The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-01-16
prnhihition After Ten Years

After ten years of constitutional prohlplCon'
,ouor remains plentiful throughout the country ms
is perhaps the outstanding fact in viewing Americas
decade of socalled dryness
The licensed and regulated saloon Is gone but III
s Mace myriad speakeases and booteggers operate.
Usually the stuff they dispense Is more harinlul Viaii
that once sold by the saloons.
The federal governments expenditures 1or en-
forcement have amounted to about a quarter billion
in the ten wears They are steadily increasing ana
for next wear will reach nearly forty-fve millions
The handful of agents with which the government
started has grown into army numbering thou
sands operating in every state along the oorderS'
and in what has come to be veritable dry navy.
There is demand for harsher laws and more
agents The current controversy among leaders IN
the capital is evidence of dissatisfaction, and in it.
self confession by those who fastened prohibition
on the country that enforcement, thus far at least
has failed.
AS tn whether prohibition has benefited the
country it is doubtful if any definitely can say.
Sincere and competent critics on both sides OF the
controversy differ widely.
There seems to be more nearly general agree
nent on the contention that prohibition has fostered
crime and that bootegging is responsible for much
of the gang warfare that has grown 1t is commended
that the universal dsrespec for the prohibition law
has bred disrespect for all law.
One phase OF this question Is measurable Std-
tistcs show that prohibition has multiplied arrests.
brought hopeless congestion to federal and many
state courts and filled prisons to OVERLOOKING 1t also
is clear that violence in connection with enforcement
is growing and community complaints against
methods of federal agents are becoming
Nor is there any doubt that enforcement has
brought disregard for ongcherished personal rights
and liberties citizens, supposedly guaranteed them
BY the federal and state Constitutions. Search and
seizure without warrant have become common
Such devices as e-tapping have become egalized
Espionage of the most repugnant sort has become
accepted practice Citizens have been encouraged to
spy and inform on their neghbors.
There are two sets of opinion on the question of
the effect Of prohibition on public health and morals
One group asserts that the is healthier; another
that diseases growing out of the of alcohol have
increased vastly in part because of the kind of stuff
people now drink.
1t is contended on one side that vice has dmin-
ished and that all classes of people are better be-
haved; on the other that drinking has spread to
classes which heretofore had been abstemious par
ticularly the young.
Whatever the TO some of these moot ques-
tons, certain facts are clear.
Prohibition today is much of an issue as it was
ten years ago. 1t has not been accepted by the
country.
Enforcement conditions satisfactory to neither
vets drys.
Liquor is plentiful Drinking is common.
The government with all its lavish use of money
and its great resources, has not been able to make
the country dry.
The present situation is intolerable menace and
must be corrected.
How to correct it? Drys would give more of
what We have had. vets would have modification.
Out of all the tumult and the shouting one thing
is inevitable with enlarged and redoubed
energy the present program can not be made effec-
tive-as many believe-a new one will have to be de-
vised.