The National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (also known unofficially as the Wickersham Commission) was a committee established by the U.S. President,

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

, on May 20, 1929. Former attorney general George W. Wickersham (1858–1936) chaired the 11-member group, which was charged with surveying the U.S. criminal justice system under Prohibition and making recommendations for public policy. During the 1928 presidential campaign

supported the

Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Eighteenth Amendment (Amendment XVIII) of the United States Constitution established the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. The amendment was proposed by Congress on December 18, 1917, and was ratified by the requisite number of ...

(which had introduced nationwide alcohol prohibition) but he recognized that evasion of the law was widespread and that prohibition had fueled the growth of

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

Membership

Commission members included Henry W. Anderson, Newton D. Baker, Ada Comstock, William Irwin Grubb, William S. Kenyon, Monte M. Lemann,

Frank J. Loesch Frank Joseph Loesch (April 9, 1852 – July 31, 1944) was a prominent Chicago attorney, reformer and a founder of the Chicago Crime Commission, which attempted to combat widespread corruption and organized crime related violence. Biography Loesch ...

, Kenneth Mackintosh, Paul John McCormick, and Dean

Roscoe Pound Nathan Roscoe Pound (October 27, 1870 – June 30, 1964) was an American legal scholar and educator. He served as Dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law from 1903 to 1911 and Dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936. He was a membe ...

of the Harvard Law School. Pioneering American criminologist

August Vollmer August "Gus" Vollmer (March 7, 1876 – November 4, 1955) was the first police chief of Berkeley, California, and a leading figure in the development of the field of criminal justice in the United States in the early 20th century. He has been de ...

wrote portions of the report. From 1929 to 1930, Alger Hiss worked in legal research for the general counsel of the "Wickersham Committee" (as William L. Marbury, Jr. described it in a 1935 letter, in which he sought the support of U.S. Senator George L. P. Radcliffe for the appointment of Alger Hiss to the

U.S. Solicitor General The solicitor general of the United States is the fourth-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice. Elizabeth Prelogar has been serving in the role since October 28, 2021. The United States solicitor general represent ...

's office).

Findings

The Commission focused its investigations almost entirely on the widespread violations of national alcohol

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

to study and recommend changes to the Eighteenth Amendment and to observe police practices in the states. They observed police interrogation tactics and reported that "the inflicting of pain, physical or mental, to extract confessions or statements... is widespread throughout the country." They released a second report in 1931 that supported Prohibition but found contempt among average Americans and unworkable enforcement across the states, corruption in police ranks, local politics and problems in every community that attempted to enforce prohibition laws.

was the primary author of the Commission's final report, commonly known as the Wickersham Report, which was released on January 7, 1931. It documented the widespread evasion of Prohibition and its negative effects on American society and recommended much more aggressive and extensive law enforcement to enforce compliance with anti-alcohol laws. The report castigated the police for their "general failure... to detect and arrest criminals guilty of the many murders, spectacular bank, payroll and other holdups and sensational robberies with guns." Monte M. Lemann was the only commission member who refused to sign the report, issuing a separate opinion, where he concluded that there was "no alternative but repeal of the ighteenthAmendment."

Criticism

Franklin P. Adams, a columnist for the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...

'', summarized his opinion of the Commission's report with this poem:

Prohibition is an awful flop.
We like it.
It can't stop what it's meant to stop.
We like it.
It's left a trail of graft and slime
It don't prohibit worth a dime
It's filled our land with vice and crime,
Nevertheless, we're for it.

In the November 1931 issue of the ''

New Masses ''New Masses'' (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA. It succeeded both ''The Masses'' (1912–1917) and ''The Liberator''. ''New Masses'' was later merged into '' Masses & Mainstream'' (19 ...

'', graphic artist

Jacob Burck Jacob Burck (née Yankel Boczkowsky, January 10, 1907 – May 11, 1982) was a Polish-born Jewish-American painter, sculptor, and award-winning editorial cartoonist. Active in the Communist movement from 1926 as a political cartoonist and muralist, ...

published the cartoon "I-I B-b-eg Your Pardon..." depicting a mortified Wickersham, holding his Wickersham report, while he looks on as a capitalist violates liberty.

Notes

Commission Reports Historical Bibliography

* * * * * *

Sources

* John Vernon, "The Wickersham Commission and William Monroe Trotter" in ''Negro History Bulletin'', 1999 (January–March) * Marc L. Miller and Ronald F. Wright, ''Criminal Procedures, Cases, Statutes, and Executive Materials'', Second Ed. 2003 * Department of Justice Library
"Report on the Enforcement of the Prohibition Laws of the United States: National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement"
* * Boyer, Paul S. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. Print. * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wickersham Commission Prohibition in the United States History of law enforcement in the United States Presidency of Herbert Hoover Police misconduct in the United States