. Hoover, stated the Government’s law enforcement machinery unquestionably is inadequate. It says the pressure of the laws governing prohibition. thefts of motor-cars, the white slave traffic, immigration, etc., has over-taxed its capacity and effect. TOLL OF BAD LIQUOR APPALLING DEATH-RATE

Reed. noon. WASHINGTON, Mon. The Census Bureau statistics have revealed that approximately 3,000 persons died of acute alcoholism in ten years under national prohibition. The death-rate stood highest in Delaware, and the lowest in Utah. The mortality rate for the whole country in 1928 stood at four for every 100,000 of population.