BOOTLEGGERS TRAPPED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19550, 1 February 1927, Page 11

BOOTLEGGERS TRAPPED

GOVERNMENT NIGHT CLUB. DEVICE USED IN AMERICA. A. and N.Z. WASHINGTON. Jan. 30. Sensational disclosures were recently made to the effect that the United States Government had employed what are called "under cover" men, -who, in order to trap bootleggers, organised an elaborate night club, using Government funds for the purpose. The revelations, which aroused a. great deal of interest, showed that Governmenti agents operated the night club for many months. They sold liquor to the public and at the same time intercepted | liquor which was being delivered on large orders placed with bootleggers. The night club was later sold to a private individual who was shortly afterwards arrested. The chief of the prohibition enforcement department, General L. G. Andrews, has now sent a letter to the Senate explaining the reasons for this action. The writer says the country is faced with numerous vast continuous conspiracies. It must recognise that violations of the prohibition law are going on j throughout the nation and that they are j almost numberless. In order to meet this condition the Government must concentrate its efforts upon large, well-organised, illegal operations. Prohibition agents were known to the criminal element of the community | and could aever hope to defeat unknown, intelligent and unscrupulous men whose j operations were necessarily enshrouded in darkness. The conditions were similar to war. It was necessary that agents should be employed who were qualified to act as spies. No one liked the idea, but it was essential, as in war. Secret service methods and "under cover" men were absolutely neceiisary if the prohibition jaw was to be enforced. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the largest of its kind in America, announces that the death-rate from alcoholism among the company's 17.000,000 policy holders was greater in 1926 than , in any year since 1917. The rate in 1926 | was 3.7 per 100,000, compared with 3 per 100,000 in 1925. The 1926 rate was six times as great as that of 1920, which was the year of the lowest rate ever recorded. The highest rate was 5.3 per 100,000 in 1912. The announcement states that unless the current trend of deaths from alcoholism is checked the year 1928 will show a record rate, as high as any year since 1911. The latter is the earliest year for which data are available.