The Sphinx Commission
jr., William C. Murphy
July 3, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 249 THE SPHINX COMMISSION
By WILLIAM C. MURPHY, JR. W ASHINGTON has grown exceedingly cynical on the sub-ject of special governmental commissions. Many such...
...The Senator said that he thought such a committee would meet the requirements which the President had in mind and, naively explained that he thought all mem- bers of the committee should be ardent prohibitionists...
...It was suggested that what the Republican candidate really had in mind was an investigation to determine whether prohibition itself is wise or unwise...
...This view is held by such men as Senator Jones of Washingtonmof "five and ten" law fame--who intro- duced a resolution proposing the creation of a com-mittee to investigate prohibition enforcement...
...A special commission, generally speaking, has served its purpose when it has heard a subject to death...
...But Senator Jones decided not to press his resolution after he had conferred with the then President-elect...
...When President Hoover first suggested the idea which has developed into the Law Enforcement Commission, he did so during a discussion of prohibition...
...The calibre of the Commission he appointed rather discredits this idea...
...Hoover may have intended to con- vey in his acceptance speech, the public from that date until Inauguration Day thought in terms of a com-mission having to do with prohibition...
...It is that Mr...
...They offer no alternative...
...So the alluring con...
...There is good reason for this seeming stubbornness...
...This suggestion of an "organized, searching investi- gation" was expanded by the Republican campaign orators as Mr...
...There is no need to go further than the public expressions voiced by leaders in all walks of life when the personnel of the Commission was announced...
...Louis GINSBERO...
...Thereby hangs the reason for much mystification in Washington at present...
...Writing in Collier's of June 8, Senator Borah says: The real problem is: what effect shall we as a people, as a nation, give to the law because it is the law...
...Hoover wants to do is to make enforcement more effective under the present laws, he has no need for a national commission...
...It is a large-scale theory, to be sure, but its proponents are not lack- ing in plausibility...
...They know what they would do in the President's place and assume he is doing likewise...
...An organized, searching investigation of fact and causes can alone determine the wise method of correcting them...
...clusion is reached, in the minds of this last-named group, that Mr...
...Proud White lgTaves The ocean heaps its thunder upon the sand, While combers, preening their bright disdain to the shore, Combers crested with languor, poise toward the land, Like proud white swans, arching over the roar...
...perhaps that should be stated first...
...They denounce the law, decry its advocates, embarrass those who would enforce it...
...Hoover has failed to convince the public that the Commission is not something connected primarily with prohibition...
...Thus calmly does the Senator ignore the very specific modification program advocated by Governor Smith during the last campaign...
...July 3, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 249 THE SPHINX COMMISSION By WILLIAM C. MURPHY, JR...
...Hoover's alternative to the modifica- tionist views of Governor Smith...
...But what is the Commission for...
...Hoover was merely trying to side-track the idea of a prohibition commission, he could have done so by appointing a commission composed of obscure per- sons who would have their brief day in the spotlight of publicity and then pass on their way...
...Senator Borah of Idaho, who shared honors with Mrs...
...The present enigma is just as impenetrable as the former and seems destined to longer life...
...Furthermore, in his inaugural address the President, while discussing the Eighteenth Amendment, said: I have been selected by you to execute and enforce the laws of the country...
...In his inaugural address, although placing his refer- ences to the proposed commission immediately after his discussion of enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, the President sounded a different note: I propose to appoint a national commission for a searching investigation of the whole structure of our ~ederal system of jurisprudence, to include the method the statements to the effect that the Commission is of enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment and the to deal with the problem of better enforcement of all causes of abuse under it...
...Mr...
...Proud white waves interrogate not the sea, Lestmtoo much aware of the hour they are the heart of__ They cannot exult in their leashed, white liberty Nor feel the lavish power they are a part of...
...in the wet areas it was held out as a lure to the thirsty and construed as meaning that Mr...
...What-ever meaning Mr...
...However, there does seem to be agreement on one point...
...Many such bodies have come into exist- ence and passed away in recent years, leaving behind them voluminous unread re-ports and recommendations, together with as many unThe personnel of the National Law Enforcement Commission is distinguished and evocative of confidence...
...But the National Law Enforcement Commission is in a very different category from most of its prede- cessors...
...It does, however, reveal something of the legalistic quandary in which the nation finds itself, and the inevitable association of the problem with prohibition.--The Editors...
...I propose to do so to the extent of my own abilities, but the measure of success that the government shall attain will depend upon the moral support which you, as citizens, extend...
...Unorthodox though it seems, there is reason to believe that even the members of the Commission do not know just exactly what they are supposed to do...
...Hoover's efforts and all of that they were thinking of the work of the Commis- sion in terms of wet and dry...
...All of Mr...
...Hoover, having used the idea of a prohibition investigating commission for campaign purposes, now seeks to spread the work of the Commission over so much territory that its original objective will be for- gotten before it completes its duties...
...He could call together the officials charged with enforcement, ask them what machinery they need, and then ask Congress for the appropria- tions to provide the machinery...
...Willebrandt in the Hoover oratorical campaign, apparently has the same view...
...Thus does he demonstrate that to him the aim of the present Com- mission is to devise means of enforcing the present prohibition laws and not to consider the merits or demerits of the laws themselves...
...Hoover's election, to the theory that it is prologue to a political maneuver of truly Machiavellian cunning...
...But there is still a third body of opinion as to the meaning of the President's new Commission...
...Reiterating his reference to the "great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose," he said: Common sense compels us to realize that grave abuses have occurred--abuses which must be remedied...
...W ASHINGTON has grown exceedingly cynical on the sub-ject of special governmental commissions...
...Hoover's proposal was construed as an investiga- tion to ascertain more effective methods of enforcing the Volstead Act in all its verbatim sanctity...
...It is in this same article that the Senator takes the opponents of prohibition to task by saying: But the dissatisfied [with the prohibition law] present no program...
...when the public becomes weary of reading accounts of its proceedings, the commission then makes the report it was created to make and the subject is dropped...
...As a matter of fact, this Commission is the greatest enigma Washington has had since Mr...
...This was in his address accepting the Republican nomination, delivered in the Stanford University Stadium on August I I, I928...
...indeed he believes that the membership itself is in the dark, no exit out of which is indicated by the President's remarks on the subject, d survey of these last adds not a little to the interest of the problem...
...To put it bluntly, the theory of this third group is that the President really wants to find out whether or not prohibition is workable, whether or not there is any substantial trend of public opinion against the present law...
...In what may be called the second group of theo- rizers are those who profess to believe that the Presi- dent is an ardent prohibitionist and that his sole idea in appointing the Commission was to seek ways and means of making the Volstead Act thoroughly effec- tive...
...It is equally true that nine times out of ten, when these conclusions and recommendations have been announced with all proper solemnity, that is the end of the sub- ject...
...Needless to say, this is the theory of the practical politicians who sang dry in the South and West, and wet in the East during the recent compaign...
...Its theory has the merit, at least of being ambitious...
...laws have not made a dent in the public's conception that it is essentially a pro-hibition question...
...Furthermore, it is suggested that if all Mr...
...Possibly their preference may have some effect upon their judgment...
...At least nine times out of ten, when a body of this nature is called into existence the conclusions it will reach, if any, may be predicted quite accurately from the moment its personnel is announced...
...Hoover has some deep-laid plan it mind which may result in rather startling consequences It should be mentioned that this view is held, for th, most part, by those who are not altogether satisfie~ with the present dry laws...
...Murphy affords no answer, in the following paper, to this question...
...There is one school of thought whose practitioners do not flatter the President's sincerity by holding that Mr...
...Opinions as to the real meaning of the Law En-forcement Commission range from the view that it is nothing more than a sop to the whirling dervish element among the drys who aided in Mr...
...Coolidge issued his famous "I do not choose to run" statement from the Black Hills...
...The assumption, of course, is that the answers he obtains to these questions will determine his recom- mendations to Congress, and, perhaps, his own atti-tude should he seek re~lection in 1932...
...For instance, it is pointed out that if Mr...
...Modification of the enforcement laws which would permit that which the constitution forbids is nullification...
...I stand for the efficient enforcement of the laws enacted thereunder...
...The establishment of a special commis- sion to investigate or consider some great question of the hour is a tried and reliable device which makes it possible for an administration to offer the appear- ance of great activity without making any definite deci- sion...
...They point out that in his acceptance speech he declared : I do not favor the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment...
...with practical unanimity their statements revealed solved problems as these various bodies were created to discuss...
...250 THE COMMONWEAL July 3, 1929 This proposal, of course, was somewhat broader than the suggestion of "an organized, searching in- vestigation of fact and causes" for the purpose of "correcting" the "grave abuses" in enforcement of the prohibition laws...
...In the dry states, Mr...
...This problem the President has assigned himself the task of solving if it is possible to do so...
...Hoover was not en-tirely sure that the Eighteenth Amendment is an im-proved substitute for the Ten Commandments...
Vol. 10 • July 1929 • No. 9
