Evening star., 1934-04-30
1850 j. s. AGENTS
CALLED IN WAR ON
BOOTLEG INDUSTRY
Treasury Acts as Choate
Charges Nation Lives in
"FooI's Paradise"
MELL0TT TAKES POST
FOR DRIVE WEDNESDAY
Enforcement Units Field Force
to Exceed Bureau Just Prior to
End of Prohibition.
BY REX COLLIER.

BY REX COLLIER.
Aroused by bootleg conditions which
prompted Joseph H. Choate, director
of the Federal Alcohol Control Ad-
ministration, to declare that America
is living in a fools paradise" the
Fedora! Government is mobilizing an
enforcement army of 1850 revenue
agents in a determined war on the
illicit liquor industry.
Ending a period Of lethargic en-
forcement, due to confusion of au-
thority growing out of the death OF
prohibition and the legalization Of
liquor, Treasury officials disclosed to-
day plans for drive comparing With
that which marked the early enthu-
siasm of prohibition days.
The revival of the war on bootleg
gers, illegal distillers and others en-
gagged in the illicit liquor trade will
Arthur j. Mellott, who will take office
Wednesday as deputy commissioner Of
internal revenue.
New Agency Organized.
Under Mellott is being organized a
new agency of the Internal Revenue
Bureau, to be known as the alcohol
tax unit The unit will be divided
into two divisions, one called the per-
missive division" having to do with
issuance and inspection of permits and
other licensing duties, the other, called
the enforcement division, concentrat-
ing on determination of law violators.
The present force of 725 ''regulative
inspectors" of the Bureau of Industrial
Alcohol, which passes out Of existence
by executive order May 10, will form
the nucleus Of the new tax unit. To
these will be added, at least tempo
rarily, the $50 ex-prohibition agents
of the Justice Departments dying
alcoholic beverage unit, which also
disappears under the order. Further
additions will be made to bring the
total field force to approximately
1850, 1t was learned.
Larger Field Force.
The new enforcement agency will
have a larger field force than did the
defunct prohibition bureau at the time
Of its demise.
When the prohibition law came to
an end there were 1900 dry agents
in the field, and that number subse-
quently was reduced by nearly half.
This force has been under leadership
of John S. Hurley. whose official fu-
ture under the new set-up has not
been revealed.
The Department of Justice never
relished the dry enforcement job
from the moment it was dropped in
its lap by executive order abolishing
the old Prohibition Bureau and trans
ferring what remained of it to the
Division of Investigation of the JUS
tice Department.
Disagreement among high ofcials
as to the extent of enforcement au-
thority under repeal, coupled with
confusion caused by release of prohi-
bition violators and general uncer-
tainty as to the whole future Of liquor
law enforcement, led to a twilight
zone of investigation and enforce
ment. During this period the illegal
liquor trade has fourished, officials
admit.
Choate Answered.
Choate's sensational statement about
the paradise" which bootleggers have
found brought from Representative
Cochran, Democrat, of Missouri
charge that Choate's organization,
which administers the liquor code,
could end bootlegging by lowering
prices on legal liquor.
In letter to Cochran today, Choate
declared the Federal Alcohol Control
Administration has no authority to
prevent retail profiteering on liquor.
Choate meanwhile was said to be in
favor of recommending revision of
liquor taxes as an aid to increasing
the legal liquor business.
Choate's statement yesterday as
serted that prohibitions Frankenstein
monster, the bootleg trade, is still
with us" and declared the country is
blind to the enormous growth of the
main body of the monster, Illicit dis
tilling, compared to which smuggling
and industrial alcohol diversion have
been mere trifling excrescenes on its
gigantic frame"
congressman Protest.
His charges follow closely a declara-
ton sent the President by IL members
of Congress to the effect that boot
Logging is widespread and that rum
row still lives"
So muddled did the enforcement
picture become early this year that it
was decided to deputize the Justice
dry agents as revenue agents, so that
they could enforce revenue provisions
of the liquor laws. This move was
but a preliminary step to complete
transfer of iquor-enforcement func-
tions from the Justice Department
back to the Treasury Department.
The Department of Justice viii
tackle the illicit liquor problem from
a new angle, however, 1t was indi-
Gated recently, when suits were filed
against two large producers Of indus
trial alcohol for taxes alleged to be
due the Government because the al
cohol found its way into bootleg
channels.
The success which attends this un-
usual court move will determine for
the department its future course with
respect to recovery Of taxes on alco-
hol iIleCallv diverted from industrial