The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-29
Dean TO STOP IT.
Applies to Government for Sc
cret Service Men.
Express Companies Are Evad-
ing the Revenue Law.
MIR. DEAN SURPRISED.
Says This Business Has Reached
Immense Magnitude.
Force Is Too Small to Cope
With Situation.

The persistent and successful at
tempts of the Kansas City wholesale
liquor dealers to evade the prohibitory
law in Kansas through use Of the
United States express companies, has
caused ]. S. Dean, United States dis
trict attorney, to apply to the depart
ment at Washington for assistant ex-
pert secret service men to capture the
| offenders.
At the present time each congress
sional district in the state has one
revenue collector. About four times
that number are needed to cope with
this new plan of the liquor dealers to
ship their wares into Kansas.
The scheme employed by the whole
salers in the Missouri town is to send
packages of liquor by the express COM
panies marked Q. o. D. to people in
Kansas, who never ordered the stuff.
lis then up to the person to whom
it was shipped to refuse the goods or
buy it at the price named on the
package. If the goods are refused at
the express office, the agents of the
Kansas City dealers, and they can be
found in every town in Kansas, take
possession OF the liquor and sell it by
the bottle. All of these sales are made
without license, and it is to this phase
of the business that United States At
torney Dean objects.
''Since L have made a more thorough
and personal investigation in this mat
ter, I am simply surprised at the mag
nitude which it has assumed said Mr..
Dean. This wildcat selling at Kansas
City is in my mind thoroughly work
ed out scheme of stupendous proper
tions, of which the general public has
no idea as to its size am perfectly safe
in saying that at the 300 or more express
offices in Kansas, one would today find
from 200 to $50 packages of liquor from
these Kansas City houses, marked c. 0.
L. If the persons to whom they are
sent refuse to take them, bottles, one at
q time, are taken out and sold around
the town, the package lying in the ex-
press Office all the time. While this
scheme has been worked before, it has
never even commenced to be as fragrant
as at the present time. 1t must be stop
ped. These people have to pay license if
they want to sell liquor.
1T is for this purpose" continued
Mr. Dean, that I want aid from the
| department at Washington. Our force
: at the present time, one man to eacn
congressional district, is inadequate &c
cope with this wild cat scheme which
has come out of Kansas City. -Four
times our present strength is absolute
ly necessary and still more could be
used"
The system of beating the govern
ment out of revenues by using the ex-
press companies has been going on for
more than a year in the state. 1t pro-
badly is the most successful scheme
ever tried for that purpose, and tbs
United States officials have had a hard
time to capture the offendrs.
Two wholesale dealers were convict.
) ed in Kansas City a short time ago
Several retailers have been punished
within the last year for handling the
stuff out of the express offices. and
there are three more up for trial be-
fore the United States district court or
April II.