The New York herald., 1921-07-04
ANDERSON Is SATISFIED
Believes That Honest Effort
to Enforce the Law Is
Being Made.
PEOPLE TURN TO 'DRYs'
Deputy Police Commissioner
Leach Finds Increasing Ten
dency to Support Authority.

There still remain In New York city
1852 places suspected of being used
for the sale of liquor. OF these 2,S55
are saloons, 397 are hotels, 1873 are res
taurants, 22 are apartments and 225
are miscellaneous"
These figures may be accepted as
official, as they come from the Police
Department, which Is charged with
enforcing the State prohibition law
They were compiled at headquarters
from detailed reports made by precinct
and squad commanders and represent
the situation as OF June 15
Assuming the figures to be accurate,
they indicate that between April Z
when the police drive began, and June
is. period Of 50 days, the number
of saloons closed was 1867, or an av-
erage of nearly 20 a day. Commits
| sioner Enright in April, estimated
that the city had 1929 saloons in op-
Grafton when the new law went into
effect. On April 22 he said that 700
OF these had closed
The police. according to their own fig-
ures, are at the present time making
hfty-eight arrests a day for alleged vio-
lations of the law That is the average
Tor seventeen days ending June 20. In
the perfervid days Of April they were
making exactly twice as many. The
average for the first fifteen days Of en-
! forcement was 116.
Keep Police on Their Toes.
The police explana ton of the dimiru-
ton OF arrests is that 1t was to be ex-
pected. as the greater part Of the har-
vest was garnered when the greater pa TT
was ripe, l. e., during the first days Of
the massed police attack on LIQUOR deal
ers, who sold without care because Fed
eral enforcement of prohibition had
seemed to them nothing to worry about.
Nevertheless. to slackening on the
part OF some members of the force and
to the existence of such conditions as
those recently exposed last week in
Greenwich Village, where ten patrolmen
were charged with neglect of duty be-
cause of complaints that liquor was be-
ing sold on their posts, may be attribut-
ed the drastic order sent broadcast
through the department last week by
that five complaints Of violation Of the
law in his precinct will subject cap
tain to charges Of neglect of duty and
one complaint will so affect a subordi-
nate. In the department Il Is regarded
as cinS that the Commissioner would
not have threatened such severity if all
had been going we'll with the police IN
relation to the suppression of booze.
Yet Magistrates who hear prohibition
cases and District Attorneys who prose-
cute the indicted say that as far as they
can see police enforcement. while not
perfect. Is pretty good. Even William
II. Anderson, State Superintendent of
the Anti-Saloon League, says so.. IL
anybody might be expected to have a
kick II Is Mr.. Anderson. But he said
when THE New YORK HERALD asked for
his impressions Nobody who knew any,
thing about the subject expected perfect
enforcement TO start with. Taken as a
whole prohibition is prohibiting better
than regulation regulated. We believe
that the Deputy Police Commissioner
charged with that task and the District
Attorneys office are making an honest
effort at honest. efficient enforcement of
the law"
"Tnvssions" of Private Homes.
II was true Mr.. Anderson said, that
the Anti-Saloon League has received re-
peated complaints of violations. but. ne
added. I'VE know of no instance where
complaints made by our legal depar
have not been conscientiously attended
TO. and we do know of arrests in many
cases. There have been arrests in many
cases that were not warranted by law
We do not pretend to know whether
the cases of search OF private homes
without warrant are due to honest but
mistaken zeal or a desire to bring the
law into derepute. but We believe that
the presumption Is In favor OF the police
There are undoubted cases where guilty
saloonkecpers have hurried liquor from
their place OF business into their place
of residence. and when the police have
followed there has been a howl about
invasion OF private homes" when the
liquor was known by the police TO have
been improperly In place where II was
kept for unlawful sale"
After crediting Deputy Police Com
missioner Leach and the District Attor-
ney's office with an honest attempt at
enforcement. Mr.. Anderson said, "As to
whether some of the politicians higher
up believe that enforcement will uIti-
mately help them politically and ulti-
mately weaken the law. we have no
opinion to express at this time.
There has never been perfect en-
forcement at hrst in any city. no mat
ter how small. In due time the situa-
ton developed until the prohibition law
was as we'll enforced as any other law.
and when that became true every other
law was enforced and observed better
than during the liquor days. This Will
be true in New York II there Is reason
able patience and a reasonably fair test
OF the policy. There never was any hot
ter enforcement of regulation under the
old excise law than there has been thus
far under the new State prohibition en-
forcement law"
Since April every patrolman has
been held responsible. theoretically ct
least. for any dispensing OF intoxicants
on his post This Is in keeping with
Gov. Miller's remark made when he
signed the prohibition bills. IT know"
he said. that every policeman will know
where liquor Is being Illegally sold on his
beat. The head of the Police Depart
ment who wants 70 enforce this law. !
know, can do It." Thereafter Commits
sloner Enright told the public: Il mean
business; the ginmill keepers are on
their last legs"
Magistrates Courts Crowded.
Judging from the departments own
diminishing hut still formidable list of
suspected places. some of the last legs
appear to have been fairly servicea bile