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r TWOCUMBERLAND EVENING TIMES, THURSDAY, JULY 14, 1 mPROHIBITION ATofENFORCEMENTUnderworld’s Grasp Of Power Is Big Chapter In History Of The Federal Law“BIG BUSINESS”Bootleg industry And Smuggling Developed Early As Gangs Made FortunesEDITOR’S NOTE: This isthe second of four' stories on the history of prohibition, made especially timely by the recent action of the Republican and Democratic national conventions.By BRUCE CATTON NCA Service WriterSlates that had prohibition • acts of their own knew about the words “bootlegger” and .“speakeasy” long before 1920; but it was not until after Jan. 16 of that year, when the 18th amendment went into effect, that the words passed into the vocabulary of the country as a whole.The illegal liquor industry seems to have got under way with. no loss of time. The federal prohibition ’ enforcement service made its first raids on Jan. 17. seizing two stills■ in Detroit and t%vo in Hammond, Ind. In the first six months of that year the government seized 9533 stills.Nevertheless, the era of the amendment began with the prohibitionists supremely confident that the law' would be made effective without too much trouble.The first prohibition commissioner was John P. Kramer of Ohio, a lawyer and former legislator. He took over his new job announcing that “the lav/ will be obeyed . . .. .■ and where It is not obeyed St will be enforced. adding that his men would see to it that liquor was neither made, sold nor transported “on the surface of the earth or under the earth or in the air.Then Came DelugeA few glances at the calendar may be Interesting.Before the amendment had been in effect a month a customs officer was complaining to Congress that a veritable flood of booze was being smuggled in over the borders, and demanded an appropriation of $2,-000,000 to help choke it off.On Feb. 19, 1920, two prohibition agents were arrested for selling out to bootleggers.Before spring had come, federal agents had found that certain druggists were selling medicinal whisky without waiting for doctor’s permits.By May, federal agmts in New York were complaining that the New York police didn’t help them enforce the law.By early summer the federal district attorney in Chicago revealed that the federal court there was congested with prohibition cases, with more than 500 such cases awaiting trial.All of these announcements were to be duplicated many times during the coming years. Meanwhile, the illegal liquor industry was getting its foot on the ground.Smuggling First SourceAt first, smuggling was the most important source.The United States has more than 18,000 miles of border. In 1920 to prevent smuggling along those 18-000 miles it had 1550 dry agents and 3000 customs agents—and the Coast Guard. It soon developed that this combined force was hardly adequate.Booze came in by auto and truck over the Canadian and Mexicanare shortly‘to begin * new war, or series of wars, for control of the absent monarch's kingdom.Nowhere else did the gangs ever become as notorious as in Chicago. But every large city had them, and stilly has them;, and every large cityhas’known its “beer wars,'* in which the leaders of a rich and flourishing business settle; their disputes with guns because the business has no legal standing. ,A Book A DayOn Home-Made BasisAs the first decade of prohibition passed, the illegal liquor trade grew more systematized. Different localities developed their own sources of supply, smuggling: became less important in the general scheme of things, especially since Canada tightened up on the laws which govern exports of liquor from the Dominion.The government's efforts to cope with the trdffie changed, tooGeneral Andrews, plain-spoken and industrious, was the first to present a really comprehensive enforcement program—in 1928; and although Congress failed to give him the legislative changes he had asked for, it did, in that year, vote to put prohibition agents under civil service, to separate1 the Prohibition Bureau from the Internal Revenue Department, -to increase the Prohibition Bureau's appropriations and to build new boats for the Coast Guard.HERE'S MYSTERY NOVEL TO RANK WITH THE BESTuTOMORROW; The rise of prohibition as » poll Ueai issue.Eggs are now being preserved by treating them with carbon dioxide and nitrogen. This treatment is said to preserve eggs for a year.If Mignon' G. Eberhart Isn't the best writer of murder mysteries now doing business, she’s dose enough to the top to do until a better one comes along. If you'll read her newest thriller, “Murder by an Aristl-crat,'* you’ll quickly understand my enthusiasm. lt;Nurse Sarah Keate is again the central figure. Called to the aristocratic Thatcher home after Bayard Thatcher is accidentally shot and wounded, she soon finds herself up to the neck in a swirling current of intrigue and hatred that results in two deaths and keeps the reader perched ou the edge of bis chair from start to finish.Bayard Thatcher (if you’re interested) she gets shot again, this time fatally; and the family’s theory of a burglar might have gone down if Nurse Keate hadn’t spotted a bit of blood on the run in the wrongroom.This author’s mysteries are good, not only because, she is a skillful constructor of plots, but because she can write decent English, because she can paint credible characters and hold your interest by. the way they develop, and oecause she can do what most mystery writers can’t do—write dialogue that sounds as if it might have been spoken by ordinary human beings.‘‘Murder by an Aristocrat” is published by the Crime Club for $2.J*sihinlt;w.tcA string when twisted will shorten. A rubber band when twisted will lengthen.Chapters in the rise of gangsters and liquor runners that followed the advent pf federal prohibition are pictured here. Upper left is A! Capone, who rose to riches in Chicago oh a tide of illicit booze. The other pictures show confiscated gangster beer, being destroyed by federal agents, liquor seized from rum runners and Chicago detectives re-enacting the famous St. Valentine's Day massacre in. which seven gangsters were lined up before a firing squad and murdered by rivals.Hollywood is seven miles northwest of the business section of Los Angeles.borders. At sea, especially along the north Atlantic coast, there sprang into existence the famous “rum rows”—lines of liquor-laden ships, safely anchored or bove-to outside of territorial waters, which transferred their loads to smaller boats for the trip ashore.For a time this went on in amazing proportions. By 1924, however. Congress reorganized the Coast Guard, spent $13,000,000 to equip 20 old navy destroyers for its use, and built a large fleet of small, fast boats armed with one-founder rapid fire guns and machine guns.In addition, the State Department negotiated treaties with such foreign governments as Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Holland by which its revenue cutters were permitted to stop and search suspected liquor boats anywhere within one hour’s sailing distance of the coast.This proved much more effective, and rum row lost a lot of its prominence. Nevertheless, in 1825 General Lincoln C. Andrews, prohibition commissioner, told the Senate that only about 5 per cent of the smuggled liquor was actually being seized.Industrial alcohol also was proving a problem, Certain plants had permits to make alcohol for Industrial uses, and it soon became evident that a lot of this was findingIts way into various beverages. The government-tried various formulas to make this alcohol unpalatable, but the bootleggers had their .chemists, too, and they were able to counteract practically all of these formulas.The near-beer plants—or, morestrictly speaking, some of the near-beer plants—further complicated things. To make near-beer, you first make real beer and then de-alcoholize it; and the bootleggers were not long in finding ways of shunting large quantities of this real beer in their direction before it got de-aleholized properly.LIQUOR'TAXES ANDENFORCEMENT COSTThe U. S. Bureau of Internal Revenue in the fiscal year 1918—the year prior to the ratification of the prohibition amendment — collected in liquor taxes of various kinds the sum Of $443,839,544.98.This does not include state and local taxes.The federal budget estimate for the U, S. Prohibition Bureau, salaries and expenses, for the fiscal year 1932-33 amounts to $11,369,500,This does not include state and local enforcement costs.thirsty as in Chicago; and a brief discussion of the Chicago gangs shows the typical American underworld structure, as it has existed under prohibition, at its most amazing and dismaying development, Chicago, to be sure, has always had lawless gangs and many murders. Long before prohibition it had crooked police and political leaders working hand in glove with underworld figures. The advent ofthe illegal booze simply played into the hands of these gentry. They-were not long in making the roosr of their opportunities.At first the beer-running ana whisky distributing business fet;into the hands of fairly smalt neighborhood gangs. But organizers were not wanting, and three or four years after prohibition had' begun Chicago had been divided into two parts, each provided with its booze —and all the other unlawful pleasures it desired—by a powerful gang,The N6rth Side was in the hands of a group of plug-uglies captained by a tough youngster named Dion O’Banion, who ran a florist shop as a blind. The South Side was controlled by Johnny Hondo's gang, of .which a young scar-faced Sicilian named A1 Capone was chief lieutenant.The fight seemed to be about over by the end of 1930, with A1 Capone practically supreme and most of his opponents occupying garish coffins in various cemeteries. A year later, however, the federal government struck at the gangs through the income tax law, and today Capone is serving time in Atlanta prison— while Chicago hears ominous rumors that the lesser gang leadersWorkers among the ancient Hit-tites and Assyrians had a five-day working week 4000 years ago.BARBSMany wonder at the huge number of people just aching for a chance to step into some congressman’s shoes.- Maybe that’s the only prospect they have of getting a pair.After the statement by the English, it appeared for a time , that theHoover disarmament plan might beRise Of GanglandMost' spectacular of all phases of the illicit liquor business, of course, was the underworld gang.Most of the large cities developed booze-running gangs during the first decade of prohibition. Nov/here, however, did the gangs become as strong, as insolent in their activities or as incredibly blood-ROSENBAUMiPeople are Buying the Merchandise in ourIftEFORE STOCKTAKINGin Round-eyed Amazement IfTrue enough, this is a year of low prices, but Rosenbaum’s have lowered thempvpn fnrfhAv TIiiiiismHc r*f rfnllarc wnrf.h nf Surinir nnrl Summer 'mm*ohsinfiiQP k
Newspaper Details
Cumberland Evening Times
Cumberland, Maryland, US
Thu, Jul 14, 1932
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Beth S.
NA, 22 Jan 2023
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