Evening star., 1923-02-21
Varying Degrees Of Dry La,os
Enforcement Hazard Measure
Judges and Prosecuting Attorneys Haze
Widely Divergent Vie,Us on
Duties In Matter.

esting parallels. The total number
of convictions in all the districts in
the Empire state in the last eighteen
months involved 3.575 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 total of 765 cases sent
"bottleggers" to Jail whose aggregate
sentences were 1871 years and five
months.
Naturally there were fines i'm
posed in the cases where the jail
penalty was eliminated, but the gov
ernment prosecutors feel that a sys-
tenn OF continuous fines will not help
,aW enforcement, because the boot
leggers" can afford to pay the fines
easily. and since they go from state
to state it is hard to keen track of
their offenses. it being an understood
rule, of course, that first offender
gets off more lightly than the habit
ual laW-breaker
See Fine as License,
Prohibition officials call the impo-
sition of fines simply a licensine Q.
system, whereby the seller of Iiouor
merely charges off a certain amount
or hnes each year paid by his agents
as an inevitable expense of the busi-
ness itself.
Ihe total number of years of sem
tence imposed throughout the Ijnited
states in all federal districts in the
las 1ast eighteen months was 2,O45.
me fines collected were S5.2oO55S
But not all the prosecutions arc
conducted by the federal government
1T they were. prohibition enforce
men, nneht would be an admitted failure.
Inc champlons of prohibition say
80 -, reailzed from tho first that the
w"rus concurrent jurisdiction' writ
ten INTO the eighteenth amendment
"oulu mean enforcement by tho sevs
erai states side by side with the otf;-
eeTS or ne federal government.
prohibition Commissioner poy
Haynes tells me 1t never w.s no, looy
tsemplated that the burden of en-
1orcement would fall on the fadera1
government. Wayne Wheeler sa~s
tne same thing when he comedies tha I
since the eighteenth amendment VIC /.
adopted some of the statas u,hyas was
previously had been enforcing NO
hibition suddenly let down their en-,
g1es and passed the buck" to Cncle
Sam. ~ oiicie
Make States Responsible,
80 the effort of the moment is 10
make the states realize their resnon-
slbilitles. Organizations like the Anti
Saioon League are working night and
day 10 see to 1t that proper officers
are appointed and that the states
llSnlen up on their enforcement laws
Mr. Wheeler appears to be satisfied
win the record of all but seven or
eight states.
Meanwhile the states which are toe
ing the mark actually are relieving
the federal government of much work
It would otherwise be obliged to do.
me idea IS to make the cooperation
between tne FEDERAL and state officials
as effective as possible In MANY
Instances the federal investigators
nave worked up cases and turned
them over to state officials for pros
ecutlon in state courts. This has
helped to swell the funds received
from fines by the states and to make
the penal record of certain states
snow up ever so much better that
that of the federal prosecuting
agencies
The theory of Prohibition Commits
sioner Haynes is that it doesn't mat
ter who catches the violator of the
prohibition law so long as he is
caught.
Two States Bar Laws
Some states like Massachusetts and
Maryland have declined to pass en-
forcement laws of their own and re-
Guire the federal government to do
all the enforcing of prohibition. CO.
operation with the local police under
such circumstances is difficult if not
impossible. The entire federal force
in the prohibition unit including cler-
ical help is not more than $500 per-
sons Mess the states render dSSiS-
tance, indeed unless they do most of
the work. prohibition cannot be en-
forced without greater outlay by the
federal government and huge fed
eral army of detectives and prosecut-
ing attorneys.
Meanwhile what results can the
prohibitfonists show? The record of
punishment is easily ascertained
What is the record of prevention
Has drunkenness decreased and are
there fewer arrests for other crimes
When the European war ended and
America felt the effects of a crime
wave. the anti-prohibitionist attrib-
uted the wave to the restlessness of
the public over the absence of stimu-
liant. The prohibitionist answered
that crime waves always followed a
war and insisted that the criminal
record was too complex to be blamed
On one cause. So might the anti
prohibitionist today turn the argu-
ment around and declare that il
crime doesn't arise from a single
cause then it's improvement cannot be
credited to one reform. Bearing these
pro and con views in mind. however
the following figures furnished by the