Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-06-15
PROHIBITION is A FlCTlON:
THE UNITED STATES Is WET
And Until We Stop Pretending That II
Is Dry voIsteadisn VIII Be
Merely a Sordid Farce

i
official quarters or the passionate and
incurahle credullty Of dry advocates in
I others is doing most TO give 70 Nolsteadism
the aspect of national catastrophe. The
looming fact OF the hour IS that the dry
. laws are not honestly or efficiently enforced
over any considerable area anywhere in the
/ United States. Yet this is n fact which the
stcrncr advocates of the stcrner theory Of
! prohibition hate or fear 10 recognize.
II seems sometimes that dry extremists
prefer the fiction of prohibition to the truth
! of situation charged with a hundred
varieties of social danger. Mayor Moore.
Mr. Lasler. Of the shipping Board, and
| the Law Enforcement League Of Philadcl-
! pha appear simultaneously in the current
news TO suggest again the appalling nature
| Of the moral and political confusion that has
followed the attempt to lcgislatc all intoxi-
| Cants out of existence at ono fell stroke.
| The Law Enforcement League is. of
course. 10 he arpaudcd for tho manner in
| which ii has attempted to define principle
! and elevate it above all considerations of
personal belief or prejudice. But when it
| seems to believe that It has accomplished
| something of Importance by putting the
names of "a hundred booteggers" into the
hands Of Mayor Moore. the League seems
almost naive and wholly unaware of the
magnitude of the problem it has attacked,
You could take a hundred bootleggers
from the army operating in this territory
and they would never be missed. And,
moreover the casual raids, of which we hear
so much. mean nothing-or worse. Many
of them have the appearance of being care
fully stage. managed to impress and satisfy
d!sgusted public.
| Somewhere in the background Of this and
other cities a system Of understanding ex.
fists actually to encourage the traffic in
Illicit whisky. and It may be said that the
! output Of secret stills now is almost equal
| to the former output Of legalized distil-
| lories. Mayor Moore declares that lie has
the names of ''some of the big booteggers.
These names should not be kept secret for
even an hour.
What is the truth about the part that
whisky has come to play in State politics?
| Why is It necessary TO maintain official
| reticencc and mystery about this most
om!nous development Of the volstead ex.
| pertinent?
The roots of the problem which orga niza-
tons like the Law Enforcement League are
attempting to solve with surface remedies
reach so deeply into the political and social
| life of the country and lie so close TO the
hearts and nerve centers Of influential social
and political groups that people who have
a sincere desire to see the Volstead law en-
forced shrink from attacking liquor lawless-
ness at its source.
If the Law Enforcement League IS not
content with a hopeless fight It vii! have
go beyond the corner bootleggers. It will
have 70 go beyond minor politicians who
now engage in the whisky business. 1t will
have TO go beyond the keepers Of speak
easies and the occasional foreigner" who
s caught working a still.
The League will have TO GO 10 Congress
and demand either such modification of the
Nolstead act as will make prohibition gen =
orally acceptable or the appropriation of
enough money to make the enforcement sys-
tenn something more than a squalid farce
and a disgrace to the country.
IT will have to admit that for the first time
in all It's history the Federal Government
is unable 10 enforce its Owr laws. And it
will have to admit either that the Volstead
law IL utterly wrong In method or that
overnight. For it is plain that the present
dry law cannot be maintained as Federal
laws always have been maintained by the
voluntary cooperation of the people them
selves
We now have a choice, therefore. between
hypocrttca! pretcnse and Increasing dis
order or system of relentless repression
which, while it might be enormously costly
and wholly un- American, would be prefer.
able to a reign of anarchy in which at leas
80 per cent Of the people and their politica
} representatives are involved
This Is not dry country 10 say tina
It isn't wet You must be either hypocritca
or woefully ingenious. The whisky busines
has not been seriously checked. 1t ha
merely passed from the hands of private an,
licensed interests to the hands of criminal
, and profteers. In some parts of the countr
: it has become a monopoly under the drec
ton of underworld politicians.
, The most conspicuous and tragic result O
an attempt at headlong prohibition Is a
unprecedented extension Of the dry rot O
bribery, corruption and graft in the politica
life of the United States. We can main
tain pleasant fiction and permit the mora
, dlslntegration to continue. 1t would b
} better to face the truth and look for a wa
out of an intolerable mess.
Mr.. Lasker, of the Shipping Board, face
fin his own way. 1t may be said that h