The Daily Alaska empire., 1929-05-07

The President of the United States has called all citizens of goodwill to observe Iile Prohibition law and support its enforcement A group of New York lawyers has replied oy organizing voluntary" committee to defend bootleggers. Their statemnt of purpose seems to us a clear call to crime.
 This opinion was expressed Sunday by the Rev Daniel A. Polling in his sermon at the Marble Colleeate Church Dr. Polling we believe, would reoard it as a fair statement that he was speaking in his church not only as minister put as an ac tive worker in the ranks of the Prohibition orgah cations At various times in his career ne mas peeii delegate to three conventions of the Prohlo'ioli Party candidate of that party for Governor o1 Ohio and an officer of various groups which nave worked for the enactment of the Volstead Act. The activity which he describes as dangerous ana as "a clear call to crime" is the acton or num- Der of New York lawyers in offering their legal services to persons in New York charged wlIn Vlo- lation of the Jones law.
 AS is generally known the Jones law provides maximlm penalty of five years imprisonment ana la SlOO0O fine for a violation of the Eighteenth Amendment. The committee of lawyers, headed py Frederic R. Coudert, Jr has pointed out that these penalties practically severe as those inflicted for such crimes seditious conspiracy to over throw the Government of the United States-the maximum penalty in the latter case being SIX years imprisonment and $5,000 fine The committee has further stated that in it's opinion the penalties in the Jones law preposterous since they treat the carrying of a hip-picket flask and seditious conspiracy against the Government as equally heln- ous crimes and that such penalties "un-American and wholly incompatible with the spirit of our in- lstitutions" The committee has therefore offered to "give legal aid and counsel to those worthy cases who may be subject to the heavy penalties provided under the Jones law" and urged lawyers who still believe in the Bill of Rights * to offer some of their time and energy in purely
 professional capacity as protest against such
 savage fanaticism."
 This is the action which Dr. Polling denounces
 from his pulpit "a clear call to crime" But it
 can only be described as clear call to crime" if
 it has become a crime in the United States
 for lawyers to use wholly lawful means to prevent
 the nfliction of penalties which they believe to be
 unjust exorbitant and obnoxious to the spirit of
 free Republic. For ourselves, applaud the ac
 ton of these lawyers; believe that they bet
 ter friends of the true spirit of the Constitution than the Anti-Saloon League Senator Jones or Dr. Polling; and in their of wholly lawful means to achieve wholly lawful end and avert the in fiction of preposterous penalties wish them the best of fortune. | For nine years it has been the worst curse of
 VolStead Prohibition that it smothered great pub lie question under thick layers of hypocrisy The law had plainly broken down; yet Congress did nothing either to enforce it amend it, and the
 President averted his eyes from perplexing prob lem and looked the other way. Now have reach
 ed stage when Congress if it still declines to foot
 the bill for real effort at enforcement has at least adopted law which gives the country a taste of the tyranny to which it must submit and the
 penalties it must nfct if it intends to make Pro- hibition the chief business of the Government To
 have come even this far out of hypocrisy toward
 an honest facing of the facts is progress.