Evening star., 1928-12-26
Remedies Tried; Some Work.
ed, Others Failed, Com
missioner Declares.
FALSE PREMISE CLAIMED
BASIS OF HIS PROGRAM
Asserts Main Problem, Corn Sugar
Alcohol, Was Ignored in
His Formula,

The $4,000 Durant prize-winning
plan for making the eighteenth
amendment effective" drafted bv Mai.
Chester P. Mills, former prohibition adj
ministrator In New York, was sharplv
criticized today by Prohibition Commits
sioner James NJ. Doran as "old stuff
Not only Is the Mills program based
on false premise, DR.. Doran said. but
ne added that the remedies proposed
mad all been tried out in one form or
another already by the Federal Govern
ment. Some of the remedies have
proved effective, and have greatly re-
duced violations in certain quarters
while others have proved by the test
OF experience, ineffective, DR.. Doran
said.
The committee on awards, of which
DR.. w. o. Thompson, president emeri-
tus OF Ohio State University, was
chairman, and which included leading
figures in national life, evidently was
not informed on what already has been
done by the Prohibition Bureau. ac-
cording to the prohibition commission
er. announcement of the prize winner
OF the $25,000 offered by w. C.. Du-
rant, was made last night in New York
City Maj. Mills, according to the an
nouncement, has been mailed a check
for that sum.
Old Stuff for New Money.
Il shall have to congratulate Mai.
Mills, however" said DR.. Doran, che
has exchanged a lot of old stuff for
some good new money" The prohihi-
ton commissioner explained that such
a statement was not "sour grapes" as
ne personally had not entered the con-
test, and had submitted no recon-
mendationS. A representative of Durant
had come to see him some time ago.
DR.. Doran said, and had asked a num-
Der of questions about how the present
system was working.
Most Of the Mills plan, DIR. Doran
declared, was historical" based on
Mills former experience In the prohi-
bition service, now out Of date. Mai.
Mills, who was appointed prohibition
administrator by Brig. Gen. Lincoln G.
Andrews, then assistant Secretary OF
the Treasury in charge of all prohibi-
ton forces, resigned July 1, 1927, after
traitor to zone supervisor. Mai. Mills
later wrote series of articles assailing
prohibition enforcement conditions ap-s
pearing in a we'll known national week
ly magazine.
False Premise Claimed.
The principal flaw in the Mills prize
winner plan, DR.. Doran said, was that
1t was based on an entirely false pre-
mise. Mills declared that diversion of
industrial alcohol and liquors provided
the vast majority of liquor consumed
today"
Two and half years ago that was
correct, DR.. Doran admitted The major
problem at that time, he said, was di-
version of industrial alcohol, but this
was declared emphatically not to be
major problem now. for the whole
country. AS a matter of fact, DR..
Doran said it is now a negligible"
problem in the rest of the country, al
though there was still some diversion in
the New York district.
There is no plan here in Mills for
mula," said DR.. Doran, that deals
with the major problem of prohibition
now-the manufacture of bootleg al
conoi on large scale from corn sugar.
so MAJ. Mills. having set up indus
problem, proceeds to pull Don Cuiyote
and fights the windmill"
Says 10 Per Cent Diverted.
So far as the amount of liquor from
diverted alcohol in the eastern section
OF the country is concerned. DR.. Doran
said he would judge that 10 per cent
OF the entire Illicit supply would be a
big estimate" The closer scrutiny
which Mills suggests be given to indus
trial alcohol plants already has been
put on, DR.. Doran said. with effective
results. Most of the plan for control
of such alcohol proposed by Mills has
been in effect for some time, according
to the prohibition commissioner Even
the proposal of granting temporary per-
mits has been tried and is occasionally
Continued on Page 4, Column So
mn nAEHM a. RAR nAVmR