The Smaller the Higher

Last fortnight the Senate, wondering what had become of the $1,719,654 additional Prohibition enforcement appropriation allowed the Treasury Department earlier in the year (TIME, March 11), asked Secretary of the Treasury Mellon for a report. Last week he made his accounting.

The added appropriation was spent for 275 extra agents. What they did puzzled Senators because the report showed that since April i, 1929, there have been fewer arrests, fewer prosecutions, fewer stills and less malt liquor seized than during the corresponding period last year. Only the seizure of spirits increased in quantity. Also, importation of liquor from Canada, averaging around 500,000 gals, per month in the summer of 1928, was reported halved in 1929.

Prohibition Commissioner James M. Doran appended to the report a word of explanation: though the "volume" of work done in 1929 was smaller, the "quality" of enforcement in 1929 "showed marked improvement."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.