Greece supplies the Miss Europe of 1980, and she will take part in the final contest at Rio de Janeiro some months hence to decide who lean claim to be the most beautiful irl in the world—a purely theorem tical distinction, of course, beauty being in the eye of the beholder, jand public competitions being deterrent to many of the best-qualified. "The process of selection, which has just been earvied out i Paris, was taken very The nineteen asp a jury of fourteen painters, four sculptors a critic, all of different. nationalities. The candidates, in evening dress, frst, paraded in a body and then singly, in alphabetical order of countries. This occupied an hour, after which the girls were called back over and over again to settle some doubtful Point about their charms. At the Jend of three hours each juryman had his note-book full of caballs igns. A long discussion followed behind closed doors and at length the representative of Greece, Miss Alice Dijlarakou, was sent for and solemnly embraced by M. Albert Besnard, the celebrated French painter, who acted as. president of the jury.
Nineteen years old and a native lof Sparta, she is the daughter of fan Athens barrister. She is rather tall (6£t 74 in.), dark-haired slightly olive-skinned,'and has classically regular features—undoubtedly a beautiful girl, but so were all the others, judging by the admiring remarks' of the crowd who watched them arrive at the hall in which this modern judgment of Paris was given. No one seems to have thought of presenting Miss Europe with an apple, will not give relief from overcrowding except for a period of five years jor possibly ten." The prison pour lation in this country. has jump-four per cent. per 100,000 in the Inst "five years, and in all' the large cities " crime in all its" worst forma is said to be traceable to the effect bootlegging and other vice for which Prohibition seems to be me directly responsible, It is not easy for the unbiassed writer to sift facts regarding the Jcourse of Prohibition from the welter of chaos that prejudice hits created, The "Wets" are no more hysterical than the "Drys," or vieeversa, but the result of" this off. cial inquiry should be to bring before the nation the actual state of affairs, "And much of "the evidence will be startling. For example, one of the witnesses on the opening day—Mr. Liggett—in recapitulating alleged conditions the District of Columbia, " where the U.S. capital is located. cone trasted the 300 saloons of pre-Prohibition days with the 700 speak-teasies and 4,00 bootleggers, which, hho said, were now to be found. He stated that no less. than 1,600,000 gallons of "hard" liquor were con= surlied in and around) Washington annually. He then went on to say (what every interested observer knows, but which may come asa shock to people outside of the United. States) that in Boston Policemen and politicians were largely corrupted "by Prohibition, and even an ex-governor and a police commissioner had been ill ally selling confiscated liquors, A white slave ring was operating there, he told the Committee, and were' was an organized "dops"
This witness then proceeded to speak of the condition of affairs in the state of Kansas, "now celebrat-the fiftieth anniversary of Statewide Prohibition and boasting of © savage Dry law:
"There is not a town in Ka he declared, "where I cannot stranger and get a very good drink im fifteen "minutes," adding details of a belboy's offer of liu; at Topeka, This writer. can dorse this testimony. T remem some years ago passing through the state of Kansas, and being informed facetiously by follow sengers on the train that [was in a Dry state, Such a "drunk" took place that night I do not re-mber, even in_my wildest days India or the Far East, But it does not seem necessary to quote further, Every man. in the United States is aware that "booze" in available in practically every club in the country, every college, every gaol, every public institution, and this writer was once approached by an orderly in New York hospital to purchase alcoholic liquor. In New You there is one speak easy that has name of being able to sell you the right stuff," and those in the know are aware that the reason this is possible is on account of the fact that the highest officials of the city frequent the place—and actually make large revenue from its operations.
Mr, Liggett, who knows Kansas well and all ite "Dry" ram tions, told the Committee that some 6,000,000 gallons of hard liquor are consumed in that state every year—he added: "Six hundred gallons of malt entering Topeka, with a population of 60,000, shows that every one of the population has an annual consumption of ten gallons of home brew." In Detroit, he went on, "mass production in crime is coming to its fullest flower." According to his statement, two years ago there were 20,000 speakeasi in that great automobile arrests for drunkenness had trebled in ten years. "Detroit is in the grip of racketeers, crooked politicians and copa," and Mr. Liggett re episode, a drunken revelry given by 4 well-known gambler of that city, at which a governor of Michigan state, a police commissioner and four judges were present with gamblers and bootleggers all fraternizing together, and "next day (Continued on Page 491.)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.