LIQUOR RUNNING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 299, 15 December 1923, Page 7

LIQUOR RUNNING.

BOOTLEGGING IN THE STATES. GIGANTIC BBIBEKY. ( From our BpecJal Correspondent) SAX FRANCISCO, November 15. Coincident with renewed efforts on the part of the United States Government to check the enormous bootlegging traffic which appears to be ever increasing there, has been disclosed gigantic wholesale bribery. One of the principal uncovering* of conspiracies was t'bat in New York a few days ag-o, when the .Federal Government fired a double-barrelled charge into the -wet forces alleged to be drenching New York and Nev Jersey with illicit liquor. With one charge Federal agents, working under direct orders from 'Washington, brought down a bag of eleven alleged conspirators rounded up in the fashionable Hotel Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and alleged to have been using SO.OOOdoJ. to bribe prohibition agents not to stop the brewing of real beer in New Jersey: not to interfere with the conversion of. industrial alcohol into strong- liquor, and to block the flooding of New York and New Jer.-ev with beer from rival vats in Pennslyvania. "With the other barrel, the Government nr-'d a broadside into the first of several thousaird saloonkeepers alleged to be running wide open in New ork City since the repeal of uip State prohibition law. Fifty-four suits were filed in the Federal Court to padlock the=e alleged 'speakeasies'' under provision-* lof the Volstead Act. and United States Attorney Hayward added that more actions would be brought as soon a<» clerks could pound cut the complaints ion their typewriters. I 700,000d0l in Bribes. I The round-up at the palatial Hotel [Pennsylvania came at the close of a day [full of excitement. Federal prohibition r.nd treasury agents, on appointment-, made with the alleged bribers. waite<l in several rooms and took their guesta into costcdy one by one as they arrived. It was stated that a rezular weekly bribe of 4500d0l -.va* accepted by one of the agents. Among the men arrested was T. Harry Foley, former secretary to Senator Edwards, of New Jersey, champion of tha Eastern American " wets. - ' The mea were charjrei wit.i conspiring to Rive bribes to influence the conduct of prohibition agents. *t lias -xplained that denatured .tlo'hol wais redistilled into grain alcohol and used for the manufacture of whisky; that grain alcohol whidh. was to have been denatured was instead used to make whisky, and that money was paid to permit these practices and to protect; those carrying them out. "With the 4500d0l received by Federal agents that daj-, the total of bribes seized by the Government forces and confiscated was 84,500d0L, according to United States Attorney Havward, who estimated the total given in bribes since the conspiracy originated was about TOO.OOOdoI. Mr. Hayward said baring of the alleged conspiracy revealed a "'shocking and sensational state of affairs in New Jersey, and possibly in Pennsylvania." State and other officials, politicians and persons hig-h in social standing, he eaid, were in league with the bootleggers.

Millions in Bribery. Observers closely ■watching the unequal fizht between, the cause of Voleteadism and moderation have long ago realised that immense sums of money •were being paid in corruption to permit the ■wholesale traffic in liquor carried on in Eastern States, but it -was not until October 24 that some testimony on the subject was adduced, when MichacJ Heitier, the Chicago "bootleg king," on his wav to the penitentiary, unfolded some 6tartlin2 evidence relative to the system of corruption that has been in force for some considerable time. In the course of his remarks, Heitier said: ""The Volstead Act might just a-» well be wiped oil the Statute Books unless the Federal Government take 3 the initiative, keeps taking it, and goes j through with it to the finish. "The (biggest and most efficient and most honjest municipal and State police forces in the world iannot enf.rce prohibition liunless the Government in Washington, ! stops all kinds of illicit liquor at the I source.'' The Chicago bootleg kins wa3 starting to serve 18 montho at Leavenrvrorth penitentiary for conspiracy to violate the Volstead Act in connection with the 'shipment of a carload of w.ii=ky from Louisville to Chicago. With him went Xathan Perlam and Manny Greenbenr, to serve 15 and 12 montas. re.-pectively, ! for similar offences.

j Heitier consented to i'i'"e his advice lon proHoition cniuicc-inPiit a!t'-r he ' i d j as an expert witness by Hating 'in the United S-tatfs Marshal's office that he. I'eri.am and iire»nber;i wer , : ;"tho real whisk. rin;r" in Chicago. "'Sure, !i sciii a lot of 'vhisky." -«H ' ••■<■ jaunty. dapper and trf 11 dressed "Mik" do Pike," as he U familiarly kn »n in 111 nois. I "But who it to mc and where are 'the people who bought it'; The law they are a= sruilty a* I am. It isn't so much the man 1 it to a-i the man who starts it on its way to the parched throats from tae di-stillerie.-. ■ ''I don't know to thia day -where that list lut came fr m, but the .Federal Government knows, and the owners of tiat distillery are ctill out in the free. I "It is as easy a.- eatin? a poached 'eiz to 'top it a!!. If the Federal Governrrpnt would only put pres ure on the i-laces w «-re it leaks oJt, and then ■ r-'ie-k up on practically [0 per cent of j the ajrent.-- *ho are jetting their palms :'i'reai-ed' to the extent of mi Inns a ;>ear. t.-.orr- would not be anything for the local police to io but arre t burjglard and .-top automobile speeders. "I o :t_':t to kn'»"\ f r .r I made a. sueceae of it. and was «r> d at it. 1 would not have !.M-<-n so sr »,d ii I nua not known iiuvv tv procure tlie Ijj/uor."