The Washington times., 1905-07-16

The killing of three moonshiners and
the wounding of three others in fight
between the illicit distiilers of whisky
and revenue officers in Buchanan coun-
ty Va yesterday, has aroused fresh
interest in the subject of moonshlning
in general. According to John w.
Te-kes, Commissioner OF Internal Reve-
nue., the illicit distilling of spirits is by
no means confined to the wild mountain
districts.
''Moonshiners,' he says, now operate
II, the large cities of the country, where
Cne would least expect to find them.
Asked as to what remedy he proposed
a. the best means Of stopping the Illicit
+ trade, the commissioner replied: There
! is just one way TO wipe out moonshin-
/ ing, and that is to take the tax off
! distilled spirits. 1t is the only way So
: long as the Government imposes tax
I there will be attempts to evade the tax,
and in some degree these attempts will
! be succe ssful'
That the efforts of the revenue officers
/ have reduced moonshining to a mini
/ mum there is no doubt, and some of
/ them are of the opinion that the time
. Is not far distant when the distillation
( OF nuucr contrary to law viii be entirely
Il thing of the past But Commissioner
Yerkes does not delude himself with
/ the idea that moonshining can be totally
prohibited.
1 Plenty of Moonshining Yet.
There is moonshining in many parts
of the country" said the commission
er. despite the efforts Of our men to
stamp it out 1 have no doubt that il
licit distillng is being carried on at
this very minute in New York, Philadel-
phia, Chicago and other cities. AT fire.
quent intervals our men uncover Illicit
stills in the large Northern and Eastern
! cities. while down in the mountain dis
tricts of Georgia, Kentucky and other
/ Southern States mountain dew is dis
titled by the natives in defiance of the
/ law. A good deal of moonshine whisky
USED to be made in Pennsylvania, but
illicit distilling has been about wiped
out In that State.
You would scarcely expect to find an
Illicit still in d beautiful residence upin
Portland, Me, would you? Yet that
is just where our revenue agents un-
! covered one. Sometimes we get u clue
! from the most unexpected source. Some
of our men. about two years ago dis
covered that a considerable amount Of
/ rough sugar from Cuba was being
brought IN through the port OF Boston
IT was the kind Of sugar that is used
{ in the manufacture OF rum and We
could not imagine to what other use it
could be put.
so our men ascertained where IL was
: shipped from Boston and learned the
Z name Of the man to whom it was con-
signed in Portland. They went up there
and found that he had bought a beauti-
ful house on the outskirts Of the CITY.
! and that the sugar was taken 10 this
house. The result was that they got - }
the Place and found a still In operation.
The revenue agents some time ago
came to the conclusion that Illicit
! whisky was being made right in the
! heart Of New York. but they could not
locate the still. Finally, one OF them
noticed a welI-dressed young man, who
! made regular trips TO a house, carrying q
1 a suit case when he went in and bring
ing it with him when he went away.
I Every day he called two or three times
at this same house, and when the Off
GERS had made up their minds that his
! actions would bear investigation they
arrested him.
Found in Suit Case.
THE suit case was found to contain
| two rectangular cans, eaca holding
about two and half gallons of whisky.
! These cans had screw tops. like maple
syrup cans. and the young fellow by
| making two or three trips a day was
able TO carry away the entire output
! Of the still The officers destroyed the
still and arrested the moonshiners.
1--WE nave found number Of in
s.ancee where distillers. operating
under Government licenses, have been
/ cheating the Government by drawing
off part of the contents OF the still
and thus avoiding the payment OF the
internal Ie&'c::te tax on that much of
/ their product In one case the dis
! tiller had square iron box secreted In
his cellar which was connected with
the still by pipe. and by merely