PROHIBITION.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18070, 12 May 1924, Page 9

PROHIBITION.

r ♦- ENFORCEMENT CRUSADE. FOUR MONTHS' AftfeßStS, (bt cable—lttSßfS AaSoeUfiott (MJBTBALIAH AHD: K.Z. Cißht ASSOCIATION.), ' "PHILADELPHIA, May "9. Figures published ifi Montreal 'by General Smedley Butler, U.S. Marines, Director of Public Safety in Philadelphia, relating to the Prphibition enforaement. fiftisnde, feVeal that there, Wefe 31,000 forests idt v&H6Uf) offdnoGs during the ptLstiou* months, representing 6000 aio/e than' in the same period of 1923. , x Areata for Intoxication head the lint with 18,869, showing &tk incrd&Se . 6f> 4000, ■ The rapoft further cites 1818 arrests for illegal possession of liquor/ 781; for illegal SiiO, ftttd 212 tot illegal tfaiifiportation. - Medical authofitles, ceaffieatlag oa the figures, deplore the rising iigures relating to alcoholic insanity, due to j enforced ffltfOflflge Of bootleggers, whose produce is often liquid poison; But Prohibition's proponents assert that such insanity alono dan deter wiliul Violators of the law.

BEER IN POLITICS. SLIPPING ON A WET PLANK. (AVSTBAUAN AND S.Z. CABLE ASBOOl&ftONi) (Received May 11th, 6.5 ptm.) WASHINGTON, May 9. Mr Wheelef, general counsel for the Anti-Saloon League, replying to intimations that President Butler, of Columbia University, would liberalise Republican Prohibition principles and seek the insertion of & "wet" plank in thft party platform, has isstied a statement 6aying, "No party oaii slip into power on & wet plank. Besides, if, as Dr. Butler claims, it will take a wot plank to save 11 States for Republicans, what will it take to save twice aa many dry States?. , r

3lr Wheeler, testifying before the House ef itepf&dfittites Judiciary Committee, which is considering fhb 59 identical Beer Bills, Baid. "Why should Congress fav&ttirably consider iegalisifig 2.76 per cent, beer when three-fourths of the States fofbid it? Beer has i catlsed much tfifirt, insanity atld ptolfr efism aitfM>g saloon patrons. iVrtherniore, in the past bftStf«fy-ortiied spoons we*a Centres <ii Vice and corruption ; but, wkefi W6 stopped legalised beer, the death', poverty and Crime fig. Utfefl declined. We ft&Ve had' the. four dry yea*® 873,000 fewer deaths, many thousands fewer attests far drunkenness and 74 pee teal.' decitefcse in the dtiit to iatefltperaflse." Cfite ''beer hide,'* which is endeavouring to liberalise the Volstead liw,-' introdncedCS identical- Bills to legalise the manufactureand sale of beverages containing s}j 'jier cen£ of alcohol. The hide r&qliested immediate hearing with a view td premat action. The 59 Mils correspond to the present membership of the ' * beer bide," which began operations with a nucleus of 40. IB planned to emphasise the campaign of liberalisation % having each additional tecriiii present an identical Bill.]