Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-16
AGENTS APPOINTED
BY POLITICIANS HIT
Mrs. WiIIebrandt Shows How
"Ward HeeIerS" Took Hand
in Enforcement.
Continued From First Page.)

His principal duties were the serving
of summonSeS and the seizure of property
to satisfy judgment. Next he became
a candidate for justice of the peace,
but was defeated. However, he con-
tinued to make himself useful in his
ward during elections, and due partly
to this and partly to the influence OF
his brother n-law, a lawyer WHOSE
clientele consisted largely OF bootleggerS
and who had been useful for years 10
the political bosses of both parties, the
ex-constable secured an appointment as
prohibition agent. Within year OF
two he was under indictment for con-
spiring with bootleggers for the dis
tribution of large quantities OF liquor.
But he had created a bad ooor 1or
prohibition enforcement In the year VI
two he flashed badge. -,
There is nothing new about TINS am
ence between politics and booze. 1t is
not the result of prohibition IL Is
merely the continuance of an alllance
that was born and grew stronger DUR
ing the scores of years before natlonai
prohibition was even dreamed Oh.
Efforts to enforce prohibition are re-
yealing it more clearly every day,
Every politician who was in poitlcs
of it-and the number OF Sucn men
was legion long before we had national
nrohibition-saw the greater opportunl..
lies for graft in the initial stages OF
attempted enforcement OF the VoSleao
act.
Toll Systems Set Up.
cheriffs who had been making five
or ten thousand dollars year In adol-
tion to their salaries by collecting from
fine county two or three times the
actual cost of feeding prisoners, set up
Toll systems by which trucks loaded
with contraband liquor were passed
through the lines of their deputies pa
trolling county roads on payment OF
fees Of from $40 to several hunoreo
dollars load.
denv that these men were cor
rupted by or because Of the eighteenth
amendment or the Volstead act. They
were the same type of men who COL
lected graft from the speakeasies and
blind pigs operated when saloons were
legally licensed and who also collecteo
from the saloons themselves Tor sup
pressing the speakeasies or oVerlooKlhg
Violations of closing-hour or SUNDAY
closing laws. Any one who was en-
gagged in politics IN the years pel the
prohibition, as / was, knows that IN the
.pre-Volstead period mayors, governors,
REPRESENTATIVES, Senators, Democratic
and Republican alike, had been de-
pendent for their election on the small
or politician with his large force OF
deputies and assistants available Ior
registering and voting Indifferent citi-
gems. 80
ward and county bosses that Represent
atives and Senators secured the ap-
nointment of hundreds Of prohlbltlon
agents and administrators. 1t was the
opposition of the politicians, big ana ana
little, that prevented the use OF clvh
service examinations to select the en-
forcement personnel during the first six
years of prohibition.
And l have no hesitancy in asserting
that it is the continued influence OF
politicians, little and big, that still
keeps in the service men who have
either managed to qualify under civil
service but who are entirely unfit, or
those who have not qualified but are