Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-13
HARDING To MEET
GOVERNORS AFTER
END Of VACATION
BY DAVID LAWRENCE
Ueased Wire Service to The Journal.)
Copyright, 1929

PALM BEACH, Fla, March TO-
One of the first acts of President
Harding after his vacation will be
to meet the governors of all the
states in conference at the national
capital to discuss the enforcement of
the prohibition laws
The president feels that it is his
duty to make clear to the state eX-
ecutives that the language of the
eighteenth amendment, which places
ON the federal government and the
several state concurrent jurisdic-
ton" means joint responsibility. The
states have the police force and the
federal government has additional
machinery, but the latter is virtually
powerless without the hearty coop
Grafton of the states.
Florida is one Of the states which
isn't as dry as the federal prohibit
ton officers would like to have it,
and while President Harding isn't
down here on any inspection trip, he
cannot escape noticing some OF the
many newspaper items which have
been appearing lately concerning pro
hibition violations. For instance. the
Palm Beach Daily Post, in its leading
editorial, has this to say today;
Naturally there has been good
deal of comment in Florida newspa-
pers on the indictment at Tampa by
a federal grand jury of three resi-
dents of West Palm Beach on
charges of conspiracy to violate the
national liquor law, and some of the
comment is unfairly critical. The
Orlando Reporter Star says, for ex-
ample, that the open and notorious
conditions of the liquor business at
Miami and Palm Beach are known
all over the United States.
Open Violations
1--WE have heard something of
liquor law violations in New York
city and Chicago, and in New Or
leans and San Francisco, indeed even
in Orlando, and that being the case
it is not improbable that there have
been reports of violations on the low
err east coast. It is even probable
that there are violations of the law
here; in view of the proximity or
the coast to the West Indies, where
the sale of liquor is lawful and where
there are. men in business to supply
the demand, it would not be sur
prising that liquor got into Palm
Beach and Miami, since it gets into
so many interior points less exposed.
THE federal liquor law is exactly
that-a federal law, and if there are
violations Of it, it must be because
the federal law enforcement officers
are derclict. To expect state ana
county authorities to deal with IN
fractions of the law by residents, ana
to protect the hundreds of thousands
of visitors from the crooks who fol-
low IN their trail, and assume also
the whole responsibility of enforce
ment of the federal law, is not talr
expectation. AS it works out IN
practice Sheriffs on the lower east
coast do good deal of work that
should be done by the federal Off
GERS, and the credit for their work IS
taken by the Sinking federal Off
GERS. A larger part of the time of
the federal enforcement officers de-
voted to their own business and not
to prosecution of county officials
would relieve Palm Beach and Miami
of some of the reproach put on
them
Experience of All States
The foregoing tells the story rot
onlv of Florida, but of the experience
of the federal authorities with the
local officials of other states. Mr..
Harding isn't making any visits to
the hotels along the coast, nor is he
inquiring into the pro and con of
prohibition in the winter colony, but
as he drifts along in his house boat
for miles and miles he cannot help
wondering how the long coast line,
with it's many inlets and keys, can
ever be thoroughly protected against
the incursions not only of small craft
from the Bahamas, but airplanes,
too, from Cuba, Nassau and other
islands flying a foreign flag.
What happens inside Florida after
the liquor arrives is a joint federal
and state problem, but this state has
no adequate navy or marine person
mel to stop rum-running which flour
| ishes in these placid waters ever SO
| much more than in the storm tossed
three-mile limits of New York and
! New Jersey.