Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 88, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 August 1929 — Page 6

PAGE 6

EX-PRQhOTION DIRECTOR HITS WILLEBRANDT Gus 0. Nations, Once Head of Missouri Dry Unit, Answers Charges. Aroused by Mabel Willebrandt’s articles on prohibition enforcement in St Louts. Gus O Nations.' attorney and former director of prohibition agents in Missouri, who handled 2.831 cases while in office, issued a statement as an answer in which he purports to give the actual facts in the St Louis situation The following arc excerpts from his statement: Mrs Willcbrandt’s article on “When the Anti-Saloon League Went Wet.’’ so far as it refers to me, is absolutely false She says that she was at one time opposed by a lawless brewery and the AntiSaloon League. As director of the prohibition agent:, in Missouri. I raided the brewery and arrested its ] forty-four officers and employes.! and he released all of them Offers SI.OOO Forfeit She complains that the people oi Missouri showered her with protests against her conduct of the case. But she refrains from telling of the part she played which aroused the righteous indignation of law- | abiding Missourians. Here are the facts which have not! been and can not be denied, bacausc | they are proved by official govern- \ ment records. If any one of the statements I have made or shall ! make can not be proved completely from government records, I offer to ! forfeit si.ooo to any person who challenges it. This is the record: The Griesedieck Brewery twice j was caught in flagrante delicto and ! more than eighty men apprehended , -before my brother was indicted. Mrs. Willebrandt each time inter- j veiled to prevent the punishment or ! prosecution of a single one of the ! eighty persons arrested. Brother Gave Information The Griesedieck brewery was ; raided by me a second time upon information obtained and furnished me by my brother. Hcbcr Nations, whose only interest' was that of a citizen who wanted the law enforced. When faced with the necessity of : prosecuting the brewery officials , caught in my raid, she protected • them by releasing forty-four men j and prosecuted the citizens wdio ! made the raid possible. At the trial of my brother she challenged either peremptorily or for cans"' every prospective juror who admitted on voir dire examination that he believed in prohibition Mrs. Willcbrandt s article omits a!) reference to the fact that the original ease against the Griesedieck brewery was made by me and J that the government would have had no case had it not been for me and my brother. Did Not Plead Guilty Pile says “All defendants pleaded guilty to the indictment but Hebcr Nations." They did not plead guilty. The Griesediecks have never been required to plead, although it has been more -han five years since I raided their brewery, caught them making and shipping real beer, and took them into custody. She says that the case “rested upon amply corroborated testimony of official misconduct and bribery," ! although she did not indict me and j she sat in court through the trial ■ and heard her associates in the case j commend me. When challenged by counsel for i the defendant to accuse me if she ! dared, she sat silent. The Griesedieck brewery first was j caught violating the law June 11. ’921 The corporation was fined j $250 and all the individuals were released. In 1922 the brewery applied for j reinstatement of its permit. The j application came to me in my official capacity and I disapproved it. I I refused, upon the ground that

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the brewery could not be relied upon to obey the law. The permit was issued over my protest. In 1923 the brewery again began , breaking the lav.’. Being unable to get the necessary information for a raid I procured the assistance of my brother, publisher of a paper which strongly advocated law’ enforcement and law observance. He secured the needed Information, and on Feb. 21. 1924, I raided the brewery and arrested forty-five men, including the president. A special agent within two hours came to me and asked permission to i interrogate the executive of the brewery, to which I agreed. Instead of being returned to my custody he was set at liberty. I rearrested him. I then asked for the prosecution of the men arrested. Brewers Go Free But when Mrs. Willebrandt was faced with the duty oi prosecuting these criminals, to whom she had given immunity after the 1921 raid, her record in the first, like the ghost of Banquo. rose to haunt her. It would not down. All the brewers were released and the government turned upon my brother, by whose public-spirited assistance the raid was made possible. She took before the grand jury three men I caught, and by their testimony that my brother, the man j who had caught them, was implicated. secured his indictment. I asked permission to tell the grand jury the facts, making a written offer to waive all immunity for the privilege. Although I had raided the brewery , and was the only living man who! knew all the facts, I was not per- j mitted to enter the grand jury room.: But innumerable bootleggers were j taken before the grand jury and the ! very hour that one of them was testifying against my brother in the j grand jury room, men under my di- j rection were destroying that man's} illicit still in rural Missouri, which j my brother had located for us. Hcbcr Nations Indicted An indictment was returned against Heber Nations, who had enabled me to catch the Griesedieck brew r ery. And he was charged with complicity in the crime! No other person w r as ever prosecuted! Heber's case came to trial in a great wet city before a jury where wets predominated. Affidavits of prejudice were filed against the judge. He refused to leave the bench in spite of disqualification, and was removed from the case by.a higher court. Fourteenth Federal Reporter i second scries) Page 507. Three assistant attorneys-general tried the case for the government. ASTHMA What Liver Extracts are doing for Anemia and what Insulin is doing for Diabetes, Jawn Jay’s Famous Prescription is doing for Asthma. Sold only by the Argray Drug Company. Not one record of failure. Former asthma sufferers who thought that they were hopeless are now going about in the enjoyment of life, entirely free from those dreadful attacks. A strictly pharmaceutical preparation, free from Nausea, habit forming, or injurious drugs. Literature describing this treatment will be promptly sent to anyone. anvw’here on request. THE ARGRAY DRUG COMPANY 15 W. Twenty-second St. Indianapolis, Ind.

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i They asked every prospective juror ! if he belonged to any organization j which advocated temperance or pro- , hibition. Every dry man was removed from the panel by Mrs. Willei brandt! And this in a liquor trial! I There have been two trials. The I theory of the government in the j first trial differed from its theory in the second precisely in the degree | in which light differs from dark. Affidavits on File. In the last trial, to bridge a vast chasm in the government's case, testimony w’as introduced that a government agent received a telephone call in Kansas City from E. B. Henson, a government agent, who relayed 41 message from William D. Moss, now assistant prohibition administrator In New’ York. Moss says that the information claimed to have been received from him by relay was not even known to him 'Moss). Affidavits supporting this statement are on file in the fe'deral court. After the evidence was all in, the United States attorney argued to the jury that since the w r et newspapers in St. Louis wanted the defendant convicted. they should return a verdict of guilty. They did. The court of appeals promptly reversed the decision with caustic comment upon such tactics. Thirtytwo federal reporter (second series) Page 598. I leave to candid minds the question why officers and employes of this lawless brewery have been released and the man w’ho caught them has been prosecuted. Why, if there was ample testimony of official misconduct and bribery, was I not indicted? Stands on Record Why when challenged in court to point an accusing finger at me did she permit her associates to extol me? Why in a prosecution for violation of the prohibition law T was every dry man removed from the jury? I am willing to have my record for personal and official integrity compared with that of Mrs. Willebrandt. She says that until she was appointed to office in 1921 she used

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i and served liquor for beverage purposes in her home. I have never either used or served it and there has been none in my family in four generations I have been an advocate of prohibition since I learned my prayers at my mother’s kr.ee. Since leaving the : government service I have continued 1 to advocate observance and enforce- ! ment of the law. and have declined to accept employment either as a I lawyer or a w riter by those who are trying to break down the law. Mrs. Willebrandt boasts of her record in office and the high per- ! centage of the cases she says she has | won. While in the government serv- , ice I prepared 2.831 cases, every one of w’hich resulted either in convic--1 tion or plea of guilty. I believe that this record is unequaled by any official in the history of the republic. I resigned from office June 20, 1524. despite the Tact the commissioner at Washington pleaded that I remain. He then wrote me as follows: "I very greatly appreciate the ! excellent services you have rendered. ! and w’ish for you the very best of success in all of your future undertakings." The United States district judge at St. Louis, when my resignation was announced, wrote me: “It was with regret that I learned of your resignation. You have rendered a wonderful service to the government while engaged in the enforcement service, and have set a high-water mark for those who are to follow." Since my retirement from the government service, I have seen beer unlawfully carried out of pxaces seven different times in St. Louis, but in the light of the record of Mrs. Willebrandt in handling the prosecutions, neither prohibition agents nor citizens dared to interfere. Negro Hurt by Automobile Teca Stone, 38. Negro, 2529 Eastern avenue, received a fractured left arm and bruises on the body when struck by an automobile driven by Ernest Reno, 21, of 2051 North Gale street, at Eastern avenue and Twen-ty-fifth street early today. He w r as taken to city hosp'l

Court Fights Decide Seizure Rights of Liquor Law Raiders Bitter Legal Battles W x agecl to Settle How Far Prohibition Agents Can Go in Enforcing Booze Act. In this article, the sixteenth of he r scries, Mrs. Willebrandt begins the subject of ‘ making the punishment fit the crime, '* the clarifying and interpreting the statutes applying to prohibition offenses which preceded the passage, of the famous Jones law. This piece of legislation she will deal with subsequently. BY MABEL WALKER WILLEBRANDT (Copyright. 1929, by Current News Features, Inc. All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. 1 BEFORE there can be any kind of effective law enforcement, there has to be law, very definite and very certain, to enforce. One of the great complaints of the anti-prohibitionists has been that the things done in the name of prohibition enforcement have been beyond the law. Some of that is right. With any new statute it is of the utmost importance early to clarify its interpretation and unify its application. This can be done only by carrying disputed points to the highest courts for settlement. I have watched vigilantly for about eight years the decisions of courts on difficul tinterpretations of liquor laws, in the ninetytwo districts of the United States. With the able assistance of Mahlon D. Kiefer, who has headed the appeals section in my office, and Sewall Key, who, though primarily on tax work, has rendered yeoman service on many briefs, I have submitted 278 cases on certiorari briefs to the supreme court of the United States, and have helped to settle finally disputed interpretations in nearly two scores of cases argued, and briefed on the merits. Every one of these decisions brought certainty where legal confusion had been before.

Have you not often been in doubt whether prohibition agents have a right to stop cars on the road? The case of United States vs. Carroll, 267 U. S. 132, was briefed and argued twice in an effort to decide whether a car can be stopped on the high-

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out a search warrant, step one the 1 movements of which they have observed enough to be reasonably certain of its violation of law. Another recent victory in ir.torppreting and strengthening the prohibition law is the case of United States vs. Marron, 275 U. S. 192. Bootleggers keep their books just like business men. Because of the constitutional guarantee to protect a defendant from having to testify against himself and to protect his books and papers from seizure without a search warrant, most courts at first refused to allow bootleggers’ and othef law-breakers' books to be used against them. Government agents in the Marron case went into a “blind pig" in San Francisco. They arrested the proprietors and seized the books. With

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deep conviction I briefed and argued the view that the Constitution never intended to throw a mantle of protection around records of crime found incident so the arrest oi a law-breaker. The supreme courtupheld this view. In her next article Mrs. IVillebrandl will record some of the legal adventures affecting malt and yeast, and explain her position in regard to the famous Jones law. New Cars Are Ready The Indianapolis A: Southeastern Railroad Company Friday will put two new passenger cars into service on its line from Indianapolis to Greensburg and Connersvillc. The cars made an inspection run over the line today.

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AUG. 22, 1029