The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-01-19
BY RAYMOND CHAPTER United Press Sthff COrrespOndent


 Washington. January IS = (UP) Findings of the Wickersham commission are expected by many to provide the foundation for President Hoover's prohibition policy in his campaign for reelection next year.
 The report constitutes an expert Judgment on the first decade of pro- hibition which Mir Hoover has de- scribed as An experiment noble in motive and far reaching in purpose "
 The national commission on law observance and enforcement, through the commission, under the chairmanship of George w. Wicker crime. but the prohibition problem has monopolized it's chief attention, Time and again the commission hos monopolized it's chief attention. Time and again the commission has been criticized in congress repeated ly for lack of speed.
 Just 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 has already been enacted into law. The commission has been at work twenty months, and it has received appro- priations of one-half million dollars.
 No federal body in years has un-
 
 none except the United States su- preme court has worked with such secrecy. AS soon as the commission was appointed. it fortified itself within sound-proof doors in the Tower building near the department ten lawyers. three of them federal judges. Dozens of witnesses were heard in secret.
 Fond of dining out and a frequent guest at embassy functions here. Chairman Wickersham has carried his seventy-two years lightly even during the stormiest days. When the commission was bitterly divided, Wickersham would emerge from a tense session and walk briskly down the hall. whistling. Asked about reports that the commission was go- ing to restore beer, Wickersham's s eyes twinkled, as if he were about throw up his hands and say, That's purely conjectural."
 Once he replied to a question about restoration of PTS per cent beer by retorting that it wouldn't satisfy any healthy appetite" He advocated the whipping post as a possible cure for some forms of crime. He wrote g letter to Gov ernor Franklin Roosevelt of New York which when made public by the governor, raised a nation wide storm.
 He suggested that the governors of the states should work toward un- dertaking internal police regulations to prevent saloons, speakeasies and the like while the national govern ment should concentrate on suppress sing interstate commerce in liquor. To this extent, he lifted the secrecy practiced by the commission.
 Another dominant figure in the commissions internal struggle over prohibition was Federal Judge Will liam s. Kenyon. He was formerly a progressive republican senator from Iowa, one of the authors of the Webb Kenyon act of pre-prohibition times which prevented shipment of liquor into Q dry state. Always in- dependent in party affairs, Kenyon became disgusted with politics after the war. Though his popularity fin Iowa seemed almost to insure him a seat indefinitely. he resigned and asked President Harding to appoint him to the federal bench. A strong dry, Kenyon was the chief member who pro duced the commission in it's prohibition studies.
 Newton D. Baker, secretary of war under Woodrow Wilson. anl under stood to oppose many features of present prohibition policy, also was an active member. taking issue with dryer members of the commission. Dean Roscoe Pound of the Harvard Law school. noted for his outspoken disregard of some of the orthodox