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PROHIBITION.
REPEAL OPPOSED.
Commission Favours Revision.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19.— The final re
port of President Hoover's National Com
mission In Law Observance and Enforce
ment, comnruinz 90.000 words. has
been submitted to Congress. Under
the chairmanship of Mr. G. W.
Wickersham, of New York, the Commis
sion, appointed in 1929 by President
Hoover, in accordance with the programme
outlined in his inauguration speech, com
prised, in addition to the chairman, nine
legal men and the president of a women's
college. Its terms of reference included
an exhaustive study of the entire prob
lem of the enforcement of American laws
and the improvement of the judicial system.
In the' words of the President, this in
cluded the special problems and abuses
growing out of the prohibition laws.
In its final report, the Commission
opposes repeal of the Eighteenth (Prohibi
tion) Amendment, although some members
believe that it cannot be enforced and
should be revised. The Commission, re
cognising that the process of revision
would require some time, therefore advo
cates increased Federal appropriations for
enforcement to determine whether an im
provement can be effected. The report
opposes the restoration in any manner
of legalised ealoons and opposes tbe sale
of liquor by Federal or State Governments.
It opposes the manufacture and sale of
light wines and beer, requests the co
operation of the States in prohibition
enforcement' and comments upon the in
adequacy of measures thus far taken for
enforcement.
The report indicates much difference
of opinion among the Commissioners on
many points, and at least one Commis
sioner failed to sign the document. Seven
of the eleven Commissioners issued a sepa
rate report, some of them advocating a
modified form of Swedish State liquor
control in such American States as de
sired to utilise tbe plan.
The Commission, as a whole, found a
general disregard of prohibition amonp
many sections of the people and admitted
scepticism as to the many benefits claimed
for it. While concerned over public in
difference, at the same time it found diffi
culty in suggesting remedies. The Com
mission states: — 'It i? evident, taking the
country as a whole, that people of wealth,
business and professional men and their
families, and the higher-paid working men
and their families, are drinking in large
numbers in frank disregard of the Prohibi
tion Art.'
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