Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1921-08-08
PRICE TWO CENTS
WASHINGTON
DAYBY DAY
From Our Special Correspondent

of the bureau Of Ordnance Of the
Navy Department to transfer gun
tests from Indian Head to Dahlg?en.
on the Virginia side of the Potomac.
This suggestion, emaanting from the
Navy Department is meeting with de-
termined opposition from the Mary
land delegation in Congress and es-
pecially from Sydney E. Mudd OF that
state who is member of the Naval
Affairs Committee of the House.
1t has been represented at hearings
before the Naval Affairs Committee
that the five hundred civilian en-
ployecs oppose the transfer TO Dahl
gren. They claim that they have pur
chased homes at Indian Head and
that if they were compelled to move
across the Potomac the expense en-
tailed would be greater than they
could bear to say nothing of the in
conveniences to which they would be
subjected.
Those who are fighting against the
proposed transfer of the testing plant
from Indian Head to Dahlgren claim
that at the latter place there is no
harbor and that Congress would bc
called upon to spend millions for
deepening the Potomac River at this
point in order that vessels might be
afforded an approach to it.
Vessels now anchor three miles
away and barges are towed to Dahl
green with the guns. Then will come
other estimates for housing projects
whereas the government has con-
structed two hundred homes at Indian
Head" is the argument made by the
advocates of the retention Of Indian
Head to the Navy Department au-
thorities.
REPRESENTATIVE Mudd who is lead
ing the fight against any change ad-
mits that it might be satisfactory to
test out the big l2-inch and lG-inch
guns, fired at high angles at Dahl
gren, as during the war, but II would
be foolish to take all gun testing
away from Indian Head, where it has
been conducted successfully for more
than twenty years.
Navy Department officials, in argu-
ing for change in the testing plants
claim that at Indian Head indivi-
duals are liable to injury as the re-
suit of the fire Of long range guns.
They say that the Virginia site
agreed upon for such purposes would
remove the possibility Of claims
against the government arising out
of gun tests now conducted at the
Maryland point.
In rebuttal of this argument the
Maryland delegation in Congress
claim that there has not been Il
fatality at Indian Head in thirty
years as the result Of gun tests and
armor plate experiments except
among the employees actually on
duty at the time.
The Navy Department, while favor
ing the transfer from Indian Head
to Dahlgren will not act upon the
matter until the Naval Affairs Com
mttee of the House has signified by
its vote that it prefers to create at
the Virginia location q gun testing
plant in preference to the one now
maintained by the government on
the Maryland side of tn Potomac.
One of the three principal sources
of supply for bootleg" whskey has
been closed more tightly than Il
drum under new rules for the sale Of
intoyicants announced by Commits
soner of Prohibition Haynes. Re
duction of the amount of whiskeE
available in the United States by s.
100000 gallons a year is estimated
by prohibition enforcement officials
10 result from the new regulations.
While approximately 2O,OOO,OOO
gallons of whiskey year are now
being withdrawn from bonded ware
houses. the new restrictions on the
sale of liquor are expected to reduce
this amount to 100000 gallons Il
year or less.
This source of supply, which has
proven a gold mine for the bootleg
gers in the past, has been the con-
slant drain and leak of whiskey
legally manufactured and held in
this country, but which, by devious
means, has been getting into the
hands Of those who sell for SO Il
quart or more to the thirsty con-
SumerS.
Since the advent of the prohib-
ton law, leaks of whisliey have been
serious. Wholesalers and retailers of
whiskey have suffered unaccountable
and mysterious robberies and dep!e-
tions in stock, the whiskey in ques-
ton always finding its way to the
bootleg market. Shipments Of liquor
have been waylaid, freight cars have
been robbed, all to the enhancement
of the supply of illegal booze, at
$40 quart OF more.
But there is to be no more of this
under the new rules. Commissioner
Haynes mas decided that there will
be only two kinds Of wholesalers in
the future. One will be the manu-
facturer and the other will be the
wholesale druggists. Not only must
the wholesale druggist be bona fide,
under the new regulations, but he
muss limit his whiskey business to
10 per cent. of his business in drugs.
He will not be permitted to use his