Evening star., 1922-12-17
PRIEST AND MAYOR
TILT ON DRY RAIDS
Maryland Pastor Denounces
Gun FIourishing and Bully
ing by Officers.
Il
BRANDED AS LAWLESS
BRANDED AS LAWLESS
City Executive Defends Officials
and Declares Law-Abiding Citi-
zens Are With Him.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

cPecIal Dispatch 10 Inc STAR.
CUMBERLAND, Md, December 16.-l
\. L. Broadwater, mayor of Barton.
and the Rev. \. Scarpati. pastor of St
t;abriers Catholic Church at that
place, disagree as to methods of
handling matters pertaining to the
enforcement of the prohibition amend
ment in their section. In an open let
ter Father Scarpati. who signs him
self as an American citizen and res
Years. says in part:
Duty Declared Exceeded.
1T is for some time that Allegany
county has been at the mercy of Il
posse of prohibition enforce ment Off
GERS who have been conducting thcm-
selves more like hunters of big game
in Africa. judging from the numer-
Gus featS of mlSnterpreted profess
sionl duty and privilege. 1t IS mat
Ter of public know ledge that 4 few IA
natical citizens are backing them up
with prestige, eucoura@ement and all
kinds of information of very ueplor-
able sncaky nature. II seems rs if
the discomforts and troubles brougha
upon good people provid them with
"a great source of delight and solace
and a certain pride of heroism well
concealed in disguise, but never
thinking that they themselves are,
after all. unQuestionably guilty of 4
Very wrong Interpretation of the law.
Says Innocent Have Suffered.
Innocent persons have been arrest
ed and released without cXplantion
and peaceful private residences have
been searched without any specific
warrant. In many cases entrance
has been enforced under the scare of
& most abusive display Of reviewers
and ut night against unarmed and
innocent people, without any consia-
Grafton for women ana children.
Homes have been ranSackod under
the influence OF Il very high rage
curSing, breaking up household ar
ticles, damaging furniture and throw
ing apparel on the floor While one
officer keeps the occupants OF the
premises under intimida ton, there
are four or five more agents going
wild around without any regard even
for a woman sick in bed.
Mayor Defends Officers.
Mayor Broadwater says in part i'll
discussing the criticism of enforce
ment officers:
with reference to the Indignation
expressed. you will find in nearly
every case the expression OF indigna-
tion comes from those closely altled
with the bootleggers and in full SYM
pathy with TIM. They have no re-
spect for the prohibition law and
would come out openly and condemn
and advocate open violation thereof
If it were not for the decent cltzenry
Of our county, who are in an over
whelming majority.
The federal prohibition oihcers
have warrant for their search IN all
cases; several exceptions may pc
noted where they have searched With
out warrants at the express INVITA-
ton of owner of some homes VINO
do not fear the results; this exception
is not a violation of the law.
Agsrieved Declared Complainants.
where. do the federal officers OBJ
tain 90 per cent of their information!
7 will answer that question and state
it comes from the wives and IilotneIs
have no conscientious Fcruples or
running. ~
Rarton and Frostburg are not CEN
suring the federal Officers put tham are
s,,ncess in cleaning up this nefarious
traffic which has ruined thousands