The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-01-23

bition, and there were eight times as many dry law cases terminated in 1880 as there were total federal prosecutions in 1914, the commits sion found.
 The federal court congestion due to prohibition was said by the com- mission to have led to bargain days at which large numbers of defendants were permitted to plead guilty and escape with small fines. In 1880, the report added, nearly 90 per cent of dry law convictions were of this twpe.
 "The bargain method of keeping up with the dockets, which prevails Of necessity in some of the most im- portant jurisdictions of the country, plays into the hands of the organized illicit traffic by enabling it to reckon protection of It's employees in the overhead" the commission said.
 Senator Copeland, dem, N. Y., in- troduced in the senate to-day a bill to remove restrictions on prescrip- tions of medicinal liquor.
 "I couldn't find anything else," Copeland said, 'in the Wickersham report on which the commissioners were agreed"
 Since the court congestion occa- stoned by the large number of pro- hibition cases makes speedy trial and punishment difficult to obtain, criminal prosecution was said to be feeble deterrent" to law viola ton.
 The commission also pointed to the congestion in federal penal in- stitutions. It cited justice department reports showing the total federal long-term prison population-those serving sentences of more than a year-had risen from not more than 5,268 on June 30, 1921 to 14,115 on June 30, 1880. More than one- third of the long-term prisons in the five leading federal institutions on June 30, 1880 were confined for pro- hibition violations.
 Lawyers everywhere deplore, as one of the most serious effects of prohibition. the change in the gen. eral attitude toward the federal courts" the report said.
 Formerly these tribunals were of exceptional dignity. and the effi- ciency and dispatch of their criminal business commanded wholesome re- spect and fear. The effect of the huge volume of liquor prosecutions,
 
 der prohibition, has injured their impaired their efficiency. and endangered the wholesome re- spect for them which once ob- tained"
 Agitation of prohibition organiza- tions for appointment of judges and prosecutors zealous in dry law prose- cutions was condemned by the com Under pressure to make record on prohibition, it said. prose- cutors have forsaken long standing legal sta andards of conduct. United States marshaks also have been af- fected adversely by prohibition. the report said. It cited scandals of bribery. failure to destroy seized liquor, failure to serve paddock or- ders, and accepting of graft for pro- lection of bootleggers as bringing the executive arm of the courts into dis repute.
 "There has been general bad ef- feet on the whole administration of justice" the commission summar- ized. "There has been a tendency to appraise judges solely by their zeal in liquor prosecutions. In conse- quence. the civil business of courts has often been delayed or interfered with
 What Labor Thinks.
 Miami, Fla. Jan 23.-(UP)-The executive council of the American Federation of Labor believes that the Wickersham report demonstrates distinct progress in the return to sanity and temperance"
 A report on the Wickersham re- port. submitted by Ira N. Ornburn, secretary of the labor committee, de- clared that careful study of the Wickersham report indicated "only two of the eleven commission mem- bers can fairly be said to stand un- reservedly for the present condi- tion."
 we may say therefore. that the vast majority. perhaps a totally un- majority. record themselves as in favor of our position of the change that can be made toward a restoration of that sanity and decency of life desired by most of the thinking people of our coun- try"
 The federation favors modification of the Volstead act to permit the sale of beer.