The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-23
MELLON T|GHTENS UP ON BRE WE R|ES
Considers Placing Of Dry Agent In Every Cereal Drink
 Making Establishment
By RAYMOND CHAPTER Leased Wire to The Age-Herald


 WASHINGTON. Oct. 22.-The drive of the drys is bearing fruit. With out admitting the charge of Governor Pinchot and other drys that federal enforcement has sprung so many leaks that 1t is about to founder, the administration is quietly inaugu- rating campaign in determined effort to make showing before the drys break into open revolt.
 President Coolidge and all of his advisers realize that the whole future is at stake, that unless they bring a speedy end to the situation which President Harding, just before he died, described as national scan dal, the dry forces will cast abou, for another bandwagon to climb on. Dry Agents For Breweries.
 Accordingly, Secretary of the Treasury Mellon announced Monday that he is considering;
 l. Placing a prohibition agent in every brewery n the country to stop the leakage of high powered beer from establishments which now operate under license to produce cereal beverages of less than one half of one per cent alcoholic con tent These breweries are required by law to extract the alcohol from their brew, but it has been found that some beer gets out with it's original kick.
 2. Asking Congress for s2,0OO,OoO or s3000,O0O to enlarge the coast guard so that rum runners bringing in hard liquor can be caught At torney General Daugherty recently held that the navy could not be used for this purpose, so Mellon feels that if the rum smugglers are to be suppressed, the coast guard will have to be given more cutters and agents.
 Prohibition Commissioner Haynes has already announced drive on makers of home brew ingredients. Thus the third major source of in- toxicants is reached.
 Accused Of HamstrinsiDg.
 Coincident with this activity, drys began to use names in their fight to clean up the enforcement serVlce'
 Secretary of the Treasury Mellon and Internal Revenue Commissioner Blair were definitely accused of ham stringing Prohibition Commissioner Haynes in a statement issued by the board of temperance of the Meth odist Episcopal church. This brings into the open a fight which has been carried on hitherto without mention- ing names.
  the prohibition commissioner should be taken out of the treasury depart ment and placed directly under the President it was understood he was hitting at Mellon and Blair
 The Methodists also named Assist ant Prohibition Commissioner Jones and asserted that he, working in col laboration with Blair, appeared to be running the prohibition unit. Haynes was highly praised.
 He is a sincere prohibitionist and if permitted could do the country service" the board stated lie IS not being permitted The flaws in prohibition enforcement are not in definite or intangible. Here are the things that are the matter:
 secretary of the Treasury Mellon, Commissioner of Internal Revenue Blair Assistant Commissioner of Prohibition Jones, plus a large num- Der of appointees named solely with regard to pleasing political leaders. .Not Fitted For Job"
 "Mr. Mellon. however, fit as Secre- tary of the Treasury, he may oe' should not have the responsibility for prohibition enforcement. Neither by conviction nor inclination is he fitted for that responsibility.
 "Commi ssioner of Internal Revenue Blair knows politics, but prohibition enforcement is not the sphere of politics. and particularly of petty politics.
 Assistant Commissioner of PrGhi- bition Jones has seemingly been run ming the prohibition for some time If Mir Haynes at present has any in fluence with MT. Jones or with eer- tian others in the prohibition unit, it is not at the present time perceptl- ble to the naked eye. Seemingly Jones and the Blair group are run ming things for themselves, absolute ly ignoring Haynes and reporting only to Blair"