The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-13

That public sentiment in the Unit
ed States is IS per cent opposed to
prohibition, and that under these
circumstances it would take a fair
sized standing army to enforce it,
/ is the statement of one of the Of
ficiaIs who is charged with that on
erous duty.
| These men of the bureau Of in
ternal revenue feel like the prince
in the fairy tale who was handed
| a spoon with a hole in the bottom
of it by an old witch, and told that
he must dry up the ocean with this
| instrument as the price of his lib
erty.
Others, of course, say that a
much larger percentage of the pop
ulation really fayors prohibition,
and that the future will see a great
change. Everyone, however, ad-
mits that a great change is neces-
sary, and the men who are trying
to enforce the law are especially
convinced along that line. They
do not pretend to be enforcing the
law more than a few per cent.
There are enormous sources of
contraband liquor which they know
all about and have never attacked
because they have not the men.
They make no pretense of combat
ing the small retail bootlegger. He
is left to the local police, if they
care to bother him. The govern
ment goes after the big fellows, and
1t can only go after few of them.
The officials compare the prohi-
bition law to the anti-narcotic law
to show the difficulty of enforce
ment- Despite the fact that the
problem was infinitely smaller. the
number of offenders a mere frac- !
ton of those involved in bootleg |
g1ng, it was found impossible to |
enforce the anti-narcotic law until |
public continent for it had been
aroused by publicity.
Public Sentiment Rules.
The same branch OF the govern
ment-the bureau of Internal rev.
enue-is charged with the enforce
ment of the Harrison act and the
FoIstead law enforcement. This
Is beng patterned after the exper-
fence secured with drug laws for
many years past. But unless con-
gress and the people of the United
States are willing TO put up many i
millions OF dollars, it will be a long ,
day before this country really is
dry. /,
Except for the fact that drinking j
is far more common than addiction
10 drugs, the enforcement of the |
'olstead law would be easy in COM
1arlson with the drug law. Enough {
morphine or cocaine to kill {
dozen men can be hidden easily !
about mans or womans clothing |
the chance of attracting {
attention. The ordinary dose of j
either given by a physician to a I
is a quarter or half
ram, and hiding hundreds of five 7
rain tables is not difficult. 7
The necessity for keeping the l
ontraband IN as small bulk as pos S
loie, has resulted in practically all S
Il the bootleg business discarding S
eer and handling only whisky and a
IN. Every modern means of trans g
'ortation is brought into play iuin
moving the stuff into the country I
rom city to city. The price which t
ould be secured for a thousand b
auons of beer is not high enough a
tempt the bootleggers, but on a c
thousand gallons of whisky or b
rain alcohol they can make a Il
mall fortune. j,
The bureau of internal revenue h
aware of many avenues of en- q
rance for liquor from Canada !
ooze is now regularly brought b
Ito the country in airplanes. the {
oints of landing being many miles Ii
way from the border so as to aIIay s,
lspiclon. The extent of the rum 6;
INNING from the islands bordering "
lie South Atlantic coast is well 81
nown also, but the money pro- if
ided for enforcement of the law n,
as been too small thus far to A