California's Los Angeles County, which has 75,000 arrests a year for drunkenness, this month began a noble experiment in easing: 1) the pressure on its jails; and 2) the manpower shortage. Municipal Judge Edwin L. Jefferson got together with the U.S. Employment Service and the Salvation Army, arranged to give some of his charges a new start in a new environment. Thus far 200 habitual drunks have been bundled off to war jobs, with "very favorable" results.
Chief beneficiary: a Missourian who searched all over Los Angeles for three days without finding work, began drinking in desperation, landed in jail and a...