Most Expensive Cry

"It is good to be just a private citizen."

So last week Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, onetime (1921-29) Assistant Attorney General in charge of Prohibition, began a series of articles for a newspaper syndicate led by the Wet New York Times. After eight years' experience, she prepared to say whether Prohibition was enforceable, whether it could be made popular, who was to blame for its nonenforcement et al. Excerpts:

"Before I took office in 1921 I had never been actively connected with the Prohibition movement. I am now, but was not then, a teetotaler. I had liquor in my own home in California and used it, in moderation, of course. . . .

"To the charge that I am a bigot and injected the religious issue in the last campaign, the unstinted faith and support of my many Catholic friends is the best reply. . . . The man most responsible for securing my appointment is Frank Doherty, of Los Angeles, a Catholic. When the cartoons were picturing me as a modern witchburner ... I called Frank (on the long distance telephone) and said 'surely you and Sarah do not believe these things of me?' With the friendly reassurance in his warm Irish voice, all my 'front' collapsed. I laughed as I paid the bill for my record long distance and most expensive cry."