Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-07-12
ISLES OFF FLORIDA
COAST MADE RICH
BY LIQUOR TRAFFIC
Reporter Tells Of Ease With
Which Bahamas and Cuba
Flood U, S, With Rum,
Clearance Papers Bought

Clearance Papers Bought
CHICAGO, July 1O-By the AS
sociated Press). Rum running
along the south Atlantic seaboard
has assumed such tremendous pro-
portions that the inhabitants Of
poverty-stricken little islands have
become rich almost overnight and
the section has become known as
"bootleggers' paradise" the Chicago
Daily News said today in a copy
righted article describing conditions
along the Florida coast.
In the city of Nassau alone, the
article said, official clearings of
liquor bound for the United States
increased from 1881 gallons in
1917 to 1,S40.44S gallons. in 1922.
The writer, accompanied by boot
logger named TERRY" as guide, told
of visiting the rum fleets, talking
with the rum runners, : helping
| transport the liquor and of distrib-
uting it in the United States.
| Miami, first stop of the investi-
gators, was described as "a city
where, if you feel the need of a
drink and don't happen to have
your own flask with you, all you
need to do is to wait in the shade
of
comes along, ask him where you
can find a bootsegger, and if he is
not one himself, he will tell you
where to go. You can buy all the
whisky you want, in Miami at IS
quart"
| Havana and Nassau were describ-
ed as but two OF the ports that
were flooding the United States
with liquor, some of it from Ameri-
can distilleries.
Clearance Papers Bought
Upon the payment of the proper
amount of graft" the writer said,
you can clear out of a port with
| thousands Of cases of whisky, billed
to a legitimate point, unload it on
| the American coast sail into the
aforesaid legitimate port with an
empty ship and receive a landing
certificate showing that you arrived
there with the very whisky you
struggled into the United States"
"In the course Of our participa-
! ton in this business on the Atlantic
CT hn writ 10.
and I bought booze in Havana,
brought it through the customs at
Key West and sent it to friends In
Chicago through the United States
mails We bought other booze in
Nassau and landed it in Miami at
the municipal pier, getting it past
the United States inspector at the
cost of SIS paid to the members Of
the boats crew. We logged liquor
back and forth from city to city,
bought it and sold it, drank it and
gave it away until we grew tired Of
the entire performance, and nobody
seemed to think we were doing any,
thing out of the ordinary"
And when we were ready to re-
turn to Chicago" the article tde-
clared, 1--WE left the Florida coast in
bootlegger's motorboat, met and
DOdIuSu d IuIl SCuOOIlSL Will
1000 cases of Scotch whisky, rode
this ship to the New Jersey coast,
bought ten cases from the captain,
landed it along with 200 other cases
Oh the Jersey coast, trucked it to
Newark, packed it into trunks and
shipped it to Chicago, and sold it to.
Terry's customers. Nobody inter-
fered with us or questioned us, it
was all in the days work"
Bahamas Growing Rich
The Bahamas, poverty stricken be-
fore prohibition and with revenues
from all sources of less than a half
million dollars, realized $2,798,000 in
1922 in duties from liquor shipped
into the United States, the article
said, quoting a Nassau official who
added that estimating that the L.
340,4 gallons of liquor cleared
from the Bahamas for the United
States was diluted so per cent, this
would mean that more than 2,600,-
900 gallons of liquor were placed on
the market in this country from the
| Bahamas alone.
Official documents in Washington
state that these figures are conSer-
Vative because there are not includ-
ed the liquor cargo carried by forty &,
to eighty boats a month from West
| End, Grand Bahamas to Florida, the
article said.
The rum runners who do this bust
ness, the writer said, "are sore be-
cause London and Glasgow are send
| ing booze to America 10000 to 49,
900 cases at a time, in bigger rum
ships than the Bahamas ever dreams
ed Of before; and they have made
some strange dreams come true in
the Bahamas"
| While prohibition officials are seiz-
ing sealed liquor brought into their
hands by legitimate ocean-going YES.
sells, the article said, there are but
two small cutters to guard the l.
200 miles of Florida coast, AL made
to order for rum running"
Regarding other measures to en-
force prohibition laws in Florida
the article quoting a Miami resident
said: y
1--WE had Colonel Mutt down here
from Washington once. I think it
was in February. 1922, that the
colonel and an army Of about forty
assistants swooped down on us.
They warned us in advance. the
| Associated Press carried an an
nouncement from Washington that
| the prohibition director had decided
! to clean us up. The bootleggers
| seemed to believe what they read
| in Associated Press dispatches; at
cleaned up the town themselves
! before he arrived.
Rebuffed at Nassau