ENFORCING THE LAW

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18708, 14 May 1924, Page 9

ENFORCING THE LAW

AMERICAN PROHIBITION. CRITICISM OF METHODS. A. and F.Z. JNEW YORK, Maor 12. In an impassioned speech denouncing ■the failure of the Federal methods of enforcing prohibition, Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania, addressing the Methodist Convention at Springfield, Massachusetts, asserted that the enforcement law was the greatest moral issue before the American people. : The sordid betrayal of the Eighteenth Amendment by politicians was known from coast to coast, said the speaker. An openly-tolerated alliance between bootleggers and politicians had. corrupted their children, degraded their characters, destroyed their health, cost the lives of uncounted thousands, debauched' the Government, and shamed the nation before the world. The failure of enforcement was sometimes claimed to mean that the Eighteenth Amendment , failed. It meant nothing of ithe sort. They were infinitely better off now in , spite of the wretched methods of enforcement than they weo before. Mr. Pinchot blamed Mr. Andrew Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, for the failure of Federal enforcement, and added that moral indignation was not enough. This was a case for fearless, untiring and uncompromising action. It was a cause to which every church member in America was irrevocably pledged.