Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-02-24
Effort of Moment Is to In
duce States to Aid Federal
Authorities in Running
Down Vi0Iat0rS
BY DAVID LAWRENCE
Geased Wire Service to The Journal.)
DOWNRIGHT 1921

| WASHINGTON, FEB. Z1.-Inere
| a federal judge in the United States
who fined "bootlegger" cents and
turned around and loaned him the D
cents with which to pay the fine.
There's another federal judge who
| imposed the maximum sentence on
a "bootIegger" and, turning from
the courtroom to his private cham
| Der, took a large drink of whisky.
There are dozens of United States
attorneys who do not like prohibit
ton and whose appointment to Of
flee was in every case strongly OPP
posed by the Anti-Saloon league,
| but these same men are prosecuting
''bootleggers" and securing convic'
tons right and left and the depart,
ment of justice is thoroughly salts
| fed with their work.
Such are the extremes which one
finds in examining the human eQua-
| ton in law enforcement. Each has
his own conception of what COM
prises duty and fidelity to an oath
of Office. These conceptions are in
many cases being changed from day
to day. Boring slowly from within
| by every process of persuasion
known to alert crusaders, these
ti-Saloon league people on the
one hand and government prosecu-
tors on the other are making head
way in the campaign to make public
officials respect the law themselves.
Many Cases Pending
The record may or may not seem
imposing according as individual
opinions differ on the number of
violations of the law being practiced
from coast to coast. But the depart
ment of justice is authority for the
information that out of the eighty
eight judicial districts in the entire
United States, with reports recently
received from all but three districts
where the district attorneys have
been i'll, the total number of cases
pending is p $50.
Now the number of defendants
in each case varies. Their care as
rule at least two and sometimes as
high as ten especially in raids. The
number of cases won by the govern
ment in the last eighteen months
amounted to 27,301. Here, too. the
defendants in each case might be
as many as five or six, and usually
not less than two. Statistics have
not been kept as to individuals, bat
from the foregoing it may be in
ferred that approximately $4,000
persons and doubtless many more
have been convicted in a year and
a half for participation in the liquor
traffic.
These figures do not include the
thousands of soft drink. parlors
which have been closed by injunc-
ton. The injunction process, by
the way, is an effective weapon, for
it doesn't require any trial by jury
for juries that will convict are not
always easy to find. The govern
ment suspects that liquor is sold in
soft-drink saloon, and gets an i'll
junction from the Federal court or
dering the proprietor to refrain from
selling any liquor. If the Volstead
law is violated it is not necessary in
that case to have the matter brought
before a jury. Anyone who violates
an injunction is in contempt of court
and can be sentenced Immediately
and put in Jail.
Looking over the figures for the
last eighteen months one finds that
who do not take law breakers Sc
riously. The state of Kentucky is
q good state in the sens etha, toffi
Gals here construe the term good"
for the records show that out of
800 cases a total of 100 years in
sentences were imposed. This should
be compared with the state of
Louisiana, where 400 cases were
tried and the aggregate sentences
were one month. In other words,
only one man went to jail out of
400 cases, and only for thirty days.
Massachusetts Indifferent
Massachusetts, was almost as in
different with 246 cases and sen.
fences amounting to two years and
three months. Michigan's 273 cases
yielded penalties of twelve years and
three months. Illinois had 1898 cases
with total of sixteen years and six
months. New Jersey, which has
nationwide reputation for Wetness,
had 40 cases, but one of the ener-
,yetic judges assisted somewhat and
the total of sentences amounted to
forty-five years.
New York and Ohio furnished in.
teresting parallels. The total num-
Der of convictions in all the districts
in the Empire state in the last eight
cen months involved 1915 cases, but
only fifteen years and six months
and twenty-fOur days is the total
record of Jail sentences. Ohio, on
the other hand, with a total OF 76a
cases, sent ''bottleggers" to jail
whose aggregate sentences were 197
years and five months.
Naturally, there were fines i'm
posed where the Jail penalty was
eliminated, but the government
prosecutors feel that a system of
continuous fines will not help law
enforcement, because the bootleg
gers can afford to pay the fines cas-.
lily and, since they go from state to
state, it is hard to keep track Of
their offenses, it being an understood
rule. of course, that a first offender
gets off more lightly than the ha'
bitual law breaker.
Prohibition officials call the impo
sit:on of fines simply a licensing sys'
tenn whereby the seller of liquor
merely charges off a certain amount
Of fines each year paid by his agents
as an inevitable expense of the bust
ness itself.
The total number Of years of SEN
tence imposed throughout the Unit
ed States in all federal districts in
the last eighteen months was 2,O45.
The fines collected were $500, 65S.
But not all the prosecutions are
conducted by the federal govern.
ment. If they were. prohibition en-
forcement would be an admitted fail.
ure. The champions of prohibition
say they realized from the first that
the words concurrent jurisdiction"
written into the eighteenth amend
ment would mean enforcement by
the several states side by side with
the officers of the federal govern
ment.
Inducing States to Aid
Prohibition Commissioner Roy
Haynes tells me it never was con-
templated that the burden of en-
forcement would fall on the federal