PREDICTS INCREASE OF VOLSTEAD VIOLATIONS IN NEXT FIVE YEARS

That the violation of the Volstead Act in the northeastern part on the United States, especially in Massachusetts, will increase during the next five years is the belief of Mr. R. A. Woods, Honorary '10, head of South End House in Boston, as stated in a recent interview with a CRIMSON reporter. During his 30 years of work in organizing and directing this settlement house, Mr. Woods has had a great deal of experience in dealing with the drink problem as it exists in Boston.

"The situation is hound to become worse before it will improve," he declared, "because it is only after the matter has gone to extremes that the public will wake up and take action.

"From my personal observation I know that the violation of the law has increased a great deal since last year. I do not attribute this, however, to a more widespread disrespect for the law, but to the fact that the illicit liquor business has just become well organized. It took this trade a long time to get under way after the act was first passed.

Extreme Alcoholic Addicts

"Although there are now many arrests for drunkenness, these are for the most part the extreme alcoholic addicts, and do not represent as large an amount of drinking as there was before. I have noticed that in the poorer parts of the city especially there has been a vast improvement. Last Christmas, for example, it was the department stores that dealt with the wage-earners that enjoyed an enormous increase in trade, while the fashionable shops did no more business than usual."

Served as License Commissioner

For several years before the advent of prohibition, Mr. Woods served as License Commissioner of Boston and was thus enabled to acquire accurate, first-hand information on the subject. "At that time", he stated, "the liquor interests did a business of 42 million dollars annually, whereas the illegal traffic at present cannot possibly be more than four or five million a year.

Law Strongly Supported

"There is little chance of getting the law changed," Mr. Woods concluded, "since it is strongly supported in the middle and far West. In one way only can the difficulty be solved, and that is by a through enforcement of the act as it now stands. We must use every possible agency to put the matte through, for to adopt any alternative course would be to admit to all criminals that the government cannot enforce its own laws."