Evening star., 1926-04-21
OHIO PROSECUTOR
DECLARESDRYLAW
REDUCES CRIMES
A. E. Bernstein, Federal At
torney, Urges Against
Modification.
NEW YORK UNION MAN
OPPOSES MlLDER ACT
Drys Ask Additional Time to Make
Up for That Used by
Reed.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

Declaring that in his opinion the
modification of the prohibition laws so
as TO permit the sale and use for bev
rage purposes of light wines an6
beer would tend to Increase the vic
lations of the liquor laws instead of
reducing them. A. T.. Bernstein,
United States attorney for the north.
ern district of Ohio, including Cleve'
land and Toledo, today described to
the Senate judiciary subcommittee the
activities of his office and the Federal
courts in the prosecution of liquor
eases
Mr.. Bernsteeu told the committee
that the prohibition laws were being
increasingly efficiently enforced in his
district.
Can the Volstead law he enforced?' o.
asked Senator Goff of West Virginia,
who took over the job of examining
ne witness.
II can in Northern Ohio" was the
Emphatic declaration of the district
attorney.
Sees Crime Reduction.
lie said that he believed that crime
In his district was decreasing, and
violations Of the Volstead act.
Mr.. Bernstein testified that the
hquor cases which come into the Fed
eral Court in Cleveland are disposed
of rapidly The docket is kept up
with, he said
At the outset OF the hearing today.
senator Harreld of Oklahoma, chair
man of the Senate committee, pro-
duced letter addressed to the chair
man from Gov Clifford Pinchot,
Pennsylvania's bone dry governor, in
which the governor said:
My three years practical experience
Of law enforcement in Pennsylvania
has proved beyond question that the
law can be enforced. 1t is being in
forced with steadily increasing sue
cess In my State. The will to enforce
1t has done the work"
Gov. Pinchot gave statistics to
prove his assertion. The letter was
referred by Senator Harreld to the
leaders of the 'drys" at the hearings
to determine whether it should be
placed in the record, holding that both
sides at the hearings had been charged
with saying what should be placed in
the record.
Additional Time Asked.
Senator Harreld announced that
the "drys" still had three hours and
thirteen minutes left in which to COM
plete their case before the commit
tee. He said, however, that the drys
had asked the committee for an addi-
tional three hours. because of the time
taken up by Senator Reed of, Missouri
and others in croSS-eXamining their
witnesses. This matter, he said,
would be settled by the full commit
tee. Senator Reed was not present at
the hearings today.
Charles Stelzle of New York, a mem
ber of the machinists' union, at one
time a Presbyterian minister. and in
recent years a student of social econ
omy. testified that organized labor was
not united in favor of modification of
'he Volstead law by any manner of
means. He said that the late Samuel
iompers had told him he did not wish
The prohibition question to come to
the floor of the convention of the
American Federation of Labor, be-
cause it was a political question and
would divide organized labor.
A statement to the effect that he
did not think "the hasty denunciations
Df Gen. Lincoln c. Andrews are justi-
fed" made by some of the drys since
Gen. Andrews appeared before the
Senate committee, was issued by DR..
r. G. DinWiddie. superintendent of
The National Temperance Bureau.
"Presupposed False Situation"
DIR. Dinwiddie said that the ques-
= ion put to Gen. Andrews regarding
the sale of Notwithstanding beer and
whose answer has raised the protest
against Gen. Andrews was a purely
Hypothetical one, and presuppoSed a
situation which has never existed and
in the judgment of those who know
hi hn lott Of hn
liquor traffic, cannot exist. There was
nothing in Gen. Andrews answer to
The question in its entirety, nor in
his position today that need disturb
the friends Of our cause"
In his letter to the Senate commit
tee chairman, Gov. Pinchot said in
part:
THE vets who have appeared be-
fore your committee have produced
nothing that was not known before.
The politics, the corruption, the in
efficiency, the granting of permits to
concerns utterly unfit to hold them
he huge diversions of denatured al
cohol to the bootleg trade as the main
source of Illegal drink, the methods
by which 1t reaches the consumers
all these we have long known and
suffered from. But we are winniHg
in spite of them in Pennsylvania.
I'm the beginning of 1928, 166 brew
cries were operating in Pennsylvania.
Today less than a third remain. There
are now but 80 breweries operating
in the State, 48 of them with Federal
permits. OF the ia which are not
operating, the great majority have
either been transformed into other
business, are in a condition of dilapi-
dation which makes operation impos
Sible, or are closed. with no indica-
lions of operating. The flood of Penn
.vlVania made beer which swept over
he State has been checked. and while
ne production of illegal beer has not
Entirely stopped, the quantity is Who'll
T. insignificant as compared with
,hree years ago.
New Permits Refused.
Last month I reported to the Sec
j.tary of the Treasury that 81 con-
rerns were still violating the law.
Permits, he informed me, have al
ready been refused 81 of these, while
me production of alcohol in Phila-
.eIphia has been reduced by about
$50 900 gallons a month. OF 12S law
eaking concerns mentioned above,
fne permits of 81 had been revoked,
!olsNue refused. or surrendered before
,pril / of this year.
The legislature of 1926 passed the
continued on P1~e .. Coir IN ~