YANKEES INVADING CANADA.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18408, 15 June 1925, Page 8

YANKEES INVADING CANADA.

BEER SALE CAUSES RUSH. fr&cu DL-a omr cokjucsposdest.) SAX FRANCISCO, ifay 20. The passage of legislation in the Canadian Province of Ontario permitting the manufacture and sale of beer of the alcoholic content of 4.4 per cent, has had an electrical effect upon thirsty Americans resident on the United States "side of the Detroit River, and extraordinary activity is reported owing to the new laws allowing visitors access to ale. Incidentally, the question has been satisfactory to Americans of "When do we get. our beer?" The River Detroit can be crossed by ferryboat, and no passports arc required, and tio questions are even asked. The day is approaching when an American thirst, saved up for half a decade under the Constitution with Mr Volstead's help, can lie slaked ten minutes after leaving the Detroit dock—legally drowned, ■with no inquest by Prohibition agents and without a conscientious scruple. The first to awaken to the situation were the speculators. No Booner had the Beer Bill been passed than they swaTmed across the river to acquire property options- on bar sites. The Border" cities—Windsor, Walkerville, Ford City, Sandwich, opposite Detroit —saw them coming and whetted, their knives for the slaughter. What price an eligible location for a, saloon near the ferry docks? Five or ten times what' it had been a month previously. Owners sold their property and boasted until sunset. XexJ day they bought it back at double price, and before night sold it at quadruple. Stores were sold. .Houses were sold to parched Detroiters resolved to live close to their beer. Building lots were sold. Acreage that had been on the market for years with no takers suddenly found itself in demand as if covering a gold mine. One. night the Border cities -went to rest in their accustomed quiet; next morning they were awakened by a horde of Americans -waving greenbacks and certified cheques. All the resorts along the Canadian shore have been painting up and ordering more glasses, chairs, and tables. Waterside property on Lake St. Clair, six miles from the nearest ferry, stagnant a month previously at ten sovereigns a front.foot, cannot be bought now at four, times that price. A ramshackle'hotel in a town neaT the mouth of the river, a building that has-been despised and.on which nobody -would pay taxes, lias just changed hands for 80,000 dollars. The new area will be called.the "Gold Coast," and new ferry routes arc being considered. The Gold' Coast is rolling and dreaming in -terms of thousand dollar bills. It sees itself .attracting ajiorde'of- Ameri-' can factory workers to libmes on' the Canadian side..; Michigan .merchants, manufacturers, ', and Teal estate dealers sco this prospect -with alarm, for'it -will; mean the: transport of many -millions of dollars 'into, Canadian territory. • It. 'Mil 1 hurt '••business,* they, say, but -while : they are moaningjthe Canadian breweries are working overtime. The law goes into effect the day after this dispatch leaves for the Antipodes, and elaborate preparations have been made by. hotels, iCabarets, groceries, and ..other" places where it is expected that thousands of Americans /will gather to(quench, their thirst. -A 11' drinks must be', served at tables'; The big city of Windsor has made arrangements for special• police -to:.handle ; thoj crowds. ..;