The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-12-06
CRISIS HERE
|. IN DRY LAW
ENFORCEMENT
To Cost Nine Million
For Five Years
(Rv Associated Pressl

WASHINGTON, Decs 6-The crisis
in the Federal prohibition enforce
ment fight has been reached, in the
opinion of Commissioner Haynes, it
was disclosed today in reports of re-
cent hearings before house appropri-
ations subcommittee
In asking $9,0O0,000 for the next fis.
cal year for his department, Mr..
Haynes told the committee that if a
similar amount was allowed for pro-
hibition enforcement continuously for
five or six y~lrs, a reduction then
ought to be possible, but that the criti-
cal period for enforcement was now at
hand
Mr. Haynes said there were $500
men employed in the work of prohibit
ton enforcement. Because the appro-
priation asked for next year repre-
sents a reduction of $250,000 from
this years outlay, he said there would
be a slight reduction in his forces.
but he hoped to re-arrange the organi-
zation so as to not appreciably lessen
its efficiency.
Courts Sympathetic.
The prohibition commissioner told
the committee that he was gratified
with the present functioning of his en-
forcement machinery, and that the de-
partment was securing fine cooper
alton" from states and counties in the
main Courts were becoming more
sympathetic'' he asserted and Jail serv-
ices and fines were becoming heavier.
There is a general disposition to
tighten up he added. In the fiscal
year ended June 80, 1922, the prohibit
ton commissioner said there were 20,-
483 convictions in federal courts for
violations of the prohibition law. Ac-
quittals numbered 4,625, cases dropped
3,217 and civil cases disposed of 544
At the end of the year he said 1870
cases were pending in federal courts,
bringing the total of cases handled to
44,879. These figures he said did not
include cases in state courts. Fines in
federal courts which were deposited
in the treasury, he placed at $2,791 900.
In many cases proceedings toward for
feiture of bonds and other assessments
were pending.
Evidence Bought
Mr.. HAYNES asked for $3.50, 900 for
buying evidence and told the com
mittee $139,000 had been spent that
way during the last year.
The prohibition commissioner under
went long examination at the hands
tof Representative, GallivaT, Democrat
Massachusetts, who inquired particu-
larly about the method of ghandling
| the departments publicity. Mr.. CALI.
van referred among other things to
what he termed the wildly extrava-
CANT statements he said emanated
from the bureau, one of which, he
said, credited Mr. Haynes with having
asserted that 20,000,000 Americans
had gone on the water wagon" since
the enactment of the Volstead law.
Mr.. Haynes denied knowledge of the
statement.
i Mr.. Haynes told the committee
there had been a splendid reaction by
the public toward his departments
work, and Immediately clashed with
Mr.. Gallivan over the results of the
election of Nov T. the Massachusetts
representative citing the voting down
| in his state of an enforcement meas
ure and the commissioner asserting
/ that prohibition had won where ''con
ditions were normal"
| Replies to Gallivan
In reply to Mr.. Gallivan, Mr.. Haynes
| admitted increased arrests under the
narcotic law during the last fisca
year, but attributed it to the ''in
creased efficiency" of the narcotic di
vision and not to the prohibition laws
Representative Magee, Republican
of New York, asked if the commits
sioner t'did not realize there is wide
/ spread disrespect, defiance and viola
tions of the laws"
"That is true of all law" replied Mr.
Haynes, adding that a subcommittee
of the American Bar association hat
made a statement that disrespect TO
1 all laws was at maximum as a nat
ural sequence of the war. Mr.. Mage'
said there was no such condition {
| few years ago and Mr.. Gallivan in
sisted that the prohibition law hat
caused disrespect fer all laws"