San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-04-01
PENNSYLVANIA
. STATE POLICE. .
HAVE BIC JOB
Honor of Force at Stake
in Enforcing Pro-
hibition.
DRYING STATE UP
New Dry Law One Of Pin
chot's Campaign
Pledges. It
By DAVID FERNSLER.


Harrisburg, Pa, March S1.-"The
honor Of the force is at stake"
The reputation of the Pennsylvania
state police force is questioned. No
trsu has been too long or winding.
The flight of time in strange lands
did not make fugitiyes safe. The
force "gets its men," From states
half across the country it has picked
. apparently harmless farmhands and
brought them back TO die for MUIR
ders. A handful of its members hold
at bay striking mobs of a hundred.
Sight of a BLACK Cossack" as they
= once were hatefully called in alien
districts, made anarchists forget their
bombs and blackhanders their knives.
Yet after Is years Of this. the honor
of the force and whether it amounts
to much is questioned.
Enforce the prohibition law" is
the order of the new governor, Gift
ford Pincbot. Less than 400 men
must clean up one of the wettest
states in the Union or lose their place
beside the Canadian mounted. They
used to say Pennsylvania would
-neyer go dry" But it has-by law
and the state police say it will
= by enforcement.
"Cleau out the commercial stills.
Close the breweries that have turned
the calendar back To days when Vol
stead was even as you and 1. Get
the rum running trucks off the high
ways and keep them off,"
These are the orders.
Keeping Campaign Pledge.
Pennsylvania did not abolish sa-
looms when the Volstead era dawred.
1t licensed them at $500 TO 5000 a
year to sell near bear. The old swing
ing doors, the frosted glass, the long
mirrors, the mahogany and brass rails
remained. The brewers brewed. Now
and then the beer was poor. Word
was passed around occasionally that
q prohibition agent was near.
With three voteg to spare, the
House adopted a new enforcement
measure this week. The vets call
80 & bill for "saloon keepers relief"
The drys wonder il it has not opened
: the doors of the White House for q.
Pinchot. Many Of them are sincere
about il. The governor signed the
bill Immediately.
1t was a Pinchot campaign prom
ise that the saloons should be driven
from Pennsylvania. The saloon, it
was urged, could pay the high license
and make money from selling near
: beer alone. Legally the bill does this
since it abolishes licensed places.
y Anyone may sell near beer now.
Drying Pennsylvania Up.
The law may be bad, as some say.
1t may create many more places That
need watching. 1t may violats the
bill Of rights in provisions for stop
ping and searching automobiles with
or without a warrant. Making the
possession Of liquor prima facie evil
dence that the intoxicants were OBJ
tanned illegally may not be acceptable
to the supreme court. States taxes
may be raised since license revenue
are taken away. The expense Of
local government may increase because
every drugstore, ice cream parlor and
soft drink stand must be watched
from now on. But, while politicians
bubble and lawyers argue, the homer
of the force is at stake.
The "cossacks" are under orders to
|. drop everything else except bank rob
berries and murders. Rum runners,
bo0tleggers, moonshiners-not the
little fellows, but 500 of the big ones
already have discovered that some-
thing has happened. Brewers have
begun facing the unpleasant truth.
/ Owners of more than 100 trucks have
lost their conyeyances and cargoes.
High powered beer, whiskey from the
fleets of smugglers, moonshine from
great copper stills-so much Of it has
been seized, that it is difficult to get
good drink in Pennsylvania.
Getting Its Men.
Beset by keen-witted detectives IN
of the rum ring, who try to
trail them, opposed at trials by high
priced lawyers and expensive chemists
of national reputation, the force never
theless is getting its men aad send
ing them to Jail. Wet towns have
gone dry and more are on the way.
Scranton is dryer than in years. So
too is McKeesport, Duquesne, Ghes-
ter, Sharpsburg and many others.
THE honor of the force will be
vindicated," declares Major Lynn G..
Adams, superintendent. THE boot
logger is yellow. Unlike bank rob-
Der, he isn't good sport. We know
how to make beer and all illegal liquor
so expensive that there will be finan-
cial loss as well as the certainty of
Jail sentence for those who try TO
sell IT."