New-York tribune., 1919-05-30
Mayors Committee of 81,
Under Craftsmanship of
Il o d ma N Wanamaker.
Takes Up City's Menaces
Investigates Chemicals
Will Review Manufacture,
Sale and Distribution and
Treatment Of Addicts

The Mayors newly appointed welfars
Committee, with a personnel of sixty
four. under the chairmanship of Rod
man anamaker, was formally initiated
in City Hall yesterday afternoon. It's
functions were defined by the Mayor.
and q judicial investigation into the
source of supply and the distribution Of
drugs gas urged by Health Commits
soner Copeland ard District Attorney
Swami.
The Welfare Committee purposes to
attack the drug evil from every anglia
and to inquire into the manufacture,
sale and distribution of chemicals and
high explosives. Federal legislation
was strongly urged by the various
speakers. Chairman Wanamaker will
appoint an executive committee. and
the whole question will be taken up at
the next meeting of the Board Of Est-
mate.
The scope of the committees activ-
tiles includes exhaustive study of the
manufacture of drugs, their sale and
distribution, their use and the treat
ment and control of drug addicts. and
investigation and recommendation CON
cerning the manufacture Of dangerous
chemicals in the city.
Quick Action Urged
Mr.. Wanamakcr impressed upon ths
committee the Importance OF imme-
diate action. A clean sweep had to
be made of an evil that was killing
off youngsters from fifteen to twenty
one years Of age almost as fast as IL
they were being moved down by Cat
ling guns, he said 1t was necessary
to go after the traGickers in dr,<s in
the way that the law went after mur-
derers. thieves and others who COM
mitted outrages on society, waa his
opinion.
Health Commissioner COPELAND,
speaking of the menace of the drug
evil to the health and morals of the
city, declared that the Federal govern
ment should be encouraged to go for
ward with the campaign which it had
so nobly begun. To show that prol,i-
hition was going to have pronounced
effect on the situation. one Of the larg-
est manufacturing firms in the United
States had reported to him that its
sales Of ono drug alone to the whole
salers during the month of January
exceeded the entire sales for 1918, and
the demands in February were so far
IN excess Of the January demands that
the amount delivered to each whole
saier had to be limited in quantity.
Much of the mystery and chicanery
surrounding illicit traffiching in drugs
must be uncovered, he said. Somethin
bad to be done to drive the Illicit doc
tor and druggist into the pitiless lime
hight Of publicity. He strongly ad-
vlsed judicial investigation as the best
way to uncover the activities of the
men working underground.
Police Commissioner Enright. treating
the narcotic evil from its national as
pect, said that during the last ten years
there had been an annual importation
and consupmtion in America OF 400 900
pounds of opium, 81 per cent of which
was made into morphine. 1t was esti-
mated that 80 per cent Of this was used
by victims of the morphine habit. In
addition to the opium traffic, it was esti-
mated that 10000 ounces of cocaine
We're used jllicitly.
Says No Pedling Now
The Police Commissioner declared that
lhere was practically no pedllng of
narcotic drugs on the city streets now,
because of the activity of the police.
District Attorney Swami said that
to his mind the most significant point
was the control of the fountainhead Of
supply the manufacturer. He was
the man on whom the committee
should put check He strongly
urged judicial invest tigation into the
sources Of supply and the distribution
of drugs
District Attorney Harry Z. Lewis,
OF Brooklyn, declared that the question
vas pathological rather than
moral one There was no reason to
believe that drugs induced criminal
tendencies. What they did was TO
bring about physical disintegration
and weakening of resistance to
temptation of any kind One third of
the persons confined in the penal in
stitutions were there through drug ad-
diction, he said.
Other speakers were Miss Sophis
Irene Loeb, Miss Sara Graham Mulhall.
Mrs. Lillian Sire, Dr. E. Eliot Harris,
DR. John Winters Brannan and Justice