Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-20
AM nthnr States and Canada.
The Wickersham Report.

EIeSiuelI f1OONeI ) NdllOIldI SUHlIlllS-
sion on Law Observance and Enforce
ment has submitted to the President
and through him TO Congress report
which declares against the repeal of the
against return to the old conditions of
the corner saloon. 1t demands that
such benefits as have arisen under ma
tional prohibition be preserved. On the
surface. the summary of the report, to
which the names of ten of the eleven
commissioners are attached favors a
continuance of national prohibition,
with certain changes to strengthen the
enforcement of the law.
The summary, however, is misleading
when the whole report is analysed.
The report signed by ten of the COM
missioners is merely presentation OF
facts and recommendations to which
those commissioners were able to sub
scribe. One member Of the commits
sion, Monte NJ Jemann, declined to
subscribe to the compromise report.
Embodied in the whole report of the
commission are statements by each in
dividual member of the body. 1t is to
these individual statements that re-
course must be had to ascertain the
real temper of the commission as
whole.
They reveal the fact that majority
of the commission is opposed to national
prohibition as it is now practiced under
the eighteenth amendment and the Vol
stead act; that they do not believe that
national prohibition under these condi-
lions can be enforced. and finally that
a change must be made and without
further delay.
The commission lines up on the ques-
ton of change meaning modification or
repeal. as follows: Two for outright re-
peal of the eighteenth amendment, five
for revision without delay and four for
a further trial of the present national
prohibition, with strengthened laws and
added appropriations for enforcement
OF the four who favor further trial, two
say that If a big improvement in en-
forcement Of the dry laws Is not forth
coming within a reasonable time, they
too, will favor revision of the eighteenth
amendment.
The report of the commission, and
also of the individual commissioners, is
a severe indictment Of prohibition
enforcement as it has existed. An i'm
provement Is declared to have taken
place since the enactment Of 1927
placing prohibition enforcement agents
under civil service and since the trans
fer of the enforcement Of the law from
the Treasury Department to the Depart
ment of Justice. The report asserts
emphatically that a real measure OF
enforcement Of the dry laws has never
been obtained and does not now obtain.
Written into the individual reports OF
several of the commissioners are sug-
gestions that ii would be wise to test
the sentiment of the people on the SUBJ
Ject of national prohibition through a
resubmission of the subject TO them.
The proposal calls for State constitu-
tional conventions to act upon the sub
ject, with the delegates elected to the
conventions for that sole purpose, in a
year when no presidential or congress
sional elections are to be held
In the separate statement of Henry
w. Anderson is contained a carefully
prepared plan for revision of the
eighteenth amendment and for au-
thority of those States which wish to
permit the use of intoxicating bever-
ages to do so under governmental reg.
ulation. In considerable measure 1t
follows the Swedish system of liquor
control To this plan five other menu
bers of the commission subscribe.
although two of them are DESTROYS OF
giving the existing law further trial.
1t is unfortunate that the commits
sion, or q majority OF it, has been I'M
able to determine upon the proper
course which should be followed in re-
gard to the prohibition issue. The COM
miSsioners have made an intensive study
covering O year and half. 1t is prob
able, however, that the members of the
commission like the people of the
country, are so divided over what is
the proper course to pursue with regard
to national prohibition that 1t has been
utterly impossible to bring them, or a
majority of them, to pick a definite
program of reform. The nearest ap-
proach TO plan favored by majority
Of the commission is that presented by
Mr.. Anderson and subscribed to by five
other commissioners. six in all, although
two wish further trial of the present
system before it is abandoned.