Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1925-12-03
COOLIDGE DOES AS
ANTI-LEAGUE ASKS
Repudiates Impression Small Viola
tor Goes Unpunished---LittIe as
Bad as Big Man.

Washington, Nov. 21.---President
Coolidge has done what the Anti
Saloon League wanted him to do,
namely, publicly repudiate the i'm
preston given by the statements of
United States Attorney Buckner Of
the southern district of New York
state, who indicated that trivial vio-
lations of the Volstead law would
not be prosecuted.
"It's case in which everybody
is in accord, including Mr.. Buckner
as to what the facts are, but the
disagreement arises in trying to dis
cuss prohibition publicly. When Mr..
Buckner points out for example that
ary if the man who happens to be
caught carrying flask is to be pros
ecuted, the authorities at the nation
al capital do not disagree that the
present federal court machinery is
inadequate and that more important
cases are thus blocked or delayed.
ONE AS BAD AS OTHER
Yet as Wayne B. Wheeler, counsel
for the Anti-Saloon League, pointed
out to Mr.. Coolidge, enforcement is
enforcement, and nothing else. The
small offenders are just as much
lo+ hn l,a hoa
leggers. Mr.. Wheeler was afraid that
Mr.. Buckner's ideas would be under
stood as condoning violations, in fact
stimulating it, That's why he thought
it important enough to carry the mat
ter to the White House at once.
He told the President that every
thing that Mr.. Buckner might say
about the crowded conditions of the
courts and. the failure of New York
State to pass an enforcement act of
it's own similar to other states SO as
to take care Of trivial offenses might
still be true but it would be tactless
thing to tell the public about it.
AWKWARD PROBLEM 4
New York State presents an awk-
ward problem for the federal auth
critics anyhow. The department of
justice wants to do all it can to en-
force the law. rigidly and yet the
Anti-Sa[oon League wants even more
than that done for the simple rea-
son that the league feels public de-
nunciaton of law violation is almost
as important as actual prosecution. F.,
If the Anti-Saloon League had its
way, the army and navy would be
used to clean up law violations. The
department of justice and President
Coolidge are not ready to take such
drastic view of the situation, tho
it is frankly admitted in private that
the federal machinery is not big e.
nough to squelch bootlegglng and the
petty violations too. Mr.. Coolidge is
taking the position that it never was
contemplated even by the most ard
ent advocates of prohibition that the
federal government should do the
whole Job, and that the Eighteenth
Amendment with it's famous phrase
ology about concurrent jurisdiction
was intended to make the task one
of absolute cooperation between the
federal authorities and the several
states. But even in some stats where
laws to supplement federal statutes
have been passed the disposition is
to "pass the buck" to the federal
government.
Meanwhile the critics of the Vol
stead act are deriving considerable
comfort out of the federal govern
ment's embarrassment, for if Uni
ted States attorney in city like
New York confesses what has been
known to be federal policy, namely
to sidetrack the petty cases, then 1t
is sign of weakness. The Anti-Sa-
loon League doesn't like to see fed
eral officer like Mr.. Buckner, on the
other hand, advertise a weakness.
He must threaten to punish every
body not merely for buying drink
but for carrying flask or other con-
tainer---the hope being that such
public threats will scare the public
generally into greater obedience to
the law. It's difference of method
which is under debate, and not a
dispute as to whether small viola
tion of the law is right or wrong.
All vioations are held to be wrong.