Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-04

! he Is doing wrong and would know 1t
| even II there were no statute telling him
so. Everybody Is in favor Of locomo-
tive boiler inspection and the railroad
Official who fails to inspect his loco
motives would know that he was guilty
| of wrongdoing even IL no statute on the
! subject had ever been passed by the
Congress and signed by the President.
Such statutes do not invent crimes.
They declare them and punish them.
| The Federal Government the:eupon, in
| spite of all the outcry against its
"inefficiency," can and does in general
| and drastic effect, enforce them.
The total Federal appropriations in
| the last fiscal year for the Secret Serv-
| ice of the Treasury were not much more
than half a million dollars and they
| were quite sufficient to suppress any
| general open plague Of counterfeiting
For the locomotive boiler inspection
service of the Interstate Commerce
Commission the total Federal appro-
priations in the last fiscal year were a
bit less than half a million dollars and
they were quite sufficient to prevent
any crime wave of boiler explosions.
What Would Be Cost?
What, however, would be the cost of
a similarly local and detailed Federal
enforcement Of the eighteenth amend
ment? Or. Doran has told US.
That why and red-headed little man,
with his curiouSly protruding, pugna-
cious underlip, and with his odd, jerky
way Of looking abstractedly out of WIN
dows to deliver himself of profound
points of practical administrative phi
| loSophy to, as it were. all outdoors
knows more about prohibition enforce
ment, both with his heart and with his
head, than anybody else. Derived from
| q Methodist environment, and imbibing
from that environment both an enthu-
siasm for moral reform and a perfect
willingness to Smite the ungodly who
might resist it, he has had, most prop
erly, the full confidence and the earnest
support Of the Protestant religious
bodies which have been earnest friends
| of prohibition.
Educated as a scientist, he has added
| capacity for truth to capacity for
uplift. Serving as chemist in the In
ternal Revenue Bureau of the Treasury
| for Is years before Federal prohibition
was installed among us, he became thor
oughly an expert both in the pre-prohi-
bition liquor traffic and in the possible
| ties and limitations of Federal admins
| trative efforts. Continuing to serve the
Federal Government without intermiS-
sion throughout the whole CT its pres
ent prohibition era, and now for more
than two years our Federal prohibition
commissioner, he speaks today with an
authority backed by an absolutely I'M
rivaled combination of character and
Of experience in the Federal prohibition
enforcement field.
His statement, famously delivered to
a committee of the Congress, regarding
the cost of detailed local enforcement
| of the eighteenth amendment by the
| Federal Government, was to the effect
that the cost in question would be $780,
! 900, 900 annually.
Interrogated the other day as to this
estimate, DR.. Doran replied that now he
would be inclined to revise it upward.
| Let us assume, however, that $780,
600, 900 worth would be enough, and let
us contrast that sum with our present
Federal prohibition expenditures.
| Let us eliminate from our calculations
| the moneys which We now eXpend upon
the prohibition activities Of our Coast
| Guard and of our customs service
Those activities are, and must continue
| to be, by every process of reasoning. eX-
cluSiyely Federal and National. They
cannot conceivably be delegated, even
through remissness, to local govern
mental energy. Our dealings with for
eign countries are constitutionally ex-
clusively in the hands of the Govern
ment at Washington. The Coast Guard
! and the customs service are. and must
Nbe, our sole line of defense between the
! wetness of the foreign world and the
! dryness of our potential American unin-
! toXicated Eden. Our Coast GuardSmen
| and our customs inspectors aim thelr
vigilance at two of the five crimes speci-
| fed by the eighteenth amendment
They endeavor, in respect of 1ntoxi-
eating beverages. to prevent "improta-
! ton" and deportation"
Three Of the eighteenth amendments
specified crimes remain over. They are
manufacture" Transportation" and
sale"
Manufacture" happens when. for in
stance, farmer turns corn into whisky
in a still in his wood lot in swamp ir
Tidewater Virginia.
Transportation" happens when. fol
instance, he walks across a public high.
way with jug of his product into the
! yard of neighboring farmer.
sale" happens when, for instance
he takes So for the jug in the rear Of
the neighboring farmers barn.
To prevent each and every one @!
these three crimes in tidewater Vir-
ginia and in every other locality in the
United States the agency of the Federal
Government is the Bureau of Pro.
nibition in the Treasury Department
and the total appropriations this fisca
year for the Bureau of Prohibition come
to $14,968,555!
It is to be noted, moreover, that moi
all of that $14,968555 is for the en-
forcement of legislation against intoxi-
eating beverages. Some of it-$l OIL
260-is for the enforcement of legiSla-
|
Fewer Dollars for Dope.
It will be observed that the dollar:
thus dedicated to 'the suppression Of
morphine and cocaine and heroin are
amazingly fewer than the dollars dedi-
Gated to the suppression by the Pro.
hibition Bureau of wine and whisky anc
beer. Not many legislators would deny
that heroin, for instance, is rather more
deleterious than, for instance, beer
Herein and cocaine and morphine, how.
ever. except for medicinal purposes, are
condemned by the common conscience
of universal mankind, including what
conscience is still possessed by the
wretched addicts 20 them. Hence ir
enforcing our Federal legislation against
narcotic drugs our Federal enforcer:
encounter physical resistance, indeed
but no true moral resistance; and much
accordingly can be done and is done by
them with a relatively small amount Of
money.
Subtracting that amount of money
from the total amount appropriated Il
the Prohibition Bureau for this fiSca
year by the Congress, we arrive at the