The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-12
.DETR0IT'S CHIEF
|. SOURCE OF RUM
now is ONTARIO
Fifty Mile Shore Line Of
fers Easy Crossing to
Illicit Traffic.
HIGH WAGES A FACTOR
Demand for Liquor Net by
Hordes OF Rum Runners
Protected in Canada.
GANGSTERS ON INCREASE
Endless Supply Of Motor Cars
in Use and Stored Battle
Officers.
HIGH WAGES A FACTOR
GANGSTERS ON INCREASE

Herewith is published the sirth OF
series Of articles setting forth the
results OF an Investigation Of achole-
sale IiQaor smuggling across the Ca
ncGian border, mode by q STAFF cor
respondent Of THE NEW YoRK HERALD
1Cho travelled along the border from
Maine TO Michigan for the purpose Of
making this Investigation. Conditions
c1on0 the MeGicGn border aud in Flor
ida acill be described in succeeding ar
ticles Tomorrow and Sunday.
Special Despatch to TIH NEW York HERALD.
DETROIT, Mich, Nov. H. IL that
part OF the United States which is
separated from the Dominion of Can
ada only by the width OF the Detroit
and st. Clair rivers is about fifty five
miles in length. how is the shore line
to be patrolled or controlled by force
which has not enough men to enforce
/ the law in n single city district?
/ That question, worded more or less
as given here. is asked by each OF the
\ prohibition enforcement agents of De-
| troit each time an indignant citizen
/ approaches him and demands to know
why the city isn't as dry as bone.
/ The citizen then goes away without
returning an answer to the question
/ There is no answer. Unless the an
swer Is that it can't be done.
For until the Province of Ontario
goes dry and becomes dry. and until
Uncle sam finds It expedient to guard
the Detroit and st. Clair river shores
with bodies Of men numerous enough
to admit OF their being placed about
ten feet apart, there viii be no real
prohibition in Detroit.
Designed for Bibulous Future.
Some zealot, writing n tract upon the
evils OF hard drink years before Column
bus took ship from Spain. might have
imagined the erection OF q city like De-
troit and then imagined those peculiar
conditions in 1t which have made IL SO
obvious and so ardent n market for the
product OF the whiskey distiler's art
Upon its geographical situation alone a
bibulous future might have been prom
Used for IL the moment prohibition be-
came q law. Add TO it's proximity 70
Canada that it has been growing fast
anu at especially high nervous tension
for the last six years and Is filled with
artisans and mechanics drawing wages
beyond all the dreams they ever had, and
what power that has yet been created
by law is going 10 dry II up?
Tor those professions whose principal
concern is the leading of mankind to well
being and rectitude Detroit was q grow
ing problem for several years before pro-
hibition came along. With It's vast auto
mobile industry It was expanding like
balloon. It's factories brought from all
over the United States type OF me-
chanic who was young. who had only
contempt for the dinner pan his father
used to carry and who asked ana re-
ceived high wages and wanted the best
In the land. Most often he was unmar-
ried, and il married often arrlLged with
his wifo that she stay where Weir home
was until he discovered whether or not
Detroit was all that It had been cracked
UP to be.
More Booze Being Consumed.
lie was difficult enough 10 handle
when every saloon in Michigan had its
front doors swinging wide. The police
came into contact with him often and
the minor criminal courts had him be-
fore them with increasing frequency.
physlsians and clergymen began 20
maintain that there was growing up In
America the phenomenon OF a man who
worked with his hands. but considered
that he was being niggardly with him
self IL he kept less than two roofs over
his head. When those complaints were
made there was complaint enough that
the men who wero the cause Of them
were drinking too much whisky. Now
that prohibition Is with us it IL declared
that those OF DctroiCs mechanics who
drink at all are drinking more than they
ever consumed before I'm their lives.
As In most Industrial centres, prohi-
bit.cn "a looked upon as q measure de-
signed by the capitalists for the solitary
purpose of getting moro work than ever
out OF tho working man and removing
that elixir which was wont to keep the
heart in him over protractod strikes. 10
was talked about. as in all factory CEN
tres. with heat and acrimony before II
arrived as fact After that thousands
OF men who hated and resented II took
every occasion that was presented to
them as an opportunity 90 break the
law The bootlegEors who soon sprang
up have seen 90 70 ever since that the
occasion has been msdc permanent.
ontario's Three stages.
Ontario, whence Gao greatest measure
or Detroit's supniy comes. has had dry
laws OF its own TO- i"ur years. but they
have not been o. The kind 90 disturb
any bootleRgcr's or rdrl runners dreams
Ia the stilly nighte lu the beginning
Ontario conteutcd itcaif with abolishlnR
the FALCON md NJ tho end OF tho war
prohibited the snle. manufacture or ini-
portltion 81 LIQUOR shortly before the
United states ratified rs Constitutional
amendment. I.3atlE ontario passed
law which permits q householder to bring
In from Quebec Province or from whore
be likes as much liquor as hc thinks he
wants. Under t1l law he may not roll
10, but this H. PROVISION more fornid-
able on the BOOKS ban N reality.
Bootegaeis bv She score have rented