PROHIBITION IN AMERICA

Taranaki Daily News, 1 February 1927, Page 11

PROHIBITION IN AMERICA

VAST CONSPIRACIES ALLEGED. LARGE INCREASE IN DEATHS. By Telegraph-—Press Assn.—Copyright. Washington, Jan. 30. Following sensati... Li . s that the Federal Government employed socalled “under cover” men who, in order to trap bootleggers, organised elaborate night clubs, using Government moneys for the purpose, General Andrews sent a letter to the Senate explaining the reasons. The letter states: “The country is faced with numerous vast continuing conspiracies. It must recognise that violations are nation-wide and almost numberless. The Federal Government, to meet this condition, must concentrate its efforts upon large, wellorganised illegal operations. Dry agents known to the criminal element could never hope to defeat unknown, intelligent and unscrupulous men, whose operations are necessarily enshrouded in darkness. It is similar to war. It is necessary that agents be employed who are qualified and do act as spies. No one likes the idea, but it is as essential here as in war. Secret service methods and ‘under cover’ men are absolutely necessary if the prohibition law is to be enforced.” The revelations, which aroused a great deal of interest, showed that Government agents operated night clubs for many months, selling liquor to the public, and at the same time intercepting during delivery large orders for liquor placed with bootleggers. The club was later sold to a private individual, who shortly after that was arrested. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, tho largest of its kind in America, has announced that the death rate of alcoholism among the company’s 17 million policy-holders was greater in 1926 than in any year since 1917. The rate in 1926 was 3.7 per 100,000, against 3 per 100,000 in 1925. The 1926 rate was six times as great as that in 1920, which year gave the lowest rate ever recorded. The highest rate was 5.3 in 1912. The announcement states that unless the current trend of alcoholism deaths is checked 1928 will record a rate as high as any year since 1911, which is the earliest for which data are available for the industrial population.