PROHIBITION: The General

A nine-days’ mystery proved, last week, to be merely a mistake. “Phil-osopher-General” Lincoln C. Andrews, newly appointed Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, will not, as originally reported, manage the foreign debt business of the U. S. (TIME, Apr. 6). General Andrews has been placed in charge of Customs, Coast Guard, Prohibition Unit, especially the last. The ex-cavalry officer who reorganized the military police system of the A. E. F. was regarded somewhat doubtfully as a supervisor of international billions, was hailed with enthusiasm as a defender of the 18th Amendment.

At this point, another minor mystery entered. What about Roy Asa Haynes, Federal Prohibition Commissioner ? Prohibition enforcement is, by law, part of the work of the Internal Revenue Bureau, which is part of the Treasury

Department. As such, it had hitherto been under the general supervision of another of the several Assistant Secretaries of the Treasury-Mr. McKenzie Moss. But, until a year ago, it was assumed that the main responsibility lay with Mr. Haynes. Wide publicity was given to his “success.” Then, suddenly, the publicity stopped, presumably because it could not be sustained against the evidences of liquor on every hand. Interest shifted from Mr. Haynes to the Treasury Department proper. Mr. Moss, who had other things to do besides enforcing prohibition, became swamped with work. Now he has been relieved by the transfer of the whole liquor question to General Andrews, whose chief care it will be. Does this mean the end of Mr. Haynes’ importance ?