The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 14, 1921. BENEFIT OR FARCE?

Gisborne Times, Volume LV, Issue 6183, 14 September 1921, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 14, 1921. BENEFIT OR FARCE?

•The progress of the effort to enforce prohibition in the United States is being very closely followed all over the world by supporters of “The Trade” and prohibitionists alike. It is well-known that visitors have returned home with various tales as to how matters , stand in regard to the enforcement of the “dry” law in the Great Republic. Basing their convictions upon what they declared to be the lesson of the new law, prohibitionists have contended, with all their strength, that it has benefited every community and, in juxtaposition, anti-prohibitionists whole-heart-edly describe, the results as farcical. In New York State, it'seems, a thor-ough-going movement was launched, at the beginning of April; to make the people live up to the law. Within the 87-day period up to June 30, the police took into custody 6724 persons, confiscated 72,000 bottles, 4387 barrels and 1488 cases of liquor, and seized numerous conveyances used in the transportation of liquor, various stills and tons of materials for the distilling of beverages. Had a larger number of police lie on available to hunt viblators of the Mullan-Gage law, which is the counter-part of the Federal Volstead Act, it is not improbable that an even larger number of arrests would have been made. The upshot was that within three weeks the entire judicial system of New York became choked with liqupr-lav violation cases. Since under the State and Federal consttutions each offender must receive a trial by jury, it quickly became apparent that it would probably take ten years, with the judicial facilities available, to try the men arrested in a few weeks. But not at all discouraged, the authorities empanelled special grand juries to handle indictments against the violators of the enforcement measures. A few more than one-thirtieth of the cases had been disposed of up till July 15, the date of the latest American files to hand. One conviction had been obtained—that of a janitor, who said, “Come in,” to a prohibition officer’s knock, and was then unable to conceal a still in the cellar. A million dollars’ worth of liquor seized from one concern had to be returned upon order from a Federal court judge. The grand jury threw many cases out of court, there being insufficient evidence for indictments. Dozens of trial juries had refused to convict, on the ground that entrance into private premises, for the obtaining of evidence, was made without search warrants. As a similar effort is being made in all other States to make the “dry” law unenforceable, prominent American journals are now discussing the, issue: “Is America mentally and spiritually ready for prohibition?” Writing on the subject, the New York correspondent of the Melbourne Argus has this to say:

“It has all simmered down to an instance illustrating the 'adage that an unpopular law is unenforc-able. The fact that prohibition was written into the Constitution—passed by Congress and ratified by the State Legislatures—is unanswerable. But, even if it is a minority of the people who are making the law unenforceable, it is a determined minority that will not let the matter rest. This minority will continue to drink, will not obey the law, cannot be convicted and imprisoned, even if arrested, is irrepressible, and will be heard from. Thus, whether majority or minority, it is this group of the American 'people who are not ready mentally or spiritually for prohibition. It is they that are making of the ‘new morality’ a farce along broad lines. This group is spread evenly over the United States. It cannot be said to bulk in any one State. Its members are the force that sporadically attempts to have the Volstead Act repealed. They were blocked by the decisions of the Supreme Court upholding prohibition, but they have not been discouraged. They keep on drinking and fighting prohibition. And, until the prohibitionists can convince them that drinking is really bad for them, and inspire them to cease, law or no law. prohibition will remain a mixed and somewhat undefined blessing.”