Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1922-08-28
N. J. Booteggers Ano
Politicians in Alliance
Write Declares State Is Bad Lands
of Industry. WhOlesaleBrlbery
and Corruption are fragrant

and Corruption are fragrant
New York. Aug. IS New Jersey
Is indisputably the prohibition bau
Lands. From every point OF view
it is ideal bootlegging territory NO
where is the unholy alliance between
politics and the illicit industry, WIN
It's attendant evils of wholesale brlD-
cry mad corruption, so flagrantly IN
evidence. Nowhere are there such
inviting opportunities for liquor
smuggling as the tortuQus Jersey
littoral along the Atlantic affords
On the prohibition map the State
figures as incomparably the worst
spot in the country. 1t is Tester
ing sore that is poisoning ana I'M
dermining the entire Federal en-
forcement system. Until it is broken
up and purged, root and branch, the
eighteenth amendment Will be IN
only theoretical operation.
New Jersey was the last (the forty
sixth State to ratify the dry add
tion to the Constitution. Today 1t IS
the chief stumbling block to It's act
ual operation as the law OF the lana.
When prohibition is imposed upon
New Jersey, it will begin to be en-
forced throughout the Union. Uncle
Sans job is right there.
A glance at the map reveals the
paramount significance OF Jersey III
the prohibition scheme. Ihe State
Is virtually peninsula, bounded on
one side by the ocean ana on the
otner side by the Delaware RIVER.
1t Is the seaside gateway 10 the rich
est, wettest and most populous re-
glon IN the United States, New York
surrounds it on the north ana east
Pennsylvania spraWls all along II
on the west, Delawre and Maryland
are adjacent on the south.
From Sandy Hook to Cape May
the long Jersey short line, frlnged
with lslnads, nlets, bays, barren
sand Gunes and indentauons OF end
less ayriety Presents a limitless lat
itude of cnoIce for rum pirates IN
quest of safe landing places.
At countless points the cast IS still
in state OF primeval wildness, de
serted and unguarded. Nature or
dained it for bootlegging purposes.
That is why the waters outside Of
New Jerseys three nile limit con-
stitute the favorite rendezvous Of
the smuggler ships that 5ring con-
trabnd liquor to the United States
from Europe, the West Indies and
Canada
But even the unique geographical
confguration which makes New Jer-
sey a national pipe line, through
which Illicit drink car easily be
telephoned into the United States,
would not be potent if there were
not fayoring conditions. The State
is happy hunting grounds for the
Bookkeeping fraternity because OF the
ancient partnership between the hq-
uor trade and high politics.
Let it be said at once that when
there is talk OF politics and boot
Logging in New Jersey, both parties
are in mind. 1t happened TO be the
private glory Of Governor Edward
/. Edwards to decree that the State
should be "as wet as the Atlantic
Ocean," but that Democratic leader
is not the only wet politician in Jer-
sey. There is host OF Republican
wet leaders.
If the gootlegger-political alliance
is pernicious and brazen in Demo-
cratic strongholds like Hudson COun-
~, which contains Jersey City and
Hoboken, it is no less vicious in At
lantic County, which embraces At
lantic City and which is incorrigibly
Republican. The bootlegging indus
try in Jersey, as everywhere else, is
nonpartisan and biprtisan. It plays
with both sides, and both sides play
with it.
1t has remained for 4 Republican
leader. State Senator Charles D
White, of Atlantic County, to make
the most specific charge Of bootleg
ging collision with politics that has
yet been launched in New Jersey, II
not III the entire country. Address
sing the Lions Club at Atlantic City
on July 10, Senator White, who is
on Of the proprietors Of the MARI
borugh- Blenheim Hotel, declared cat
egorically that "a certain political
leader" controls, for private profit,
the supply Of illicit liquor that
streams into Atlantic City.
The Senator, man Of high repute
and conservative uttecance, asserted
it was within his knowledge that the
politician in question receives a reg
ular "rake-off' Of s. case for
every shipment Of contraband drink
arriving at "the shore The rake
off, takes the form Of a systematic
assessment, in return for which the
political boss guarantees according
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