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

n K r. WICKERSHAM'S recent pro-
mn -rouneement on prohibition has
lifted the curtain on q new
4 4 vast drama Of prohibition poll
ties. That drama, consisting
81 all the n1onologues and dialogues and
mob scenes and precinct primaries and
political births and deaths which will
accompany the restoration Of local
responsibility in liquor control, was
bound to be enacted anyway. Mr.
Wickersham's announcement has sim
ply given 1t the curtain ring few years
ahead Of schedule.
The fallacy inherent In most Of the
general discussion that has followed
Mr.. Wickersham's pronouncement is
that it has taken that pronouncement
primarily as q proposal.
Mr.. Wickersham, 1t Is noted, said in
letter which was read to the National
Conference of State Governors at New
London, Conn.,, that there might posi-
bly, properly be a partition of authority
between the Federal Government and
the State governments in the matter
Of the enforcement of the eighteenth
amendment. The Federal Government,
for instance, would combat the rum
runner on the high seas. The State
governments. for instance, would COM
bat the speakeasy at the street corner.
The detached phraseology of Mr..
Wlckersham's letter cannot profitably
be stressed. Time spent in analysing
the adjectives and the commas of that
phraseology Is time wasted. The letter
was not intended TO be a formal state
document. Indeed. there is some reason
to suspect that the letter was really
intended only for private perusal and
not for any publication whatsoever. Its
details Of wording are, therefore, wholly
secondary and transitory and cannot be
taken as in any way expressing any
precisely considered or any authorita-
lively drafted legislative policy either
of the administration or Of the Law
Enforcement Commission or of Mr..
Wiekersham himself
What Mr.. Wickersham essentially did
was merely ina fast stroke and rough
hewn way to state the idea of division
Of toll between Federal authorities and
State authorities in the carrying of the
load Of the eighteenth amendment.
That idea, as thus stated by him, has
thereupon been generally discussed as
If it were a break with the past and as
If 1t were proposal taking us into a
totally new future.
Caraway and Borah.
On that basis Of Interpretation, Sena-
tor Borah of Idaho and Senator Cara
way of Arkansas, for instance, have
summoned Mr.. Wickersham to instant
condemnation at the bar Of their high
and dry political Judgment. They ap-
parently conceive Mr.. Wickersham to be
suggesting something which does not in
any notable degree now exist. They are
thus completely missing the whole reVo-
lutionary significance of the Wicker
sham New London incident.
Mr.. Wickersham, before sending to
Gov. Roosevelt Of New York the letter
that was read by Gov. Roosevelt to his
assembled fellow governors at New
London. had listened attentively and
protractedly to the actual administra-
tive experiences of DR.. James M. Doran,
head of the Federal Government
Bureau Of Prohibition. Mr.. Wicker
sham's Law Enforcement Commission
had naturally been eager to hear DR..
Doran. It heard him. 1t learned the
condition of Federal prohibition en-
forcement, not as perhaps Mr.. Borah
and Mr.. Caraway politically, legisls-
lively, take 1t to be, but as it admins
tratively, actually and factually is
Does the Federal Government at this
moment enforce the whole Of the
eighteenth amendment everywhere
throughout the United States? Does 1t
even attempt so to enforce it? 1t does
not Not II the word enforce" Is to
be taken as meaning what it would
mean, and what 1t does mean, in con-
nection with, for instance, the law
against counterfeiting.
Activities Elsewhere.
Let the counterfeiter start counter
feiting, in the smallest way, anywhere
and the Secret Service of the Treasury
of the United States is ready instan-
taneously to pursue him.
Or let a railroad locomotive in ths
farthest wooded wilds of oregon think
it can go without its proper periodic
inspection by its owners, and the agents
of the Interstate Commerce Commission
are prepared to seek it out and to teach
1t better without the aid or consent OF
any local governor, mayor or sheriff.
These feats can be readily accom-
plished. Everybody is against counter
feiting and the counterfeiter knows that
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