The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-05

400 ARE ARRESTED
IN LIQUOR RAIDS
$40 Dry Agents Clean Out
+, Places Below 1tth Street,
i Making 20 Arrests.
EVIDENCE is SPILLED
Quickness of Shopkeepers to
Dump Coffee Pots Balks
Z Many Seizures.
EVIDENCE IS SPILLED

The small shopkeeper. who since the
coming of prohibition has been gather
ing little easy money by selling boot
leg booze as a side line to whatever
commodity his establishment carries
as its main line. felt the force of the
voIstead act yesterday when 240 en-
forcement agents descended upon the
territory south of Fourteenth street
and east of the Bowery and raided 100
retail stores.
The descent was made simultane-
ously on the hundred places which
had been selected beforehand and for
which search warrants had been issued
upon the sworn statements of prohibit
ton agents that they had purchased
liquor in the various establishments.
The little stores were of all sorts and
conditions but most of them were
places where food and beverages are
sold regularly, such as restaurants,
ice cream and soda parlors and lunch
rooms
The raiding was done under the direc-
ton of Frank l.. Boyd. supervising agent
for this district, and whose regular force
of 121 men was augmented by an equal
number of extra operatives drawn from
Boston. Philadelphia and Baltimore. Out
pf-all the places raided. however. evil
dence of the liquor law being broken
Vas found in only fifty-six, and in all
fewer than seventy persons We're ar
rested
ID Quick to Spill Evidence.
"a Agents who took part In the rails said
last night that the law lost out in most
of the cases where no arrests were made
through the manual dexterity of the
storekeepers and their STATS. On the
East Side hootch is usually dispensed
from coffee pots. well stained with cof-
Zee. to make them look natural. and
manipulated near sinks ord rains so mat
they can be spilled instantly in case OF
alarm. 1t Is the general rule on the
East Side for him who is selling booze
on the sly not to keep more than n
coffee pot fun on his premises at a
time.
So yesterday the pot was tipped N
time in A of the places on which the
Federal men came down: and although
the coffee pots in all cases were redolent
OF fluid that was not coffee perfume Is
inadmissibie as evidence In court of
law and the storekeepers had the last
laugh. In any case, the prohibition
agents say. the oldest and hardest drink
or among them could not take oath that
the dregs in any case We're whiskev
They agreed after the raids that what
Is being sold on the East Side nowadays
IS not even tenth cousin TO good whlskey
and in all likelihood is poisonous in most
cases.
"a Small Hauls the Rule.
sin most of the stores where arrests
were made yesterday the proprietors
had more liquor on the premises than
met the eye. They were all small fry,
though. for the heaviest haul the agents
made In any one place was ten gallons.
United States Commissioner Hitch
cock. who had issued the warrants,
held forty of the defendants in bail be-
fore he closed his court for the day
Those who were left over when he
caHed ii an afternoon were taken TO
Police stations and will be arraigned
this morning.
Judge Garvin, in the United states
District Court in Brooklyn. announced
yesterday he would impose Jail SEN
tefices on violators OF the prohibition
law hereafter.
II want to dispel the idea" he said.
that offenders against the Volstead
law will be let off with fines Here
after all persons convicted before me
VIII be sent TO jail
There were rumors yesterday of a
shAke up among prohibition agents as
signed to this district. No Federal Of
fetal in a position TO know would ad-
NIT he knew Of any foundation for IT,.