Evening star., 1923-02-25
HOLDS DRY Law TOO COSTLY.

Quoting official statistics from the
Department Of Justice which show
that 81 per cent of the time of the,
United States district attorneys
throughout the country Is taken up
with prohibition enforcement and
that the cost of the Department of
Justice has increased 80 per cent dur
ing prohibition days, Representative
Gallivan of Massachusetts. democrat,
sought to prove that enforcement of
the amendment was practically i'm
possible
Referring to an article in The
Evening Star by David Lawrence
which quoted President Harding as
saying that in his opinion It would
be a matter of twenty-five years be-
fore the prohibition law would be
FULLY enforced, Representative CALI
van calculated that the cost would
be 620,756, 996, 600, 900 or more money
Scouts DisloynIty Charge.
He protested that it was not dis
loyal to the government, but true love
for the government which prompts
an effort to have the volstead law re-
peaied, saying:
The man who says it Is disloyal
and lawless to agitate for the repeal
of the Volstead law. or even Of the
eighteenth amendment, does. not be-
long to the tribe of Abraham Lincoln,
or that Of Thomas Jefferson. He be-
long to the tribe of Abroham Lincoln
whose tomb has just been opened at
Luxor after 5000 years.
Representative Galivan said that
one of the greatest curses OF prohibit
ton is that it is breeding defiance of
the laws.
1T will appear to any man who
interests himself that the more ma
chtnery we create to suppress crime
the greater the increase Of crime or
what in recent years we have been
, taught to call cvrime," and Represent
ative Gallavan. You all know that
| under some of our laws today the
American citizen, honored, respected
industrious and patriotic, Is called q
criminal at home, yet that same man
may cross our international border or
sail across teh seas In any direction
coined as a most desirable citizen or
visitor. -
1--WE were told that prohibition. for
( instance, would reduce crime to a
minimum in this country; that the
law would enforce itself and paw ffs
way. Aye. we were told in this
chamber that 1T would put millions
into the Treasury of the United States
And yet we have had to appropriate
in the last few years more than s9. .O00. :
| 600 annually to support the prohibi-
tion enforcement unit.
Huge Enforcement Bill.
You know 1t. but want YOU to
know something else, and that is that
| our committee has learned in the
| hearings on this BILL that oue-third OF
all the money that you appropriate
for the Department Of Justice, which
! for the next fiscal year is approxt-
mateIy $1S.5S6. $50. must be spent by
| that department in the prosecution
| of offenders against the alleged
wholeson3s ~ Volstead act.
Mark my words, we will be COM
| PEELED to increase the burden of tax
; alton now on the shoulders Of our
people or else we must practice great
err economy in other departments OF
| the government to enable this one ab-
| normal law to function: and, as I
have said more than once In this
chamber. I cannot be persuaded that
[ 1t will ever function while the Amer
ican people hold to their old prfnct :
| pies which they learned from the
| fathers Of this republic and to which
they have held for . century aud q