AN EMPIRE OF ALCOHOL.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 September 1928, Page 4

AN EMPIRE OF ALCOHOL.

NEW YORK, July 24. There was once a Roman Umpire, and there is nmv a British Empire, but it has taken an American bootleg king to seek the founding of an Alcohol Empire. This is the ambition attributed to the notorious Chicago gangster “Searface 'Capone, whose fortune is estimated at £400.000 as a result of his activities in alcohol. He recently proposed to retire with liis fortune to his new palatial home at Miami, licit fearful of losing the easy money they earn beneath his sway, Capone’s followers intimated that they mast take their “king’’ for a ride if he persisted in his abdication. With this grim vote of confidence before him Capone began energetic measures to extend his kingdom and to establish the “alcohol empire.” Ho visited Miami, one of the inlets of contraband liquor, and established n hold over the underworld of that city. Then he proceeded to New Orleans, another part for forbidden drink, where gunmen are hired on eiisv terms, and afterwards to a hamlet (ui the Canadian border through which much Canadian “wet goods” finds its way south.

With these ports in his pocketCapone returned to Chicago and announced that all liquor must come through bootleggers who are his own subjects. CONVENIENT CEMETERY. Capone plans to establish a Chicago suburb ns the “crime” capital of the “alcohol empire.” Already options , have been secured on a piece of land two miles square, So that the new I capital shall bo in “splendid isolation. (it is proposed to have a forpst preserve on one side, a cemetery on an- •• other, railways tracks op the third and a canal on Ihe fourth. This crime colony will consist of E 500 members of the. underworld, with every official a gang leader and every branch of administration controlled by gangsters. Amusements will not be neglected- . - A country club will have its roulette fable and other gambling inducements, to which others than residents will he admitted.