The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-01-19
OF WICKERSHAM
LAW enforcement 7 PROBE
PLACED BEFORE PRESIDENT
Prohibition Recommends
tons Expected to Be
Made Public Tuesday.
MUM ON PROPOSALS
Chairman of Commission
Takes Document to
Hoover at White House.
By United Press

By United Press
WASHINGTON, Jan. 49,
The report of the Wickersharn
commission was sent to the
White House by the commits
sion early today.
Chairman George Wickersham
carrying the voluminous report in a
plain manila envelope, personally
went to the White House before 9
a. m. and before there was much
activity in the vicinity of the
Presidents Office, and delivered the
document to one of the Presidents
secretaries.
From the White House, Wicker
sham drove Immediately to his
home.
AT the commissions Offices later
he refused to make any statement
regarding the report. He was the
sole commissioner at the commits
Sion's Offices this morning.
The report covers 286 printed
pages and is estimated to contain
approximately 10000 words.
Its main work done, the commits
sion is not expected to meet again
for several weeks.
Publication of the prohibition re-
port will come probably Tuesday.
when 1t is expected to be delivered
to congress.
Hoover Studies Document
The President had not vet
reached the executive Office when
Wickersham arrived. The report
was on his desk, however, when he
came soon after a. m. He expected
to devote most of the day to a study
of the document.
Findings Of the Wickersham
commission are expected by many
to provide the foundation for
President Hoover's prohibition pol
icy in his campaign for reelection
next year.
The report marks an epoch in the
history of prohibition. It consti-
tutes an expert judgment ON the
first decade of what Mr.. Hoover
described as IAN experiment noble
in motive and far reaching in pur-
pose"
Completion of the prohibition re-
port closes the most turbulent and
important chapter in the work of
the national commission on law OBJ
Servance and enforcement.
Worked in Secrecy
Though the commission, under the
Craftsmanship of Wickersham. is
engaged in many studies of crime.
the highly surcharged prohibition
problem has monopolized its chief
attention. Time and again the com
mission has been criticised in con
gress for lack of speed.
Just a year ago when the work
was only six months under way.
pressure became SO great that the
commission hastily prepared a pre-
liminary report, part of which was
already enacted into law. The com
mission has been at work twenty
months 1t has received total ap-
preparations of one-half million dol
lars.
Task Was Completed
No federal body in years has UNI
dertaken as complicated a task and
none except the United States su-
preme court has worked with such
secrecy.
AS soon as the commission was
appointed, it fortified itself within
doors in the top of the
Tower building near the department
of justice.
There a woman educator and ten
lawyers, three Of them federal
judges, carried on the most extern
sive investigation Of prohibition
that ever has been made.
Dozens of witnesses were heard in
secret. Countless conferences have
been held.
But the secrecy as to what the
commission was thinking continued