Woodcock's War

Amos Walter Wright Woodcock, tall, terse, serious chief of the new Prohibition Bureau in the Department of Justice, last week met his twelve District Administrators in Washington, made them his first important speech. Because he had just come from a conference at the White House, his words and manner seemed to many observers to indicate a decided change in Administration attitude toward Prohibition enforcement. Such observers contrasted the personal and moral concern of earlier Prohibitionists, and their sweeping promises, with such staid excerpts from Mr. Woodcock's statement as:

"The aim of our Bureau is not the number of people sentenced for violating the law, but a decrease in the consumption of intoxicating liquor in the U. S. ... I shall direct the agencies against commercial violations of the law. ... I will not have our agencies following the course of least resistance and wasting their time upon pitiful, picayunish, non-commercial cases. I think the Prohibition laws can be successfully enforced against commercial operations. ... I disapprove sensational methods. ... I do not propose to busy myself with the details of this Bureau so that I will not have opportunity to see, to hear and to think."

Chief Woodcock is a lieutenant colonel in the Army reserve. His meeting of administrators and agents was delayed while he took a tour of active duty. Fresh from camp, he announced the almost military organization he had devised for his Bureau, asked that it be considered "a division in the general army against crime."

Daily Reports. Like brigade commanders to their superior, the administrators of the twelve Prohibition districts, which correspond roughly to the Federal Court circuits, must report daily to Chief Woodcock. What they report will have been gathered by numerous assistant administrators under them--the regimental commanders of this army. Their reports will contain the doings of their regiments of Dry agents each day.

Training Schools. He said: "I think much of the criticism of Prohibition in the U. S. is due to blunders and misconduct of agents and investigators. ... On Sept. 1 we will begin training in Washington 24 picked men as instructors. . . . On Oct. 1, two of these graduates will be sent to each administrative circuit ... to train the agents to act always as gentlemen . . . [and] to aid in the building up of an esprit de corps by showing the agents that the business of detecting crime is a profession in itself, in which a person may take pride."

Research, Propaganda. As a separate part of his Bureau, Chief Woodcock announced the formation of a Division of Research & Public Instruction, which will compile statistics on arrests for drunkenness, deaths from cirrhosis of the liver, importation & exportation of hops, production of corn sugar, etc., etc. and announce its findings to the public. "I have an opening in this division for some first-class people," said he.

Bigger Army. Finally, he announced his intention of increasing his "field army" from 2,000 to 2,500, at an additional annual expense of about $2,000,000. Asked if more agents would not mean more cases for the already congested Federal courts, he said that the new policy of not prosecuting petty cases would relieve congestion.

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