Evening star., 1947-07-27
AIcohoIicCIiniic,
Weapon Bi||sGo
To White House
Passage Of Two D. c.
Meusures.CIimuxes
Drives by The Star
By Don S. Worren

Measures to finance clinics for
chronic alcoholics here and to
put teeth into the District S
deadly weapons law were freed
from Congress last day log jam
and went to the White House
last night.
With two other District measures
passed late yesterday, these bills
climaXed one of the Districts largest
legislative programs on Capitol Hill.
Both the tighter firearms law and
the chronic alcoholics bill were the
objects of long campaigns in The
Star. These campaigns supported
public officials and private citizens
concerned by the problem of chronic
alcoholics and aroused by a wave
of street shootings.
The firearms law is designed to
plug a loophole in the law which
made it possible for hundreds of un-
licensed pistols to be carried on the
streets by men who remained vir-
tually free of arrest as long as the
weapons stayed in their pockets.
Police Action Restricted.
AS the law stood, policeman could
not arrest a man they knew to be
carrying a pistol and make con-
cealed weapons charge stand up in
court unless they actually say the
man committing crime or left the
scene to get warrant.
The measure passed by Congress
permits police to search and arrest,
without warrant, persons suspected
of carrying concealed weapons. AT
the same time, it safeguards the
civil rights of suspected persons.
+ The alcoholics clinic bill is de-
signed to provide a better solution
to the problem of chronic alcoholics
than committing them wholesale tc
the Jail or workhouse. During hear
ings on the measure, Congress was
told that 81 per cent of all Jail SEN
/ tences in the District during the
past IL years were for intoxication
The bill sets up program for re-
Mobilization of alcoholics, promo
ton of temperance and medical anc
scientific treatment OF persons found
by Municipal Court judges to be al
coholics. Persons who voluntarily
ask for treatment also may be ad.
mitted to alcoholic clinics.
Bill Provides for Treatment.
Under the bill, when a person X
arrested for drunkenness he may be
given hearing TO determine
whether he is a chronic alcoholic
If he is considered a chronic alco-
holic, he may be committed to 6
clinic for diagnosis and treatment
up to 80 days.
The director appointed by the
Commissioners TO mead the program
may recommend that the defendant
be permitted to remain at liberty
under supervision, placed IN q hos
pital or other agency for treatmen
or returned to court foz trial or
the original offense.
The bill for the alcoholics clinic!
places 10 per cent increase on tht
annual fees of licensed liquor deal
ers here, to raise an estimated $75,
600 earmarked for the clinics.
Clearing final legislative hurdles
also were House-Senate conference
reports on bills requiring the licen
sing of undertakers and embalmer
operating in the District and au
thorizing a long-delayed moderniza
ton of the record copying practice
of the Recorde of Deeds. The latte
permits the purchase and use 20
photostatic machines for transcrib
ing records, now required to be dom
by hand or typewriter.
1t was big year for District leg
(See D. C. LEGISLATION, A-8)