Evening star., 1923-02-24
Impartial Dry La,v Hard
To Enforce in Capital
Officials Make Sincere Effort to Conform
and Embassies Observe Euery Caution,
Yet BOotlegging Seems to Flourish.

eral months ago to abandon it, He
sensed possible embarrassments.
Watching Each Other.
First, the embassies and legations
watch each other carefully and there
is no telling when one of them would
be the means of telling about the
gift-giving of the other. Broadly
speaking, the giving of wines and
liquors to American officials by their
embassy friends Is not practiced for
any particular purpose. but there is
always the chance that the influence
of foreign governments might be ex-
erted through such indirect methods
on pending legislation or on acts of
departmental officials. Congress itself
has never taken official cogniZance of
this. but recently the House has pass
|, ed a resolution inquiring Of the De-
of liquor permitted to enter the
United States for use in embassies
and legations. Such information is
intended to develop whether a rea-
! sonable or unreasonable supply is be-
Ing imported.
Then there is the question of
whether the imported supply may be
used in an embassy for entertainment
purposes and for the ambassadors
own table or whether 1t can be de-
livered to the homes, fats and apart
ments of the dozens of lesser attaches
who are usually included in the privi-
leges of diplomatic immunity on the
theory that they and their effects are
a part OF the embassy household
Congress may some day seek TO re-
strict the meaning of diplomatic i'm
| munity in the United States, but the
chances are the Department Of State
Will voluntarily work out the problem
with the embassies and legations, SO
| there will be no need of publicity or
controversy in Congress.
| Washington itself is not a dry
city in the sense that western mu-
inequalities are. Being close to Mary
land, where there isn't even a state
enforcement act and where the gov
ernor is a wet" the opportunities
for the liquor traffic are almost the
same as in other eastern cities. Some
Of the biggest raids of the prohibition
era have been staged In the National
! Capital. Moonshine from the Vir-
ginia hills comes in regularly. More
deceptions are practiced here, perhaps,
than elsewhere.
Use Embassy Bottles.
| "Bootleggers'' who have gathered
up empty bottles used by the en-
bassies boldly proclaim that they are
selling embassy liquor or else they
pretend they have imported their
goods through embassy influence.
! Recent investigation of dozens Of
samples bought from "bootleggers" in
the District of Columbia revealed the
4 usual amount OI anu
poisoned substances. So far as the
non official class is concerned, 1t IS
as much the victim of the bootleg
GER trade as the population of an
other city on the Atlantic seaboard,
though the police here are more ac-
tive in pursuing "bootleggers' than
| is the case in other cities.
! AS for the official class, the prohi-
ibition organizations are trying by
every subtle means in their power to
persuade those higher up to set an
example and practice self-restraint,
SO that the cry of hypocrisy raised
outside of Washington shall not I'M
pede the development of public SEN
timent throughout the nation.
| There are, of course, those who be-
lieve that as the National Capital
tightens UP and liquor gets scarcer
and scarcer the ruling class will be
more appreciative of the demands of
the populace for a light beverage for
table use. Whatever be the result
of law enforcement or obedience TO
the law on the part of those who
make and administer the laws OF
America, the big development Of the
hour is that officials, high and low,
are waking up to the fact that the
| eyes of the nation are turned on them
| and that the gossip of the past ac-
cuses them of failing to practice
what they preach. Under such cir
cumstances the inevitable tendency
! is to drink less conspicuously or not
| at all, and the absence of good liquor
is making the latter a matter of ne
cessity rather than choice.
Copyright, 1923,