Wickersham Commission

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The Wickersham Commission was established in May of 1929 when President Herbert Hoover appointed George W. Wickersham (1858-1936) to head the National Committee on Law Observation and Enforcement, popularly called the Wickersham Commission.

The Commission was an 11-member group charged with identifying the causes of criminal activity and to make recommendations for appropriate public policy. The emphasis was almost entirely on the widespread violations of national alcohol prohibition. The Commission documented the widespread evasion of prohibition and the numerous counterproductive effects it was having on American society in the Wickersham report, primarily written by August Vollmer. Rather than recommending the repeal of prohibition, as many expected, it recommended that much more aggressive and extensive law enforcement should be employed in an effort to force compliance.

The Commission also investigated police interrogation tactics. It concluded that "[t]he third degree---the inflicting of pain, physical or mental, to extract confessions or statements---is widespread throughout the country."

Franklin P. Adams, a columnist for the New York World, summarized 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.

[edit] Sources

• Vernon, John. The Wickersham Commission and William Monroe Trotter. Negro History Bulletin, 1999 (January-March).
• Miller, Marc L. and Wright, Ronald F. Criminal Procedures, Cases, Statutes, and Executive Materials. Second Ed. 2003.
• Records of the Wickersham Commission
• Temperance Movement Groups and Leaders in the U.S.