PROPHETS WTTHOUT HONOR: THE WICKERSHAM COMMTSSTON AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN LAW ENFORCEMENT Thesis for the Degree of M. S.- MTCHIGAN STATE UNIVERSTTY JAY STUART BERMAN 1973 W Li.“ ’3 R Y TWICE" :35: Unikversity PROPHETS WITHOUT HONOR: THE WICKERSHAM COMMISSION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN LAW ENFORCEMENT BY Jay Stuart Berman AN ABSTRACT OF A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE School of Criminal Justice 1973 Approved mm C . Sm DrY‘Victor G. Strecher, Chrm. (PEZH PW Professcr Ralph Turner /2%nV}/LLVZL:F§;6Q/QZ¢P¥3L~x.// Ffofessor Maffii Zalman ABSTRACT PROPHETS WITHOUT HONOR: THE WICKERSHAM COMMISSION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN LAW ENFORCEMENT ‘1’ A} B Lax: Y Q? Jay Stuart Berman The Wickersham Commission was created by President Herbert Hoover in 1929 to investigate the entire issue of crime and law enforcement in the United States. Through the study of the background, history, findings, recommenda- tions, and impact of the commission, this paper has attempted to present a composite picture of the development of the police in twentieth century America. Because no secondary sources on the subject of the Wickersham Commission were available, this study has relied upon contemporary sources, including government documents, journals, newspapers, and literature to reconstruct the events surrounding the creation of the commission and its investigation. A survey of law enforcement literature from 1935 to 1965, and a review of the findings of four Presidential Commissions, created between 1965 and 1970 to study law enforcement, have also been included in an effort to assess the ultimate impact, validity, and historical significance of the Wickersham Commission reports. PROPHETS WITHOUT HONOR: THE WICKERSHAM COMMISSION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN LAW ENFORCEMENT BY Jay Stuart Berman A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE School of Criminal Justice 1973 C0pyright by JAY STUART BE RMAN 1973 Dedicated to my wife, Lynne for her understanding, assistance and moral support ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Sincere gratitude is expressed to the following faculty members of the School of Criminal Justice of Michigan State University: to Dr. Victor G. Strecher for serving as thesis advisor and for his patient assistance and valuable ideas throughout the course of the study; and to Professors Marvin Zalman and Ralph Turner for their participation on the thesis committee and for their thoughtful consideration of and contributions to this paper. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM . . . . . . . . . . . SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM . . . . . . . . . . SCOPE OF THE STUDY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RESEARCH METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . PART I: BACKGROUND AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE WICKERSHAM COMMISSION Chapter 1. BACKGROUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. EARLY HISTORY OF THE WICKERSHAM COMMISSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PART II: THE WICKERSHAM COMMISSION'S STUDY OF AMERICAN LAW ENFORCEMENT INTRODUCTION 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O 3. THE REPORT ON POLICE . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER II--THE POLICE EXECUTIVE (CONTINUED) . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER III--PERSONNEL: SELECTION . . . CHAPTER IV--PERSONNEL: TRAINING . . . . CHAPTER V--COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND EQUIPMENT c o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 iv Page 13 46 86 88 9O 95 97 103 110 Chapter 4. CIiAPTER VI-—RECORDS o o o o o o o 0 CHAPTER VII--CRIME PREVENTION . . . . . CHAPTER VIII--POLICE SERVICE AND THE STATE CHAPTER IX--SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS . . REACTION TO THE REPORT ON POLICE . . . THE REPORT ON LAWLESSNESS IN LAW ENFORCEMENT CHAPTER I--INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . CHAPTER II--THE DEGREE IN THE New York Buffalo . Boston . Newark . Philadelphia Cincinnati Cleveland Detroit . Chicago . Dallas . El Paso . Denver 0 Los Angeles San Francisco Seattle . REACTION TO THE IN LAW ENFORCEMENT . . . . . . . . . EXISTENCE OF THE THIRD UNITED STATES . . . . . REPORT ON LAWLESSNESS Page 115 117 119 120 122 125 129 130 134 136 137 138 138 139 140 140 140 142 142 142 143 143 144 145 vi Chapter Page 5. THE WICKERSHAM COMMISSION‘S STUDIES ON THE COST OF CRIME AND CRIMINAL STATISTICS . . . 150 THE REPORT ON THE COST OF CRIME . . . . . . 150 Federal Law Enforcement . . . . . . . . . 151 State POliCe O O O O Q 0 O 0 O O O O O O 152 Municipal Police . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 THE REPORT ON CRIMINAL STATISTICS . . . . . 155 PART III: THE RESULTS AND IMPACT OF THE WICKERSHAM COMMISSION INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 6. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICE IN AMERICAe- 1935-1965: A SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE . . . 163 7. THE FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF RECENT PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSIONS-- 1965-1970 0 O O O O O O O O I O O O O O O O 178 THE PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE O O O O O O O O O O O O O O I 180 The Police Executive . . . . . . . . . . 181 Selection of Personnel . . . . . . . . . 182 Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Communications and Equipment . . . . . . 187 Records and Statistics . . . . . . . . . 189 Consolidation of Decentralized Services . 190 Corruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Crime Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Expenditures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 vii Chapter Page THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON THE CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF VIOLENCE . . . . . . . 199 THE PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON CAMPUS UNREST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 BIBLIOGRAPHY O O 0 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 216 INTRODUCTION On May 28, 1929, President Herbert Hoover announced the appointment of the National Commission on Law Obser— vance and Enforcement. The President saw fit to initiate the first major Federal examination of American law enforce- ment at a time when crime in the United States was becoming such a serious problem that many Americans were finally beginning to perceive the inability of their police to effectively deal with it. Among the conditions which con- tributed to the rising lawlessness of the "Roaring Twen- ties" were the rapid post-war domestic growth, massive immigration and emigration movements throughout the country, and the controversial imposition of Prohibition. The Commission consisted of eleven members and was placed under the chairmanship of George W. Wickersham, Attorney—General of the United States from 1909 to 1913 under President William Howard Taft. The Wickersham Com- mission, as the body came to be known,went on to conduct an exhaustive investigation of the entire American criminal justice system, and, on January 20, 1931, released the first of fourteen volumes comprising its official findings. Following is a list and capsule descriptions of the Com- mission Reports: No. l-—Preliminary Report on Prohibition--26 pages, 10,400 words; in which minor modifications of the Prohibi- tion machinery were proposed, among which were the transfer of enforcement responsibilities from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of Justice, and the provision for petty violations to be heard before the United States Commissioners. No. 2-—Report on Prohibition--162 pages, 64,800 words; in which the Commission as a body recommended a further trial of Prohibition, but with a majority of the members' individual Opinions expressing doubt as to the possibility of adequate enforcement and suggesting either modification or repeal. No. 3-—Report on Criminal Statistics--203 pages, 82,000 words; in which it was found that no adequate sta- tistics were available on crime, and which called for a national system of crime records. No. 4--Report on Prosecution--337 pages, 134,000 words; in which it was found that the prosecution arm of the criminal justice system was hampered by petty politics and patronage. No. 5--Report on Enforcement of Deportation Laws-- 179 pages, 71,000 words; in which a record of the "dark age cruelty" in the enforcement of these laws was presented. No. 6--Report on the Child Offender in the Federal System of Justice--l75 pages, 75,000 words; in which it stated that the Federal system of criminal justice had no adequate machinery with which to deal with the child offender and recommendation was made to turn this problem entirely over to the States. No. 7--Rep9rt on Federal Courts--123 pages, 50,000 words; containing a study of the congested conditions in the Federal courts and recommending a further study for possible remedies. No. 8--Report on Criminal Procedure--51 pages, 20,000 words; in which it was found that criminal procedure in the United States, both in the Federal and State branches was antiquated and fraught with politics, needing a thorough overhauling. No. 9—-Report on Penal Institutions, Probation and Parole--343 pages, 137,200 words; charging that inhuman methods of handling prisoners still existed in the United States and recommending an overhaul of corrections as one of the principal hOpes of ultimate satisfactory law obser- vance. No. 10--Report on Crime and the Foreign Born—- 416 pages, 166,400 words; returned a verdict of "not guilty" for foreign-born Americans charged with being responsible for diSprOportionate share of crime. No. ll--Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement-- 347 pages, 138,800 words; carrying a strong indictment of police officials for third degree methods in dealing with criminals and suspects. No. 12--Report on Cost of Crime-~657 pages, 262,800 words; containing the results of a massive survey of the costs of criminal justice and of the economic implications of crime in the United States. No. l3--Report on the Causes of Crime——2 volumes, 862 pages, 344,000 words; admitting the underlying fac- tors in the present era of lawlessness to be too diverse to state in more than a controversial social philosophy. No. l4--Report on Police--140 pages, 56,000 words; in which it was stated that the apprehension of criminals by the police was being hampered by politicians and antiquated police methods which had not kept abreast of the new develOpment in crime. (A fifteenth report was submitted to the Commission, but never released. The so-called Mooney-Billings Report, later published separately, was a highly controversial work dealing with the famous case of the Preparedness Day Parade bombing in San Francisco in 1916, which resulted in the conviction of two radical labor activists.) STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The present study will involve an examination of the background, history, findings, recommendations, and impact of the Wickersham Commission, and will thus attempt to pre— sent a composite portrait of the develOpment of law enforcement in twentieth century America. Essentially, the study will attempt to answer the following questions: 1. What were the conditions surrounding the crea- tion of the Wickersham Commission? Why was it established? 2. How did the Wickersham Commission conduct its investigation? What significant events transpired during the course of the study? 3. What was the state of American law enforcement as determined by the Wickersham Commission's findings and recommendations? 4. What was the response to the Wickersham Commis— sion reports on the part of the public, the press, and particularly, of the law enforcement community? 5. What impact did the Wickersham Commission have on the subsequent development of American law enforcement? Did any substantial changes occur as a result of its efforts? 6. How did the findings and recommendation of the Wickersham Commission compare to those of recent Presiden— tial commissions which studied the problems of law enforce— ment? SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM There is a serious lack of historical perspective in the field of criminal justice. In a field where new advancements have occurred so rapidly that few of us can foresee where we are going, it would do well for us to consider where we have been. In order to fully understand and appreciate the implications of current conditions and problems, as well as to be able to effectively plan for the future, it is essential to gain a clear insight into the past. And yet, there exists in criminal justice a critical lack of historical research to meet this need. In regard to the historical develOpment of the police in particular, the orientation of this prOposed study, it has been this writer's experience to encounter only perfunctory treatment of the subject in current law enforcement literature. For example, The Task Force Report on the Police discusses the history of the police in less than three pages. Germann, Day, and Galati, in their Introduction to Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, which is generally considered to be the standard introductory textbook in the field, offer a broad presentation of the historical foundations of modern police organization and practice in approximately thirty pages. This is a respectable overview but lacks detail and depth. The Wickersham Commission, which the authors refer to as "monumental" is mentioned but once in the entire book. Indeed, while a veritable plethora of new literature has appeared in the field of law enforcement in recent years, very few works have been historical in nature. The only efforts of any significance to have come to the attention of this writer are James Richardson’s The New York Police: Colonial Times to 1901 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), and Roger Lanes' Policing the City; Boston 1822 to 1885 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967). Patterson- Smith's Reprint Series in Law Enforcement and Arno Press' massive undertaking of the thirty—five volume Police in America are of immense value, but are essentially collec- tions of primary and contemporary sources and do not reflect new perspectives. On the specific subject of the Wickersham Commission, which certainly must rank as one of the major developments in the history of American law enforcement, a comprehensive secondary source simply does not exist. The significance, then, of this proposed paper, is that it will attempt to fill, at least in part, a serious research gap in the fields of law enforcement and criminal justice. Moreover, this study is timely because it comes at a point when we are just beginning to witness the impact of Wickersham's successors, the President's Crime Commis- sion of 1965-1967; the Kerner Commission on Civil Disorders, 1967-1968; the Eisenhower Commission on Violence, 1968-1969; and the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, 1970. By examining the historical antecedents of the current reform movement in law enforcement, we may better be able to achieve the long sought after modernization and profes- sionalization of the American police. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study will deal Specifically with the Wickersham findings relating to the contemporary state of law enforce- ment in America in the 1930's. Accordingly, the investiga- tion will center on those reports which deal primarily with this subject, the Report on Police, the Report on Lawless- ness in Law Enforcement, the Report on the Cost of Crime, and the Report on Criminal Statistics. The paper will also seek to assess the impact of the Wickersham Commission by surveying the state of American law enforcement during the thirty years follow- ing the Commission's study, as depicted through the writ- ings of the leading police experts of the time. In addition, the findings and recommendations of the four Presidential commissions created during the last decade to study the various aspects of crime, violence, and law enforcement will be compared with the Wickersham reports in an effort to evaluate the validity and historical significance of the Wickersham investigation. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY To the fullest knowledge of the writer, no histori- cal writings on the subject of the Wickersham Commission have yet been published. For this reason, extensive original historical research has been necessary to provide informa- tion. The following sources have been employed to create an accurate and comprehensive account of the background, findings, and impact of the Wickersham Commission. 1. The Reports of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, 1929-1931 A. The The The Report on Police Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement Report on the Cost of Crime The Report on Criminal Statistics The The Preliminarpreport on Prohibition Report on Prohibition 2. Congressional Documents--70th Congress 1929-1930 3. Contemporary Newspapers--1928—1931 4. Contemporary Periodicals and Journals--1920-l931 5. Law Enforcement Literature--l920-l965 Writings of: Fosdick, Vollmer, Smith, Leonard, Wilson, McNamara, Gammage, International Asso- ciation of Chiefs of Police, etc. 6. The Reports of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice A. B. Challenge of Crime in a Free Society Task Force Report on Police Task Force Report on Assessment of Crime Task Force Report on Organized Crime 10‘ E. Task Force Report on Juvenile Delinquency F. Task Force Report on Science and Technology 7. The Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders 8. The Reports of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence A. To Establish Justice, to Insure Domestic Tranquility B. Law and Order Reconsidered--Report of the Task Force on Law and Law Enforcement C. The Politics of Protest-—Report of the Task Force on Violent Aspects of Protest and Confrontation D. Rights in Conflict-—Report of the Chicago Study Team 9. The Report of the President‘s Commission on Campus Unrest (The findings and recommendations of the individual task forces, having been funded and released under the names of each commission, will be treated as the statements of the commissions themselves unless otherwise noted.) On a final introductory note, the issue of histor- ical perspective must be considered. Contemporary condi- tions shaping the environment within which the historian 11 works greatly influence his cognition and perspective of the past. The rapid advances made in American law enforce- ment in only the past five years constitute the first fruits of a movement to reform the police which began over a half-century ago. This writer's position as a direct product of the philOSOphy and institutions of the current "golden age" of criminal justice, profoundly affects his outlook on and evaluation of past conditions. Indeed, the significance of the Wickersham reports and later writings could not be perceived and assessed were it not for the writer's vantage point of being at least near the top of the mountain and able to look down. The panorama which is thus revealed, of men of foresight and vision, discerning a problem, and struggling toward its solution only to be ridiculed or ignored, vividly brings to mind the immortal statement in the Book of Matthew, that "prophets are not without honor, save in their own country" . . . and in their own time. PART ONE BACKGROUND AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE WICKERSHAM COMMISSION 12 Chapter 1 BACKGROUND In his preface to the 1929 Illinois Crime Survey, of which he was editor, John Wigmore told the story of an Egyptian king, who, over three thousand years ago, ordered a survey to be made of the quality of life throughout his domain. Upon completion of the survey, the king examined his achievements and left this admirable record of his reign: "I made the land safe, so that even a lone woman could go unmolested." "I rescued the humble from their oppressors." "I made every man safe in his home." "I preserved the lives of those who sought my court of justice." "The people were well content under my rule." Wigmore, in a sorrowful lamentation over the findings of the Crime Survey, then exclaimed: Alas! . . . The recorded facts of this present survey oblige us to admit that none of these fundamen- tals, as outlined by the Egyptian king, could be alleged today with tiuth in the city of Chicago. Not a single one of them! lIllinois Crime Survey (Chicago: Illinois Associa- tion for Criminal Justice and Chicago Crime Commission, 1929), p. 5). 13 14 Indeed, Wigmore's conclusion could well have been applied to almost every major American city in the 1920's, for the period was one characterized by lawlessness and social upheaval. Crime was the overriding concern of the American public, and it was the massive scope of the problem which led President Herbert Hoover to create the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement in 1929. The Wickersham Commission was an official response to a great national crisis, which, unchecked and compounded by a mul- titude of social conditions, had reached a boiling point by the end of the decade. In order to fully understand and appreciate the problem which the Wickersham Commission was called upon to investigate as well as to intelligently eval- uate its findings and recommendations, it is necessary first to examine the background of the crime wave in post World War I America. *********** Perhaps the crime problem in the United States during the 1920's is best illustrated by this colorful analysis of the contemporary scene contained in a 1929 issue of North American Review: In the United States . . . we have the world's highest murder rate, flood tides of crime, gang mur- ders at a rate of two a week in our largest cities, a crime bill that costs ten billions a year, according to various estimates, and the most expensive police establishments known in the history of civilization. We have underworld combinations, racketeer alliances, 15 murder and kidnapping clubs, twenty—thousand dollar funerals for ex-convict gangster kings, gambling, beer running, pickpocket, fence and burglar trusts, and the weirdest assortment of criminal organizations. The colossal crime machines with which fictionists regaled us and overtaxed our imaginations a decade ago are today realities surpassing the imaginative creations of the story writer. The crime wave of the 1920's is legendary in Ameri- can history. It was the inspiration for an entire new chapter in American folklore and served as a prime subject for literature, film, theater, and commentary for decades afterwards. It saw the birth of the famous American gang- ster, a romantic, dashing figure, who used wits and resource- fulness as well as a keen business sense to outsmart the law and become a rich, powerful man. This was the beginning of what might be called the "Modern Era of Crime." It was at this time that we can see the large-scale emergence on the American scene of the two most dominant forms of crime in America today: organized crime and socio-economic based urban street crime. Such forms had probably existed pre- viously, but it was not until the 1920's that they emerged as the distinct and dominant patterns of American lawless- ness. What were the roots of the crime wave of the 1920's? How did such a monumental problem develop? True, Americans have always been known as a violent peOple, and the history 2Howard McLellan, "Our Inefficient Police," North American Review, CCXXVII (February, 1929), 220. 16 of this country has seen numerous crime waves since colonial times. (But the scope of the problem in the 1920's coupled with the enormous and unprecedented economic considera- tions involved impel a student of history to investigate the immediate and indigenous causes of the social unrest in the third decade of the twentieth century. Undoubtedly, World War I was an important causal factor. America burst into the international scene with a literal bang in 1917. For the first time in history, America sent huge numbers of her native sons to fight a war on foreign soil. The doughboys of General Pershing's Expeditionary Force were,for the most part,farm boys, prob- ably away from home for the first time. Morris, Greenleaf and Ferrel describe the deep impact which the war had on those American youth who went "over there" and on those who stayed home: Removed from the discipline of their communities and homes, the young men who went to the army camps and to France and the young women who worked in the offices and factories, learned a new and adventurous kind of freedom. These young peOple, shaken from their rural American naivete and hardened by their tribulations on European battlefields, found new ideas and forms of behavior through the wartime experience. The puritanical mores with which they had been 3Richard B. Morris, William Greenleaf, and Robert Ferrell, America--A History of the PeOple (Chicago: Rand McNally and Co., 1971), p. 567. ' 17 raised fell by the wayside in Gay Paris. Returning home with a new sense of independence and identity, they brought these new ideas with them. Hofstadter, Miller and Aaron see a conflict between the new modes of thinking and tra- ditional American morality: After the war, there was a widespread feeling that the old moral issues had become meaningless, that pub- lic morality and idealism, self-sacrifice and self- restraint were neither so realizable, nor so impor— tant. . . . The America to which the doughboys returned was not the one which they had left. The frantic industrialization and urbanization which accompanied the war effort had thrust the United States rudely and unceremoniously into the twentieth century. Massive internal pOpulation move- ments from the farms to the cities combined with the con— tinuing masses of immigrants from abroad contributed to the social upheaval. The rapid changes brought with them a challenge for America which even now seems to have been encountered without success. After the war a new national character emerged. Having fought to "make the world safe for democracy" and then realizing such an effort was in vain, the American pe0ple turned inward. Rejecting Woodrow Wilson's pleas to accept the prOper role of world leadership and rejecting 4Richard Hofstadter, William Miller, and Daniel Aaron, The American Republic, II (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1959), p. 442. 18 the League of Nations, Americans sought a "return to nor- malcyf'which historical perspective reveals to have been,in reality,a massive national sense of disenchantment and dis- illusionment with the ideals of the struggle for democracy. Morison and Commager draw an analogy between this spreading philosOphy and the experiences of a World War I battlefield: Disillusion and cynicism spread, like a poison gas, to every part of the social body, inducing a paralysis of will and a flight from reason strange to American experience. This flight from reason resulted in an era of excess sen- suality and chaos which has been labeled at various times the "Roaring Twenties," the "Wasted Decade," and the "Era of Wonderful Nonsense." Fitzgerald, who personified life in the 1920‘s, called those years "the greatest, gaudiest Spree in history."6 Indeed, it was a spree where the motto was "get rich quick." Hofstadter, Miller, and Aaron note that now "Americans were less interested in reforming their society, more interested in making money from it."7 It was certainly an age of prosperity and saw Americans pour money into real estate, cars, entertainment, and invest- ments. To illustrate the extent of the new—found affluence, 5Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager, The Growth of the American Republic, II (New York: Oxford University Press, 1950), p. 549. 6Morris, Greenleaf, and Ferrell, p. 566. 7Hofstadter, Miller, and Aaron, p. 442. 19 it is interesting to note that the number of automobile registrations in the United States rose from 485,000 before the war in 1910 to 23,042,840 in 1930; an increase of 4391 percent!8 True to the cynicism of the time, however, was the seemingly prOphetic notion that "it can't last forever so enjoy it now," an attitude which Morison and Commager attribute to the tremendous rate of change: "Conscious as no previous generation had been of change and impermanence, this one demanded immediate gratification and indulgence in appetites."9 It was inevitable that such an emphasis on acquisi- tion and monetary gain would eventually lead to crime. The legitimate paths to economic prosperity are always limited and when an entire nation attempts to reach prosperity, the unavoidable results will be the establishment and use of illegitimate avenues toward the goal. The tremendous pressure to succeed often led peOple to take actions which, in an earlier day, they might have shunned. The crime problem in its natural social evolution was bad enough. But it was aggravated enormously by a single man—made factor which only poured more fat into the fire. In what today appears to be an unbelievably 8August Vollmer, Police in Modern Society (College Park, Md.: McGrath Publishing Co., 1969 [reprint]), p. 28. 9Morison and Commager, p. 550. 20 short-sighted and stupid move, the American government, in its infinite wisdom, attempted to put a halt to the decaying morality and rampant social chaos which followed the end of World War I. Needing a scapegoat, and obviously either not comprehending or outrightly ignoring the social forces at work in the country, the leaders of the United States singled out liquor as the root of all evils. On January 16, 1920, having been ratified by the legislatures of thirty-six states one year earlier, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution went into effect: The manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxi- cating liquors within, the importation thereof into or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.10 In October, 1919, the Congress had passed the National Pro- hibition Act, the famous (or infamous) Volstead Act which provided for the enforcement of the provisions of the Eighteenth Amendment. As might be logically expected, prohibition of alcoholic beverages was certainly not compatible to the new spirit which had swept the country. The kill—joys in Congress were out of tune with the mores and activities of the Jazz Age of which liquor was naturally an integral part. No sooner had Prohibition gone into effect than good loWickersham Commission, Preliminary Report on Prohibition, No. 1 (Montclair, N.J.: Patterson Smith, 1968 [reprint]), p. 8. 21 old Yankee ingenuity was employed to find ways of getting around it. In many cases it was Openly violated, on more than one occasion, by no less a personage than the President himself. Warren Harding was known to serve liquor at the White House.11 The average man on the street, however, could not afford to be so Open and so the colorful institu- tions of Prohibition develOped. This was the time Of the "speakeasies," "bootlegging," "the nineteenth hole," and "milk and orange juice parties." There seemed to be no end to the ways in which the law could be violated. Although illegal, drinking became a national pastime, even among peOple who had never drunk before Prohibition: "Many otherwise law-abiding Americans seemed to take a perverse delight in challenging a law which they considered an invasion of their privacy."12 The illegal liquor business was itself a crime, but it led to more serious forms Of crime. Thriving on bootlegging, organized crime boomed and the gang wars began with the accompanying killing, burning, looting, extortion, etc. Everyday violation of Prohibition made many Americans insensitive to law Observance. The irrational emphasis on materialistic gain was an added factor working against law lMorris, Greenleaf, and Ferrell, p. 566. lZIbid. 22 and order. As a result, the crime wave advanced on all fronts. Discussions Of "crime waves" are usually accompan— ied by the presentation Of statistics to illustrate and dramatize the problem. Unfortunately, we are speaking of a period in which the compilation and use of criminal records and statistics were in an extremely crude and primi— tive stage Of develOpment. There was no system of classi- fication and reporting as we know today, and the only com- prehensive and comparable figures available were those compiled by independent researchers. These statistics were taken from police department records and contemporary Observers are quick to point out their questionable valid- ity and reliability.13 However, rudimentary as they are, reported crime statistics from the period can provide at least an indication Of the immensity Of the problem. In one contemporary survey of thirty—one American cities, it was found that, in 1920, the total number of homicides for the cities included was 1,756 or 8.5 per 1000.14 Ten years later, in 1930, the total had risen to 2,692 or 11 per 1000;15 l3See Raymond Fosdick, American Police Systems (Montclair, N.J.: Patterson Smith, 1969 [reprint]), p. 16, n. 1; and Vollmer, Police in Modern Society, pp. 8-9. l4Vollmer, Police in Modern Society, p. 18. lsIbid. 23 Chicago reported seventy-seven murders in 1915.16 By 1925, it was reported that the Windy City had reached the average Of one murder every day.17 The total number Of prison commitments for robbery in the United States was reported to be 1,236 in 1910.18 At the end of the Roaring Twenties, the number Of commitments for robbery rose to 6,988, an increase