SUCCESS OR FAILURE?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18722, 30 May 1924, Page 7

SUCCESS OR FAILURE?

AMERICAN PROHIBITION. COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING/ * *■ ~ r ~' '- *-V -'iifi ' ILLICIT TRAFFIC EVILS.. -- ' By Telegraph—Press Association— (Received 10.65 p.m.) A. and N.Z—Renter. WASHINGTON. May 59. The , Alcoholic Liquor Traffic • Commit- * tee of, the ; House of Representatives i. met for the first time since, the enactment of *><• prohibition ,• in 1919. : . It - ordered an official investigation to be ; made as to the' " . - : success or failure of prohibition. - - : / Every phase of the question will ;, fee examined with the view of ascertaining the effect of enforcement " efforts and of | determining whether the consumption pf ' : liquor has increased. Rum-smuggling and charges of abuse of the permit system will also be investigated. • :it -- The special committee which has been considering the 59 identical bills seeking for modification of the prohibition Itiw has concluded its sittings. It has now begun the discussion of the disposal of the measures. % ; v'

The ram-running fleets anchored off the Jersey and Long Island coasts are playing such havoc with the submarine cables that the officials of two cable companies have protested to the Government. ,

. The Federal Courts of America working at 'a feverish pace are still unable to cope with the criminal cases . brought before them as the result of the Prohibition Act, according to, a report recently issued by the ex-Attorney-General, Mr. Daugherty,. who, in ' a review of four years prohibition, showed-that 115.000 cases had been terminated ,in that period. At the closer of the fiscal year 1920 there were about 2000 cases pending, and. now, despite the vigorous prosecution of the Department of Justice, the" number pending is in excess of 23,000 and the Courts are clogged. /' This enormous total does not include a vast number of ' criminal proceedings " under the prohibition' laws m the State and the local Courts. ~j Mr. Daugherty expressed amazement ;at the speed with which the Courts disposed of cases, the average for the last fiscal year being 119 daily, 80 per cent, 'of the cases tried : resulting .in ■ convictions, with aggregate fines of more than £3,000,000. The 1 ex-Attorney-General did not venture an opinion as to : whether the rise in the number, of trial cases * meant stricter ; enforcement - or an increase in the number of law-breakers. He expressed the hope that , the maximum number of violations had been reached,, because was evident that 'the ■ capacity of the United States Courts was already overtaxed. if.