KEEPING DRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1923, Page 5

KEEPING DRY.

THE CAMPAIGN IN AMERICA GOOD PROGRESS RECORDED. EIGHT THOUSAND ARRESTS. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Dec. 24, 11.35 p.m. Washington, Dec. 24. The Prohibition Commissioner (Mr. Haines), reviewing the progress of enforcement during 1923, stated the object of the Volstead law was manifestly being realised in even the most difficult sections of the country more rapidly thap many people believed, and the progress nationally had been nothing short of marvellous. Viola,ters who operate on a large scale are being apprehended, and smuggling on the borders and the coast has. beeh materially curtailed, as has home filiation. There are more than two liurt? dred thousand local officials and Federal agents engaged in enforcing na» tional prohibition. The latter, in the past fifteen months, made eight thousand arrests and seized property valued at four million dollars. He concluded: “The difficulties that have been presented and are being presented are but incidents in the larger progress of our work. They are not finaltics ultimates, and the record of accomplishment is ample justification for large hope for the future.” The authorities, continuing investigations into the illicit liquor syndicate, have made eight further arrests, but they declared some ’ powerful group is working against them, for a list containing fifteen hundred names of prominent residents of Washington who purchase liquors mysteriously disappeared from police headquarters after the directors of both the anti-sale league and the association against prohibition demanded the authorities to publish the names without fear or favour. The State Department, which has taken charge of the details of the cases dealing with a foreign legation, has effectively stopped the publication of information appertaining thereto until further evidence is collected and definite charges can openly be made. The incident is causing a sharp flurry of excitement in the capital. CHRISTMAS CHEER. RUM-RUNNERS’ ACTIVITY. Received Dec. 25, 11.5 p.m. Washington, Dec. 24. On the eve of the holiday, prohibition is becoming the major item of the national news, in view of the bootleggers’ efforts to supply the Christmas demand. Ocean rum-runners on the Atlantic coast are taking extraordinary risks to land consignments of liquor, and are often successful. The authorities estimate that 250,000 dollars’ worth of liquor was landed yesterday alone. A dispatch from Marion, in Illinois, states that a small group of Federal agents, without information from the local authorities, enlisted the aid of a large posse of the Ku Klux Klan, and raided many liquor resorts, making 75 arrests, and engaging in gun battles, in which four persons were shot and serf* ously injured.

EXTRAORDINARY CHARGES. CONGRESS TO INVESTIGATE. Received Dec. 25, 11.5 p.m. Washington, Dec. 24. The scandal over the liquor syndicate in Washington continues to grow. Congress is now being asked to investigate the incidents. The police continue *o make extraordinary charges against the syndicate, declaring that a promininc group of bankers is behind the ring. It is even declared that the syndicate had two members of Cabinet among its customers.