STREET WARFARE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5072, 7 January 1927, Page 2

STREET WARFARE.

BOOTLEGGERS AND THE POLICE. A CHICAGO BANKER’S VIEWS. Chicago is a great bootlegging centre, simply because it is on the, shores of one of the great lakes, that separate the United States from Canada, and, being the biggest centre, on the border line,, there is naturally a greater demand 'for that which, by law, is banned. Mr Frank O. Wetmore, chairman of the First National Banm of Chicago, a passenger by the tourist liner Carinthia, admitted quite unreservedly that the. reports from Chicago of scenes of violence had a substantial foundation in 'fact. “Not that a great many people fnow df these affrays,” said he. "They may occur in the very early morning or. late* at night, but seldom when crowds are about the principal streets, for they have to push through with their loads of liquor to some appointed rendezvous,”

And what attitude does the public take. ? he was asked. “It mostly looks on and says nothing, Chicago has a pretty bad name 'for gun-play,” said Mr Wetmore. “All the same, I would be very sorry to have to leave it, and that’s after forty years of it. You most of this crime is directly caused through prohibition, or, rather, efforts to enforce a law which, in my opinion, attacks the principles of freedom laid down in our Constitution. A very great many people are of that opinion, and, therefore, they don’t regard a deal with a bootlegger as a real crime. That means a specific demand for something that can, at a risk, perhaps, be supplied at a profit, so a regular, or perhaps I should say an irregular, trade has sprung up in which the bootlegger and the. hi-jack-er play a part. Most people who like to have their drop of wine or whisky res,ent, the supply being arbitrarily cut off; others, who never gave it much of a thought before, have since become regular patrons of this or that bootlegge,r. I know that among my own friends there is more drinking now than there was. before the Volstead law came into force.” It was mentioned that so contradictory were the reports, from those who visit the. States, or even from touring residents of that country, that it was. almost impossible to form a reasonably correct, idea as to the effect of the prohibition law on the* common weal.

“Exactly so,” said Mr Wetmore. “That is not at all surprising. So 'few have the open mind that, they cannot judge the position with exactitude. Your people, probably come back and report according to their original prejudices, and people in or from the States report according to their,s. It must always be so in respect t,o a question on which there are sharp divisions of opinion. In the meantime the laW 1 has introduced a lot dt new sins, and crimes innumerable may be traced to its attempted enforcement.”