HOOVER CLEARS FOR ACTION

Evening Star, Issue 20252, 13 August 1929, Page 11

HOOVER CLEARS FOR ACTION

THE BUM WAR ON THE CANADIAN FRONT “ Guns flamed again early to-day along tho upper roaches of the Detroit Hivcr as the rum smugglers essayed another dash through the United States blockade. Heavy tiring was reported off Caron Avenue, ami at about 5 o’clock ; this morning there was a general movement ol speed cruft iu tiic East Windsor sector, followed by the intermittent roar of gums. There tore no known casualties.” Those sentences, which crackle with words reminiscent of tho blacks days of the World War, I are from a recent Canadian despatch I from Windsor, Ontario, to a New York 1 paper, and they bring vividly before the mind’s eyo the intensive campaign now being waged by the Prohibition enforcement forces to check bn the Detroit front the invasion of the United States by Canadian whisky, wine, and ale, states the ‘ Literary Digest.’ “ The greatest armed force” ever assembled on that section of the horde)-, Washington despatches say, lias been mobilised in Detroit. The three agencies of enforcement —Customs, Prohibition, • and coastguard—-are functioning in this I campaign under a special " co-ordma-tor,” Mr Id. U. Norwood, who lias im- ' tier his command “an army of picked veterans of other enforcement campaigns.” “ Detroit looks for real war along tho hundred miles of river between Huron and Erie, where the Great Lakes narrow into a. band of water dividing Canada tram the United States,” says James C. Young, in a Detroit despatch to the ‘ New York Times.’ Eighty-five per cent, of the j liquor coming into tho United States from Canada, it is estimated at Prohibition quarters, comes in through the Detroit area. Sketching tho difficulties that confront our enforcement forces iu this latest and most dramatic drive, Mr Young continues:— “ It is going to be grimmer war than any of the others that have had the i same purpose—an intensive effort to end the rum trade at its principal source. And Detroit believes that tho rum forces entrenched on both sides of I the river will nob easily yield. Prom a ' dead start iu a. fast motor boat it is ( no more than four minutes across that I band‘of water, and each trip brings 1 wealth. ! “In recent months the rum-runners ' have resorted to shooting. Ju tiro past there was lively gu i play between smugglers and iil-jackers, bub arms were seldom used against Government forces. Now tho day has passed whom i Prohibition officers can shoot witii immunity Ilum-runners carry automatic rifles and machine guns, and use them “ Tho movement from Canada has been running into hundreds of thousands of cases a month, probably approaching 500,000 cases in the busiest months—a literal flood pouring over tho border by the bottle, case, and car load. Up to this time every move of the enforcement army has been overreached by rho rum-runners.

“The rum-runors arc organised, daring, and capable, They have money, iricnds, and influence. Golden prizes lie over the way. No man lives long in the business unless ho’ has nerve and resources. ’ ’

; Presklent Hoover lias appealed to die j coinmunkks along the Canadian border I to “help the Treasury to prevent the systematic war being carried on by inI ternational criminals. - ’ Wo read also that the Government has ordered “aeroplanes, automobiles, and. cutters to the Canadiaq front. - ’ Says a Detroit despatch to the Washington ‘Evening Star,’ dated Juno 17: — THE CENTRE OE ACTION.

“Those who hriv-i been following closely, tho efforts to - 'enforce the Prohibition law believe that Detroit has been selected by President Hoover as the laboratory in^wlijcli to icst tho ' uobb e:i pc lament ’ of ■''^inhibition.

Tlicro is every indication that in the automobile city, 4 ho largest community anywhere on United States border lilies, and into which Hows a constant stream of liquor from a land where brewing and distilling is biwfal, the Chief Executive plans to learn whether the Eighteenth Amendment as >t stands can ho enforced.

“ Prom nearly every train coming into Detroit during tho past few days from New York, Cleveland, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, the Pacific coast, and the south keen-eyed, alert strangers with a military hearing have alighted here ami vanished into hotels.

“ Various groups of them have assembled later at a secret rendezvous. Others were seen along the shore of the Detroit [liver, .studying the near Canadian shore.

“To a foreigner trained to note tho preliminary sifting iu of agents in advance of a general mobilisation in European countries, what is going on mi Detroit to-day would appear instantly as the first nervous wave of troops preparing for an assault. He would think of war.

“Tt is war—war with tho full strength of the United States Government behind it.” “ Tho outcome of the battle to be waged on tho north border is of tremendous importance to Dio inhabitants of every other village, town, and city in tho country “ What happens here within the next few months will have its reverberating echo throin.!;]iout the United States, and will have an effect which cannot bo measured now, on tho political for tunes of the two major parties in the campaign of 1932.

“ Tho show-down to which tho events of the past ter, years have been pointing is to be had here in Detroit. “Tho answer to the ‘Prohibition question ’ in the tiniest rural hamlet of Texas, California, or Maine, in tho largest metropolitan centres of the cast and middle west, is being sought- here by Washington. “Detroit has every clement of tho problem facing other cities, and because of its position on the Canadian border, iu an aggravated form.

“It is fourth in population among the urban centres of the United States. It is separated by a river thirty-one miles long and about three-quarters of a. in lie in width, from a country where .the manufacture, sale, and consumption of liquor is entirely lawful.

troll is bound by steel links to Canada—railroad tracks In a. tunnel now—with a great international bridge and a vehicular tumid nearing completion, and by ferry lines, it is connected by railroad and' motor highways with every part of tho country.

“ In addition to the enormous traffic in tho smuggling of liquor from Canada, Detroit, lias vast illicit breweries and distilleries. To,1)00 to 2-5,000 blind pigs or speak-casies, and thousands of citizens who make their own home-brew or synthetic Jiqnor. “Tho problem which must bo solved includes those domestic breweries and distilleries, as well as tho swift fleets of rum-runners’ boats and the freight car loads of liquor disguised with forged seals.-

“ Detroit has a large alien population unfavourable to Prohibiton. It also has its gangs of racketeers, hi-jackors, and gunmen. It has had machine-gun slayings.

Of deep concern to the Government, also, is the known fact that bribery and corruption of its trusted ' servants has been nowhere so wide spread as in Detroit. Finally, the city is claimed by the wets as one of their own. This, then, it is pointed out, is an ideal spot for tho great test.” A GIANT COMBINE. To meet this dry drive, says a news item in the Detroit ‘ Free Press,’ the rum-runners have organised a •“ giant combine.” In the issue of June 13 we read:— “ Formation of a (giant combine of Great Lakes rum-nmners, to challenge the anti-smuggling agencies of the Govciimment, from'Buffalo to Mackinac, was completed yesterday in Ecorse at j a secret meeting of big operators from

.'ll! important points of entry on the border, it was learned last night. “ The rum chiefs worked out plans for a shuttle svstem, whereby the traffic, will be diverted to Lake Eyrie or Lake Huron whenever the coastguard border patrol and other dry units are concentrated on the Detroit River.

u Headquarters have H»on established at strategic points along the border, and these points will be held in readiness to go into operation whenever the waterways fronting them are comparatively free from Federal interference.

“The operators have devised an extraordinarily widespread and apparently ’efficient intelligence system whereby the leaders of the giant combine are always aware of what stretches of the border are under the heaviest guard, and at what point danger from interruption is. for the moment, relatively remote.

“ Speed-boats. the favourite smuggling craft a few months ago, are being offered tor sale nt prices below any that obtained until the lecenfc concentration of coastguard craft on the river.

“To replace the outmoded speed boats,- which would be of little use to combat the Jieavy seas on Lakes Eyrie and Huron, runners are refitting tugs, ranging in length from sixty to eighty feet. These craft are being almost completely rebuilt. “ Larger motors are being installed on them, to give them greater speed. 'Their deck houses are being taken off so that there will bo as little of the boat as possible to project up into the glare of the searchlights carried by the coastguard boats. The steering wheels are being placed in a cockpit, so that the helmsman’s head appears only a few indies above the level of the deck. “While tow runners were willing to declare flatly that the Government cannot stop smuggling along the border, they generally insisted that there will always bo enough loopholes or-leaks to make smuggling a. profitable, though risky, performance.

“ fn any case, the leaders in the new rum merger apparently fool they wifi be aide to clean up goodly profits before the Government has reached the point where it can, or will, place an armed guard shoulder to shoulder along the entire length of the international boundary line. INCREASINGLY EFFECTIYE. Seven days later a North American newspaper Alliance dispatch from Detroit recorded the following facts:— “Proof both of the increasing effectiveness of the Federal blockade of the Dotroit-Canadian border against rumrunners ,aud the desperate character of the men engaged in the illicit liquor traffic was, given here yesterday, when runners took the aggressive, and opened fire on a Customs border patrol speed boat. “ As the Customs .men speeded out of a hiding place on the river front on the oast side of Detroit to intercept the rum boat coming from Canada, the runners opened fire, and turned back toward Canada. When they passed into Canadian waters, and thus were free from pursuit, they, fired a second time. The two inspectors in the Customs boat were not bit, but the bow of their ship was smashed, the windshield broken, and some of the machinery wrecked by the nun-runners’ bullets.

“ fn the past, the river rum-runners, as distinguished from the gunmen who guarded the liquor cargoes when once landed, have not been armed, but have resorted to the superior speed of their boat coining from Canada to run ’ the blockade., / “ Every trade has* its tricks, and the nnun-rminers have theirs. They stand ready to uncork every ; tried and true j

one <lovclopc<l through years of skirmishing with United States dry agents, and to spring some new ones to meet the toughest situation they have ever encountered. Bullets are their last desperate refuge, “ The mobilisation ot the cream ot the Government's dry enforcement agents at Detroit is already having results. Canadian beer is at a premium, and little is coming over the Detroit River No big loads of distilled liquors are being run, either. The rum-run-ners are lying low, mapping out their campaign to meet the new, disturbing threat.

“ Only sneak loads are being run now. Federal officers hero say.. Canoes, row boats, and small outboard motor boats are being employed, instead of ibc fleets o! six to ten speed boats that usea t \. cross boldly from the liquor export decks in Canada to Detroit, Evor.se and Wyandotte. ‘‘Tlx Customs border parrel recently seize” a row boat, to the hot om of wind three cases of whisky bad .been wirea Other loads, somewhat larger, but by no means beginning to measure up with loads run before the present drive, have been submerged in the shallows off various reedy islands down river, of which Grassy Island, which is ah that its name implies, is an example. At night the runners have goi.i to the marshes in blackpainted cauoi anil row boats, or in small outboard motor boats called skipjacks aiui have brought the liquor ashore in small parcels of a case or two.

“ The skip-jacks can enter marshes that speed boats are unable to penetrate. Now the Customs border patrol arc using twelve of the skip-jacks them,selves, confiscated from the rumrunners and are probing the marches for liquor caches. “Prices or liquors to the retailers arc already ascending, and consumers will soon fee! the i; crease themselves, llquo! operators hero say. The present drive is bringing a golden harvest to a combine of big down-river operators who stored away a large supply of wtiisky and gin m anticipation of a .shortage of good Canadian liquor, hut Detroit, if it wants to drink it, must pay for it. Ami tins is the rum capital of America! Other cities will have to pay higher prices also.” A TITANIC STRUGGLE.

I ‘'Although we an having a Titanic struggle with the smugglers from Cani ada, we have a feeling that we are .getting the upper hand in the fight,” Seyinoui Lowman, Assistant Secretary of"the Treasury in charge of Prohibi- ! turn, is quoted by the Baltimore ‘ Sun 5 ' as saying As long as armed .smugglers wag) war . on the Government there are likely to be casualties on both sides, the Detroit ‘ Free Press ’ warns ns, but “ the blond of the victims will not be on the hands or conscience of those sworn to uphold the Constitution and enforce the laws; but on-those oi the scofilaws who encourage the enemies of the Government to defy its authority in order that they may keep their whistles wet.” And in the Chicago Daily News ’ wo tread - j “ President Hoover is well advised in appealing to popular opinion for help in combating ‘international criminals’' who have developed complex and elabo- I rate smuggling paraphernalia on both sides of the Canadian border; Should the moral support of the American ■people be withdrawn from law enforcement the ‘ international criminals ’ would gain the victory. “The power of a nation is the power of the people of that nation. In exercising power the Federal authorities should make it manifest that theirs is a worthy cause worthily upheld There is more potency tor good in the President’s classifying phrase, ‘ internaTonal criminals,’ 'ban in a series of '■ >rranl reports b;. die Prohibition E--Trcem-S'-t Bureau For the people of the • United State- do rot wish to see heir Cover,;mer ignomr iously delated by armed bands of jus-lent ■•■TUigglers in the present war bn the p-fuadian border. “The flagrant abuses v,T ich are manifesting themselves on the Cana- ~ dian side of the line as a result of the smugglers’ warfare upon the ■* United Slates is causing Canadian pub- ' lie opinion to revolt against extension j

jto them of the right of sanctuary. Swashbuckling aimed breakers oi the law of a neighbouring peaceful nation can not occupy an entrem-ied position in any country without i'rhicting upon that country a demoralising degree ol lawie-snoss “The American Federal authorities can win their present battle by tins force of decent opinion in the Di ited Jtates and Canada, provided they carry on their operations with a proper degree of corsh'eration for individual human rights.” CANADA’S ATTITUDE. Canada’s attitude towards the rumrunners who buy their goods legally on Canadian soil, but sell them illegally across the border, is a matter of special interest Under the present Canadian uw, clearance papers are issued to boats that take on cargoes of ho: ir for the United States, but there is a considerable body of public opir'ic in Canada, which woulo like to see t >o law changed and such clearance papers denied A Canadian parliamentary committee in 1920,, and a Royal i ninmission since then, recommended that the issuing of these clearances bo stopped. Another section of C;r clian opinion, however, defends ;.w present' system on the theory that “although the United States may want Prohibition officially, unofficially sho wants booze.” The Canadian Government, dispatches tell us, lias ofm-d to permit American border patrols to be stationed on the Canadian liquor export docks, but tins after has bee rejected, Alfred Cuddy, Deputy-Commis-sioner of Ontario’s provincial fr'ice, states that rmn-ninrers clearing from Canadian ports are searched tor arms by the Canadian authorities, and that no Canadian boats are engaged in tho cross-rivei rum-running trade. 'Die comment of the “wet” sod mi of the United States Press on the great “ dry” drive on the Detroit front may be summed up in tho question; is u law that is so difficult to e”force worth, the effort 5 Says the New I!even ‘Register’;

“This widespread lack of sympathy with the law is what is really at the root of all onr difficulties. V\ itbout a. large demand for alcoholic hover,•' ""es, in spite of the law. there would he no systematic war by international criminals

“This brn’gs us inevitably to tbo conclusion that the law itself is afc fault. So long ta? it is not held hi respect by a largo presort ion of e population so long will rum-run g continue If we are to go to ibe "~ofc of all our difficulties we nnist r ncider the fundam-mtil theories of the whole Prohibition experiment.”