The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-03-02

of Vir~
gnia contained In bills pending In both houses of the
general assembly, are in serious danger.
Unless these amendments passed and proper provt
sion made Tor the maintenance of the department prob
t1on there Is possibility of completely successful enforce
ment Of the law to which the people of Virginia firmly and
The danger grows the fact that the measure with
undoubtedly friendly maores in both houses has not vet
been passed by either though after today only six Legislative
days remain OF the session The utmost parliamentary
skill and the most completely united action part of the
friends OF prohibition will be necessary order to et thu bin
through both houses before adjournment
In the senate the Mapp bill amending the present Mapp
law on the calendar special order with at least bi
yet TO be disposed OF before be reached Should the
senate act favoraby the today it would get
to the house Monday be referred to and then after
report take its place the calendar at the bottom of list
already too long Only the most vgan efforts
will keep the bill from perishng the calendar of the
which Is exactly what its opponents hope to see.
MAIN POINTS OF THE PROPOSED NEW Law
Three principal points covered in the proposed
l. 1t provides penalty for illicit distilling and
makes it possible to handle such cases in the state
courts. remedyng an omission in the present law.
z. It enables the commissioner of prohibition to
dispose OF the liquors seized in raids for the benefit
the state the alcohol being thus rendered available for
hospital and industrial purposes through rehabilitation
8. It makes adequate provision FOR a force sufH-
GENTLY large to guard the almost innumerabe
through which liquor continually brought into
the state in large quantities In spite Of the utmost
vigilance and industry of the very limited force
at the disposal of the commissioner
AT present. where moonshine operator is captured hs
must be federal authorities for
Ition; and the evidence against him nst ba hrough h IT,
Virginia officers into the federal Frequently the Off
GERS obliged make long trips be present at trials
Under the law offenders would be prosecuted through
the circuit courts Just other of equally nature
During Ole first year of the enforcement of the Mapp law
whskey valued at 100000 containing alcohol certainly worth
able method of disposing of contraband cases
Enormous stocks of captured liquor await final dispos
ton The new law will the state whatever value the
ho which this liquor contains have for industrial other
useful purposes
Most important of all is the necessity for providing soma
effective means of stopping the streams of liquor which
into the state from where the traffic is carried on with
out hndrance mere enumeration Of the principal along
which conraband whske brought into the state appalling
Here they
Fourteen Main Streams of Illicit Liquor
The n Y p and n. Railroad reaching the Eastern Shore
Officers from the prohibition department fail to effect
captures of whskey when they have opportunity raids
on this line.
?. The highway paralehng the above railroad along
which automobiles freely with their cargoes contra
band
3. Boats out of Baltimore which enter the little rivers
and creeks of the Northern Neck.
4. Steamship lines from New York Philadelphia Boston
and Baltimore, entering Hampton Roads Not day passes
but of these vessels enters port with cargo
thousands of pint bottles of liquor Without and
extensive patrol OF the port is physically impossible cap
ture all the liquor thus brought into the state.
o. Small schoonSs, motor boats and other light craft
entering Hampton Roads
g. Baltimore boats via York river and Yves Point, thence
by rail to Richmond A
Z The Richmond fredericksburg and Potomac rai1raa1