AMERICAN PROHIBITION

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 3, 25 October 1924, Page 5

AMERICAN PROHIBITION

ALLEGED CORRUPT POLITICS.

A WOMAN’S CHARGES.

New York, October 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, Federal assistant! attorney. She states that there are 1 senators and minor politicians who I declined to dislodge unworthy offlc-j ials, and adds: “There are nine or ten' Federal attorneys who, if I have the power, I .would summarily remove because of their inactivity or political evasiveness 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 embarrasses 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 deciding and announced thait the total seizures were 39,000,000 gallons of liquors, while there were 177,000 arrests, resulting in 94,300 convictions. Fines totalled 18,000,000 dollars.

The letter was written on the stationery of the Department of Justice, yet in conclusion classes itself as a personal letter. This pas caused wide Democratic attacks upon the administration.