Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-04
WICKERSHAM DRAFT
DESCRIBED AS DRY
IN OFFICIAL CIRCLES
Report Said to Contain No
Recommendation for Beer
or Wine.
Sufficient TRIAL HELD
LACKING BY MEMBERS
PRESIDENT Hoover Not to Receive
Bulky Document Before
End of Week.

~ the Associated Press.
The long-awaited prohibition report
OF the Wickersham Law Enforcement
high official quarters as predominatingly
Dry, with q majority Of the members
epnceding little to anti-prohibition
Saews.
From an official in position to be
3ally cognizant of the commissions &C
6Rities came this analysis:
A tentative report, agreeable to more
man a majority of the IL commission
eEs, has been completed. In it is no
recommendation for beer or wine
Neither does it urge any other major
modification of the Volstead act de-
kigned to relax the enforcement struc-
tAIre built up around the 11-year-old
dry laws. Repeal or modification of
NE eighteenth amendment did not en-
Ter the picture.
In effect, the view taken by a ma
Hority of the members was said to be
that prohibition as such has not yet
had a sufficient trial. 1t was asserted
this stand was based upon facts re-
Gently uncovered showing that enforce
naent Of the dry law during at least
part of the past decade has been rid
died by politics and surrounded at
times by graft.
mo PussyfOOting."
The statement was made emphati-
cally that in the final report to PreS-
dent Hoover there will be mo pussy
footing" concerning conditions as the
commission has found them during the
most extensive investigation ever made
into prohibition, extending over more
than 10 months of elaboration and re-
search.
Corruption and graft, lax enforce
ment and crime resulting directly or
indirectly from the dry law, it was said,
will be set forth alongside the reasons
why 1t is believed these problems can
be solved
Despite the virtual completion of the
report, authoritative word came that
it could not be placed before President
Hoover before the end Of next week.
Even after the report has gone to the
White House and the prohibition weary
commissioner are free to complete the
rest of their crime report, 1t was said
small possibility existed that the Pres
ident could send the report tmme-
diately to Congress.
Bulky Document.
It was described as a bulky docu-
ment, comprising not only majority
and possibly minority report, but also
lengthy opinions prepared by each
member. containing his or her concur
ring as well as dissenting views with
the solution of the dry law problem
presented.
AT least one of these opinions, it
was asserted, will be longer than the
report itself. Work still being done
upon some OF these individual docu-
nents was given as one cause for the
delay. Then, too, the commission VIII
not meet again until the middle OF next
week for a final consideration of the
report.
Possibility of changes in the tenta-
tive report was held not unlikely, al
though a majority was said to be COM
pletely committed to dry stand.
Within the completed document, 1t
was intimated from various sources,
there Will be revived not only the much
controverted subject of grape con-
centrates, easily converted into wine,
but possibly also the question of a
Nationwide referendum on prohibition.
Deny Relaxation Report.
An authoritative denial was given to
reports that the commission would
recommend relaxation of the Volstead
act in order to give full legality to the
sale of fruit juices intended for the
manufacture of wine in the home.
Mrs Mabel Walker Willebrandt, for
ner Assistant Attorney General in
charge of prohibition and now counsel
for a grape concentrate concern, was
Said to have brought some form of state
Hnent concerning this product before
more than one Of the commissioners, and
other grape concentrate interests filed
q brief with the commission itself
Reports have been circulated that
William Green, president Of the Amer
lean Federation Of Labor, has requested
the commission to approve 2.75 beer
but had met with little favorable re-
action.