The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-12-05
DORAN WANTS
40 MILLIONS
TO FIGHT rum
Dry Chief Tells Congress
100000, 900 Needed for
Proper Cleanup.
BAD SPOTS REVEALED
Voices Doubt Whether Real
Enforcement Is Aim of
Lawmakers.
BAD SPOTS REVEALED
BY RAY TUCKER
Times STAFF COrresDOndent

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5.-The ma
TONS prohibition bill for the fiscal
year ending June, 1880, will be ap-
proximately $4O,OOO,OOO, according to
figures in the treasury appropriation
bill made public today.
The total includes $13,500,OOO for
the prohibition bureau, $l4,686, 900
for the coast guards smuggling unit,
and about $1O,OOOOOO for dry activi-
ties in the department of justice.
Members of the house appropriate
tions committee expressed i'm
patience time and again as DR.. j. M.
Doran, prohibition commissioner,
told them that his original estimate
had been cut $1O6,00O by the budget
bureau.
Both Republicans and Democrats
suggested that real enforcement
would cost many more millions, and
urged a survey of all the govern
ment activities to ascertain what the
bill would be for more effective en-
forcement.
Would Take $SOO,OOO,OOO
When DR.. Doran was asked if his
figures were not too small for max
ing the country dry, he replied:
1T is a matter of policy whether
congress wants to embark in the
police business with regard to pro-
hibition). If it does, it will take
$300,000,00O and a system of United
States courts covering the land"
DR.. Doran pointed out that the
policy Of congress as expressed In
its past appropriation bills was to
provide for federal enforcement
against big liquor operators, leaving
pursuit of speakasies and hip-toterS
to city and state police.
In states which have no dry laws,
like New York, Montana, Nevada
and Maryland, he said, very little
cooperation was given by municipal
or state authorities.
The worst spots in the country.
he told the committee, are New
York City, Philadelphia, Chicago,
Detroit, st. Louis, San Francisco
and Florida. Collision between DO
lice and bootleggers in Philadelphia
have hampered his men, he added,
but conditions are Frightening in
Chicago.
Failure of the rum treaty with
Canada to work has made Detroit
and the Great Lakes a source of
supply for all the middle west.
Mostly Corn and Grain"
Main supply of the nations liquor
now comes from corn whisky and
grain alcohol illicitly manufactured,
the commissioner said. He noted
improvements in checking the leak
age OF industrial alcohol into the
bootleg trade, and in diversion Of
beer from licensed broweries.
Wood alcohol still is used as a de-
naturant of industrial alcohol, the
commissioner said, but in quanti-
ties so small that it is impossible to
cause death. He denied that deaths
in New York just before election
were the result of drinking liquor
doctored by the government, blam-
ing them to straight wood alcohol
drinking.
admiral Billiard head of The
coast guard, said rum row had dis
appeared completely, but that le-
taxation of vigilance would bring
it back again. He reported consid-
cradle smuggling from st. Pierre,
one island off Newfoundland, and
Bermuda.
The Canadian government, he
explained, still issued clearances to
vessels laden with liquor, and bound
for American ports, and had de-
clined to do more than send notice
of the clearances to this country.
Secretary Kellogg has tried unsuc-
cessfully to have Canada refuse
such clearances.
Smuggling Cut Down
Coast guard activities, Billiard
said, have cut down smuggling to
about one-fifth or one-eighth what
it was four years ago. Committee
members .gasped at this. and Repre-
Wood of Indiana said:
THE liquor must have been floating
in like duck before" Billiard said
this was true.
The twenty-five destroyers turned
over to the coast guard for prohi-
oition work, the admiral said, now
require a tremendous amount of
money for upkeep. Each ship needs
about 100000 a year, according to
The estimates.
Though their overhauling for dry
purposes cost about 100000 four
years ago. Billiard intimated they
soon would become obsolete even for
prohibition work
The admiral, explaining that he
was not an executive officer, de-
lined to hazard an estimate of how
many ships would be necessary for
more rigid blockade against snug
Cling. He would not say whether
it would be 100 or 500. A shortage
Of ships, he said, leaves a large part
Of the Pacific coast unprotected
against smugglers.
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