The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, APRIL 16th, 1925. PROHIBITION IN PRACTICE.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 April 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, APRIL 16th, 1925. PROHIBITION IN PRACTICE.

In' the course of an interesting insidestory of prohibition in practice in the United States, a writer grows informative and presents several sidelights, particularly affecting breaches and why ■ prohibition fails. The story is an intimate one and worth reprinting. He writes:—Bootlegging is not entirely the product of nation-wide prohibition, in the United States, for it existed in tiie old days, when a minority of States, one after the other, over many years, “went- dry.” The practice of smuggling into these from “wet” areas was common, it is said that some of the individuals who engaged in the work wore hoots of Wellingtonian proportions, and in- the slack places thereof concealed flasks of the forbidden fluid. But since the famous eighteenth amendment to the Constitution was passed five years ago, and the whole vast anil populous country wr.s declared bereft of- alcoholic beverages, the practice of bootlegging has assumed prodigious proportions. Illicit stills are operated, breweries which ostensibly produce soft drinks containing not

more than one-half of 1 per cent, of alcohol—the legal limit—.sometimes secretly manulacture concoctions containing a considerably higher content, and domestic wine-making has enormously increased. Quantities of liquor are smuggled in from other countries. Much is passed by night over the Canadian and Mexican borders. This mostly gees to the inland States; the Atlantic and Pacific, seaboards are to a largo degree catered for by importations hv water. The breakers of laws in most eases everywhere are those who feel the i inch of poverty, hut in the case of the Volstead Act—-which enforces prohibition -they are found chiefly among the well-to-do, the “men of light and lending”—merchants, manufacturers, professional men, the learned, the travelled, even legislators, legal lumin- | aries, and officials. When the patrons [n.ro drawn largely from the influential classes in a country where “pull” is a byword, it is obvious that quiet and subtle influences, as well as money, assist. the bootlegger. When minor officials can make more in one night by being somewhere else when a cargo of contraband is being unloaded, than their salaries amount to in a mouth, it is-only human nature that some will yield to temptation. Others, while not venal, are devoid of enthusiasm--the knowledge that their very occupation is held in contempt by thousands and the belief that even men higher up are not over keen, is likely to cause them to be content with a capture now and then just often enough to keep their billets. Then, magistrates and Judges—many of whom are suspected of quietly taking a “nip” in the privacy of home—do not always hack the officers tip. If the ease is flagrant they must, oif course, pronounce a severe sentence, as the law directs, hut i if is a minor one they not infrequently censure the officers. Tn San Francisco I read on two successive days reports of two prosecutions for illegal possession of liquor. A magistrate dealt, with one, a Judge with the other. One ease was dismissed, as only dregs were in the bottle seized; in the other, the defendant's were found with full glasses o.f wine in front of them in a cafe. They were ladies and the law gallantly let them oil' with a fine of ">() cents each. In both eases the officers were censured for “taking up the time of the Court with trivial eases.” Shortly before Christmas a fashionable restaurant was raided during a college “spree.” Hundreds of the revellers had liquor. Almost all gave fnlso names, and the papers naively remarked that therefore very few prosecutions could follow. There may he no moral offence in such contravention, and many thousands obstinately refuse to recognise any. and will always ignore and evade what they consider ail unjust law; hut bo long as it exists it should he enfoned with seriousness. There is a. regular tariff for bootlegged whisky. In San Francisco, late last year, it was -17 dollars a ease. The Christmas rush sent- it to 87. Tn March, owing to the stricter supervision of the coast, it had risen to V and was still cn the up-grade. There being, despite captures, a good profit in the business, the. bootlegging interests have obtained small steamers and auxiliary schooners wherewith to smuggle the- forbidden fluid into the country. Cp to now it has boon taken on at Canadian ports. The. bootleggers imported all kinds of grog from the United Kingdom, placed it in bond and were permit led to load up their vessels openly at the "barfs. One being ready to sail would take out clearance papers for some port lu the south of the United SI lies. To save the hard-working captain I rouble flic local representative of tin- alleged country of destination would make out papers for the return trip at the same time. A boat would clear for a port which would take her 12 days to reach at her ordinary speed. She might he hack in a week; yet the complacent Canadian authorities would accept her “faked” papers at fa'o value, well knowing them to he fraudulent. A week or two ago. ha ■ ever, the United States managed to persuade Canada that it was not neighbourly to facilitate the breaking of the law of a friendly Power, and Canada has seen the error of her ways and signed a treaty which will prevent the rum-runners from using; her ports. This is a severe blow; but they will transfer their bases to Mexico or other country where the L.atin-Americans have no sympathy with prohibition. The rum boats hover outside the 12-milo line off the American coast. They unprovided with wireless, and send and receive code messages to and from agents ashore. Mattel's being arranged, the smuggler will on a calm dark night go in closer to shore with lights out. Here the “mosquito fleet” will meet her. This is composed of small craft, which pose ns fishing boats. The liquor is quickly transferred to a deserted beach or quiet inlet, bundled in powerful motor cars, and in a few hours thousands of gallons are transported to depots miles away. Revenue boats often chase rum-runners, but as once the contraband craft are outside

the 12-mile limit they are immune they generally escape., Furthermore the light fogs which, on the Pacific coast, rise before dawn two mornings out of three, and lost a few hours, are most helpful. Nature herself becomes a confederate.