The Navy

Before President Harding went on his fateful trip to Alaska he asked Attorney General Daugherty to prepare an opinion on whether it would be legal to use the Navy to enforce the Volstead Act. Mr. Daugherty last week completed the opinion and gave it to President Coolidge. Its substance was that it would be illegal to employ naval forces.

The opinion said in part: " There can be no emergency authorizing the President to call out the naval forces to enforce civil and criminal laws until the courts and the civil departments of the Government are no longer able to enforce them."

Prohibition Commissioner Haynes made no comment.