The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-08-22
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC ,. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. d. Q.
TRAFFIC IN NARCOTICS.

Washington, d. c.. Aug. 10
| Whether. as some claim, there has
been a recent marked increase in the
Illicit consumption of opium and other
| habit-forming drugs, the fact remains
that not since the middle sos has
there been SO much agitation against
the contraband traffic in narcotics as
there is at present. The American
newspapers are continually printing
stories dealing with the evil in this
country. The opponents of prohibit
ton aver that the alarming growth in
the number of drug fiends is but the
inevitable result of the dry amend
ment and the Volstead law. But the
commotion is by no means confined
to the United States. The League OF
| Nations has undertaken a worldwide
crusade against the drug traffic; and
4 it is said that the recent note of the
| league, which the state department
| felt it polite not to answer, asked for
i the statistics of drug consumption in
this country.
In the work of suppression the
United States nevertheless is doing
| its share; and this share consists prin-
cipally in making it difficult to bring
narcotics into the United States except
for their legitimate uses. The customs
service at the ports and along the bor-
ders is only the final battlement which
the dope smuggler has to scale. Many
and devious are his methods of eScaO-
ing the vigilance of the customs Off
Ger. Not long ago high official OF
the government, returning from the
Orient, was the Innocent accomplice
of an opium runner. The officials
baggage was by courtesy exempt from
customs inspection. His trusted SER
want was aware of this fact and loaded
the immune baggage with opium. Not
until this man began to peddle the
dope was he caught and his clever
scheme discovered.
Yet long before the opium runner
I - =
he has had to run another gauntlet
and one which often entraps him. This
, barrier is that laid by the American
consuls in those parts of the earth
where opium and other drugs are pro-
duced. The consul is Uncle Sans
man of all work in foreign lands. He
is not SO decorative as an ambassador
or minister; but, taking him 365 days
in the year, he is much more useful.
He visas the passports of aliens seek
ing to enter the United States, keeps
his eyes open for opportunities for
American trade, looks after American
shipping, and every now and then digs
down into his pocket for the relief of
Feats of Consul Adams.
Besides these, one of the chief
duties of our consuls in China is to
aid in the prevention of the contra
band drug traffic across the Pacific.
Since 1887 1t has been. q crime to
smuggle opium either into China or
into the United States; and since 1887,
but never more SO than at present, the
opium runner has been a cross for
every American consul along the Chi
nese coast to bear. Recently the at
tention of the consular service. has
been directed to the success of Vice
Consul Walter A. Adams in China in
breaking up two wholesale attempts
to traffic in opium on large scale.
Consul Adams attention was first
directed to the fact that in the Chi
nese section of Changsa, where he was
displaying a sign in Chinese that it
was an American institution and un-
der the protection of the American
flag. China is peculiar in that by
treaty with that country all American
owned or American-occupied property
therein, no matter where located, is
subject not to the jurisdiction of the
government of China, but to that of
the United States. Our government
maintains federal court in Shanghai
which has jurisdiction over all Amer
leans and their property in China. Con-
sequently, any establishment which
the Chinese authorities had reason
to think was owned by Americans
would not be molested by them.
1t was news to Consul Adams, how
ever. that any hotel in Changsa was
owned by Americans. He mace a sur
prise visit to the place and bore away
the sign, together with evidence that
opium was being sold on the premises
under the alleged protection of the
American flag. Then, in cooperation
with the native police, he broke up
several similar establishments. all of
them claiming American ownership.
den in which the drug was being
smoked by addicts. This place ac-
tually flew the American flag on its
flagstaff.
Adams followed this with another
coup which just about broke up the
opium traffic in Changsa. Learning
that a certain American agency there,
then in charge of a Chinese superin-
tendent, had received a large quantity
of opium. he enlisted the SUPPORT OF
the native police and raided the estab-
lishment, discovering a secret room
in which was stored nearly a ton of
the drug, worth at retail sale a fan
tastic amount of money. The consul
seized this and stored it at the con-
sulate. 1t was then his duty to turn
it over to the Chinese government;
but civil war was in progress, and he
could not determine which faction
should be regarded as the government
He soon received anonymous threats
of death, and appealed to the COM
mander of the American gunboat in
the harbor, who sent a guard of blue
jackets to the consulate to protect the
opium and Consul Adams too. Sew
eral months later order was restored
at Changsa, and the consul turned
over the precious contraband to the
government in power. The opium was
then publicly burned
How China Got Opium.
While Americans usually associate
opium with China, that is not the
place where the drug originated nor
the place whence comes the greater
part of the present supply in this
country. The Caesars of Rome knew
opium as a medicine. The white pop
Ply. from whose seeds it comes. was
first grown in Asia Minor, and that
district today is the principal source
of the opium used in the United
States. During the Dark Ages the use
of the drug spread across Asia reach