Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-12
DRYLAW'S FAILURE
CLAIMED AS HOUSE
HEARING IS OPENED
Prohibition Is Denounced as
Unsatisfactory in Results"
by Chairman Graham.
MAGAZINE WRITER HITS
CONDITIONS IN DISTRICT
1ggett, Who Recently Exposed"
Situation in Washington, Is
First Witness.
~ the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
The first congressional hearing in the
decade of prohibition on the merits of
the dry statute itself opened at the
Capitol today with a denunciation of
the law by Chairman Graham of the
House judiciary committee and a series
OF charges concerning enforcement
conditions in half a dozen big Ameri-
can cities.
Judges, police officials and even the
Governor of Michigan we're assailed by
Walter Liggett. magazine writer and
the first witness before the committee.
Without mentioning names he told Of
a party in Detroit on the night of No
vember 5, 1929, at which, he said, the
governor and the chief of police of
Detroit and four judges were present.
But this was only part of Liggett' S
general indictment. Going down the
line he denounced conditions in Bos-
ton. Washington. Topeka, in Mime
sofa and Wichita, KanS., where, he
said, there was one Of the "claSSiest'
roadhouses to be found, comparing ia
vorably with those in New York City.
Finally he was asked by Representa-
tive Kitchener, Republican, Michigan, a
member of the judiciary committee, II
he stood ready to furnish proof of his
assertions. He answered yes, but at
the same time expressed doubt that he
would ever be called upon to confirm
his story, because, he added, he had the
facts.
New Chief Appointed.
Further questioning by Kitchener
brought out that the chief of police
RafA 70 fOVsYS
Mayor John Smith, who was defeated
in a recent election. Kitchener said a
new chief of police had been appointed
by the new mayor. Judges, who he
mentioned as having been at the De-
troit party, later were said by Liggett
not to have taken their places on the
bench at the time.
Liggett said that an ex-governor and
a secretary of an ex-governor and an
ex-commissioner of public safety in
Massachusetts, had connived with boot
1eggers in Boston. Later he referred to
them in the plural and was questioned
hy Teea&sefltakive Stobbs. Republican,
Massachusetts, as to whether he meant
more than one ex-governor and one ex-
commissioner of public safety. Liggett
said thai he only referred to one each
and not to number of men who for
merly held those positions. He did not
mention names.
Few Bills in District.
Liggett recently engaged in an ex-
pose of Washington liquor conditions
and appeared before a District of Co.
1umbia grand jury. The jury which
investigated conditions generally re-
turned only a few indictments.
Chairman Graham at the outset OF
the session, which was one punctuated
frequently by applause from spectators
as the witness on the stand engaged
in exchanges of debate with commit
tee members, said the eighteenth
amendment and the enforcement Law
had been tested for 10 years, without
satisfactory results"
Today's hearing was given over en-
tirely to those attacking present condi-
tons under the prohibition act. The
orys yet have their story to tell.
Graham prefaced his statement b.
saying he desired to explain his own
position on prohibition, one of the
Gvest issues on Capitol Hill.
The more than 200 men and women
gathered in the House caucus room
listened intently to the Pennsylvania
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