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Show AMERICANS GETTING OVER THEIR HANGOVER, j CHIEF KRAMER SAYS Prohibition Commissioner Sees Doom or Bootlegger in Gradual Loss of Peoples Appetite for Good Old Hard Liquor. j , WASH iNt ;n . Jan. L5. As the first year of national proWbi-tioii proWbi-tioii cihIciI tonight, Prohibition Commissioner Kramer declared t he American people were rapidly recovering from their " haiif-r-" ! He believes they have begun to taper off their liquor drinking. Although liquor, some of it good iur much of it bad. still Is obtainable in large quantities, the head of the prohibition pro-hibition enforcement orps believes the f Im year's work has brought 8 j large measure of success, lie hud expected ex-pected it to be hardest both for the iaw enforcing staff and those who were deprived of their beverages. In the future, ho commissioner said, enforcement of the law should ji come increasingly easier while those who used to pur a foot on the brass rail should gradually become reconciled recon-ciled to the saloonlcss era. priv vn m t K b s . . 'In our first yowr," said Mr. Kramer, Kra-mer, "we have se -n lh private stocks absorbed like lakes In the desert. We have raided and prosecuted. We believe be-lieve we have made life unpleasant for the bootlegger and other trafficker in whiskey. It has been a difficult and HOmetimes dangerous job. yet thos' of us who have been on the Job itself can see changes for the better." But there remains much to do. the commissioner declared. lie told of whiskey "rings" and combinations and of how the bureau hud gathered evidence Indicating a rebirth of the business of bootlegging In some places. In the other hand, however, Mr. Km-mer'ls Km-mer'ls convinced rhat fTici'e is an increasing in-creasing sentiment favorable to prohibition pro-hibition which will eventually compel many bootleggers io "give up." DIPI EREN B IN COI RTS. ne of the principal problems encountered en-countered In the enforcement work, Mr. Kramer said, is the variation in the points of view of federal attorneys and courts. It bus been difficult to obtain Interpretations of the law that arc similar, he continued, while the infliction of penalties likewise has varied. United States attorneys have differed as to the powers and duties of agents and where there has not been a majority of citizens favoring prohibition federal courts have dealt lightly with offenders. Mr Kramer believes, however, that the second year will show Improvement Improve-ment In this connection also. He said uniform plans of court procedure were certain to come ar 1 that as a result prosecutions would be better handled. PATENT MEDI4 INE DRINKS. Mr. Kramer said many manufacturers manufactur-ers of patent medicines refuse to be-lieve be-lieve their product has become a popular pop-ular prohibition beverage. They attribute at-tribute the increase in sales to an awakening of the people to the formulae's for-mulae's medicinal ?alUe. "But we know differently here." the commissioner declared 'The cohol and nol the medical potion contained con-tained in those bottles is the reason for their popularity So the 'kick' must be taken out of such preparations or thev mu-t be medicated to i point where the taste will not lie pleasant." "Our men have Compelled nianufac-turers nianufac-turers of some such medh (nee to correct cor-rect their products already and the others will be taken care of as fast as we can get them." II kNGOVER 1PPETITE, The consumption of patent medicines medi-cines with a ' kick' in them, however, has convinced enforcement officials Mr. Kramer said, that the drinking dono now Is simply the satisfaction of the "hang.-over' appetite. He believes be-lieves It is proof that social drlnkings, the huve-unother-one-on-me. kind of consumption, has definitely paSSt I forever Into oblivion. "Of course," the commissioner continued, con-tinued, there is still the social drinking drink-ing in the homes wherever there i a private supply. But the nightly tarty drinking is gone. "1 have heard men say they would take a drink now when they never thought of BwaUowing h drop while the saloons were all about them. The cuuso for that is found in the spirit of adventure, born in most AuiQrlcai -It will continue to cause some trouble, rather indirectly, for awhile, but It will gradually disappear." BOOTLEGGER DOOMED. Disappearance of the "appetite" of the steady drinker also is predicted by Mr. Kramer who foresees In that connection practically the end of the bootlegger. He asserted that while there always would ! some demand for "hard liquor" prohibition enforcement enforce-ment in a few years would have resolved- Itself Into a simple problem of vigilance, s guarding against the production pro-duction of moonshine and the patrolling patroll-ing of the border nd coasts against smuggling. As for the moonshiner, Mr. Kramer candidly stated that "we always will have some of him with us operating operat-ing In the mountain fastnesses his still will spring up ag&in and again, but the head Of the dry forces Is optimistic. optimis-tic. Ho declared Qte sentence had been read for the moonshiner, too. and that the combined forces of prohibition prohibi-tion und Internal revenue could keep on his trail as long as congress authorized au-thorized employment of men for that purpose 00 |