"DRY" SCANDALS IN AMERICA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 262, 5 November 1928, Page 8

"DRY" SCANDALS IN AMERICA.

AMAZING CHARGES.

NEED FOR AN INQUIRY.

For the first time since prohibition became effective eight years ago. a searching investigation of'the "dry" law enforcement policies and their consequences looms as a virtual certainty. At least a dozen attempts to secure a Congressional "probe" have proved futile. Critics of ruthless dry law enforcement politics believe that the stand taken on prohibition by both Presidential candidates makes it certain that, regardless of whether Mr. Hoover or Governor Smith is elected. ?in inquirv will be ordered to establish the truth about the administration of the prohibition laws. Such an investigation, it is believed, could not fail to bring into the open the record of blood, corruption and crime which has marked the activities cf everv United States Government agency charged with any phase of "drv" lawenforcement. An inquiry, it is held, would disclose how nearly 200 citizens ha\e been killed, and thousands injured or maimed by countless "aces" of the Prohibition Bureau and the Coast Guard. Both Presidential candidates in their official public utterances have denounced abuses which have sprung up in the administration of the "drv" law, and Mr. Herbert Hoover, the" Republican nominee, has asserted that a thoroughgoing investigation of facts and causes can alone determine the wise method of correcting them. "Czars of Prohibition." The "wet' group in Congress has demanded an investigation of the ruthlesa enforcement policies of the "dry" Czars since a date soon after the law became j effective, but their efforts have proved abortive in every instance. "Dry" members of Congress have consistently bowed to the demands of the AntiSaloon League for protection of "dry" personnel, and have snowed under every effort to expose the real situation. It will not be necessary, however, for either Mr. Hoover or Governor Smith to depend upon Congress for authority to appoint a fact-finding board. All that will be necessary is for the Chief Executive to appoint a board, just as Piesident Coolidge appointed his Air Board a few years ago to investigate a\ lation. .As the power of appointment lies in the President alone, this would ensure that the members of the board would not be dominated by the AntiSaloon League and other reform organisations. Those who have followed the record of the various chiefs of prohibition enforcement during the past eight years assert that an honest mvestigtaion will reveal an amazing story of graft, both in high and low places, and an alarming disregard of human life, property and law. Firmidable Indictment. Among the outstanding results that an inquiry would develop are the following:— 1. That prohibition and the enforcement methods which have prevailed since its enactment are largely responsible for a nation-wide disrespect for all law.

2. That in attempts to enforce the Volstead Act the responsible Governa?entß i av e not only violated fundamental rights of citizens, but have flagrantly disregarded international laws.

3. That attempts to enforce this law by the "shoot to kill" method have cost the lives of nearly 200 citizens, not to speak of the countless thousands who have been maimed, permanently disabled and terrorised 'by irresponsible hair-trigger agents. 4. That the killers in virtually every case where State authorities attempted to prosecute for murder or manslaughter have been protected by intervention of federal Courts and Federal district attorneys in their behalf. 5. That enforcement to a large extent has depended upon the activities of unscrupulous "under-cover" agents, many of them with criminal records, who hav' expended big sums for liquor entertain • ment under the guise of securing evidence.

6. That the prohibition service has been honeycombed from the start with graft and corruption, and onlv in a few exceptional cases have the crooks been publicly exposed or prosecuted by the Government, if, in fact, they ver* ■nyta from tha