CORRUPT POLITICS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 25 October 1924, Page 5

CORRUPT POLITICS.

WOMAN’S ALLEGATIONS. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT NEW YORK, Oct. 22. An official admission, that corrupt politics defeats the enforcement of prohibition is contained in a remarkable letter from the hand of Mrs. Mabel Willebrandt, Feddlal assistant attorney. She states that there are senators and minor politicians who declined to dislodge unworthy officials, and adds: “There are nine or ten F.ederal attorneys who, if I have the power, I would summarily remove because of their inactivity or political evisiveness in enforcing the prohibition statutes.” Mrs. Willebrandt is - generally responsible for the enforcement" of the statutes, and the letter was in reply to a charge by the Philadelphia Law Enforcement League, which laid the failure of enforcement at Mrs. Willebrandt’s door. The latter’s reply points out that she is unable to enforce the law because of influence. The letter is causing a political sensation. It furthermore embarasses the administration because it contradicts Monday’s report by the prohibition commissioner (Mr. Haynes), who, reviewing the three years’ enforcement, declared that prohibition offences were declining and announced that the total seizures were 39.000,000 callous of liquors, while there were 177,000 arrests, resulting in 94.800 convictions. Fines totalled 18,000,009 dollars. _ The letter was written on the stationery of the Department of Justice, vet in conclusion classes itself as a nersonal letter. This has paused wide Democratic attacks upon the administration.