Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-04
FACING WET AND DRY FACTS
Larger U. Liquor Force May Be Created or Local En-
orcement Policy Abandoned as Wckersham
Lifts Curtain on New Drama

eighteenth amendment into State wide
effect within their borders. There,
however, We come upon fact so pat
ent and so familiar that almost nobody
bothers to notice It, although It Is q
fact Of crucial pertinence to the situa-
ton. 1t is this:
genuinely State machinery Of any Inn
portant weight or of any important
driving and cutting power for laying
low the violators of State laws passed In
support Of the eighteenth amendment.
Statewide police forces are far, indeed.
from common among US IN any large
or effective form. The enforcement Of
State legislation against crime devolves
principally upon the cfacers of the coun-
ties, the cities and the towns.
Wet Spots in Dry States.
It follows that some of the vettest
spots in this country are IN dry States.
The States may pass laws in support Of
the eighteenth amendment and the
counties and cities and towns may pass
them up. Intensely local self-govern-
ment is the original tradition Of this
country, and its unsevered roots are stih
IN our earth. States may decide to
swing within the orbit of the eighteenth
amendment and to prosecute and con-
Wet and jail its violators as violators
also of a State statute. Sheriffs and
mayors and constables may disregard
the State statute as lightly as they dis
regard the eighteenth amendment, and
may allow the violatOrS to flourish I'M
jailed and unconvicted and unprose-
cuted.
Hence DR.. Doran getting "co-opera-
ton" from Florida cannot rest there.
rk ale fpA<$vM GnNr raG
does not.
New York and Maryland and Wis
consin and Nevada by not having State
enforcement acts in aid of the eight
zenith amendment are said 10 have
"nullified" the Federal Constitution.
Much more basic Is the accompanying
hut generally overlooked fact that thou
sands of communities within States fully
equipped with state enforcement Acts
are able in principle and are willing IN
practice to bring those acts, themselves
to qualification"
Dr. Doran accordingly confronts a
situation which for illustrative purposes
we again may express in terms drawn
from the duties Of the Federal Secret
Service. Let US suppose that in this
country there were at least SO 00o, goo
people who thought that counteYfeitins
was right. Let us suppose that at least
10000, 600 of them not only thought
that counterfeiting was right bat
thought also that counterteiting was
a duty in order to protest against the
law against counterfeiting. Let US sup
pose, finally. that thousands upon thou
sands of sheriffs and deputy shertfis
and mayors and chiefs of police and
justices of the peace and conStables
were friends of the counterfeiters and
foes of the Secret Service operatives.
In such circumstances the Secret
Service would certainly regard $500, o00.-
900 a year as a modest allowance for
the task of enforcing this law.
DR. Doran, with his $l3,3S7,29 Tor
prohibition enforcement, is short today
Of that allowance by a margin Of $685.
642, 705 With his $13 ,357 .29S he Is able
to employ approximately 4.500 enforcers.
With $286.642,7 05 more he could pre-
sumably employ some $4,000 more en-
forcers. He would then have . total OF
l03, 500 enfor, S, and he seems to esti-
mate bravely that with them he could
do the work.
Two Impeding Truths.
Then arise, however, two impeding
truths. The first Is that the Congress,
20 matter how sincerely and how en-
Enthusiastically dry it may be, viii never
give DR.. Doran an allowance Of $780,
00O, 900 a year and an army OF 1e3.500
prohibition enforcement policemen. The
second is that DR.. Doran himself.
though he has been willing to estimate
such a pay roll, would probably never
request it.
He knows very well that it would
mean something little short OF O. civil
war between Federal aggressive and
local resistive forces.
He accordingly exerts not the slight
est pressure upon Congress for VIC
lently enlarged appropriations, and
within the appropriations which he now
has he centers himself upon the whole
sale" aspects of the liquor trafic and
leaves the retail aspects Of 1t not en-
tirely but most certainly oyerwheln-
ingly to our local communities.
Mr.. Wickersham's proposed partition
of prohibition enforcement toll between
our Federal authorities and our. local
authorities is not, therefore, Q mere
proposal. The importance which nes
back of it is that 1t Is in effect an
informed declaration Of an existing
actually. -. g..
What stretches before us now Il the
actually and the politics Of legislative
readjustment to 1t.
Ventures Surmises.
This writer ventures upon the fol-
ing surmises:
That Congress will be forced at some
| time within not extremely remote
future to make a clear-cut choice be-
tween advancing into the creation OF o
Nation wide prohibition constabulary
OF at least 100000 men. and on the
other hand retreating outrightly and
utterly from all local petty prohibition
policing. The middle ground between
these two positions is ground Of tur-
moil and of slaughter. Congress VIII
ultimately choose either the first posi-
ton or the second. With the consent
of very large proportion Of the drys
themselves, 1t will one day choose the
second.
The, drys themselves are suffering
today from the effects of their recent
reliance upon Federal Intervention In
local liquor traffic problems. Their
followers have tended to 60 to sleep
upon a largely imaginary Federal pill
low. The old-time fervor In teaching
the evils of intemperance through
Bands of Hope" and other similar
agencies in many quarters has abated.
! Collections for the cause on many plates
have declined.
Prohibition enforcement can regain
its pristine vigor only through q revival
Of local responsibility. The vets will
want that revival. The drys will want
it. too. Each side for its own reasons
will want 1t, AMI just exactly as III the
parallel case Of colored suffrage IL will
come with rapidity