Evening star., 1924-11-04
MONOPOLY SEEKS
CONTROL OF RUN
Piracy Cases Bring Out Evil
dence OF Efforts to
Smash Small Fry.
Erecial Dispatch to The star.

cations in progress in American, Cana
dian and French courts respecting al
legged piracy cases arising out of
the rum-running business off the
New York and New Jersey coast, as
witness the ''Mulhouse" case. that the
traffic in booze" is changing and
that powerful SyndicateS are now OBJ
tanning control and shutting out the
Small-fry traders.
Other evidence of the changing
methods in transatlantic bootleg
|S gang is afforded by the fact that the
amount collected by the Newfound-
land government in fees for export
permits for whisky during the three
months ending September so, amount
ed only to $1,000, or at the rate of
$500 a year. whereas the total re-
ccipts from this traffic for the II
months which ended on June 80, were
*l50.00o. To be sure at New Year
the fee for export was reduced from
20 cents a gallon, or $3.50 case (two
gallons to the case of II bottles). to
80 cents a gallon, or 81 a case, but
even allowing for that it is obvious
that there was an enormously larger
business done last year
One Explanation.
One explanation of the change
which is given by some of those en-
Saged in the business is that large
organizations in America have made
direct contracts with the distf1ers in
Scotland by which they obtain sup
plies in large quantities. really in
steamer loads. and that smaller crafts
are supplied either at rum row" or
elsewhere, with their requirements
from theS huge cargoes. The re-
SUIT Is that the syndicates get a sub
stantial middleman's profit with a
minimum of risk
Another recent development is that
the whisky is shipped from Scotch
or English ports to Hamburg, which
Is free port, and there is trans
1erred to other ships for the Atlantic
voyage BY this means the friendly
I efforts of the British government to
curtail the traffic so Objectionable to
the American people are neutraliZed.
From Hamburg, in turn, the ships
carrying cargoes of liquor are cleared
for Nassau i'll the Bahamas. Bermuda
or St. Pierre, through which centers
most of the traffic is now done.
st. Johns was al one time an active
competitor, for the reason that a
regular line of steamers plies all the
year round between Glasgow and St.
Johns.
1t was possible to use a type of
vessel that cannot be operated from
. Canadian ports. because the Canadian
laws do not grant these facilities to
vessels of less than 200 tons.
Want Fee Lowered.
Nor is it difficult for operators in
a smaller way to carry on this busi
ness successfully, because the whole
of the output of the best brands of
Scotch whisky is sold to the syndi-
cases and these independent traders
have to be satisfied with an inferior
quality of stuff.
70 Wit ~
gard to st. Pierre, where the traffic
has also been very light the present
year, so much so that the handlers of
this stuff are agitating there just now
TO have the export fee further re-
duced to % cents a gallon, or so
cents a case, in the hope that this
will attract much of the traffic back.
Similar representations are being
made by those traders who use St
Johns as their headquarters and any
reduction made in one center Will
likely be duplicated in the other.
Some interesting stories of this
traffic are told by persons who utilize
st. Johns and St Pierre's as a base.
These people claim that the market
price for good whisky at the ships
rail at Rum Row is $3S to $40 a case
and that the stuff is then retailed in
New York at from SIS to $50. while
champagne and liqueurs bring $12O
case. One of these agents claims that
within the last two years he mas
piloted 5000 cases out of Nassau
and nearly as many more out of st.
Johns and st. Pierre.
He adds that it costs about $40
more to get the stuff into the city by
fixing customhouse officers, po-
licemen and in expenses of transport,
as, for instance, truckmen engaged in
this business have to be paid 500
week.
Some Prices.
Good whisky can be bought in
Scotland for so to 20 shillings case
at the exchange rate of about %
cents to a shilling. It's shipment to
St Johns costs 20 cents a case, from
there to St Pierre 81 cents more, and
q fee of 1k per cent is charged for
negotiating the bonds to make the
transfer possible. Using "sailers," US
ualy two-masted schooners, 1t costs
about IS a case from St. Pierre or ST.
Johns to New York. The center OF
operations Of this trade is about
1S miles off Freeport, r. l., where are
used three motor boats, one carrying
400 cases at time and the others $50
cases each.
Is miles off Freeport, r. l., where
are used three motor boats. one
carrying 400 cases at time and the
Others 100 cases each.
In the working of the vessels and
boats this concern employs 81 men
regularly, whose, wages grade down
from 5000 a month for a Shipmaster
to SIS for a seaman. st. Pierre being
French, very little difficulty is made
with regard to official papers, but in
st. Johns it is somewhat more diff
cult, When the papers are prepared
for Nassau or Bermuda, the vessels
- Il - I,
ceed to Nassau or Bermuda and get
another cargo, and then clear for St.
Johns or St Pierre, passing this
cargo over the ships side off New
York in the same way.
Last year and the year before it
was not unusual for steamers to carry
as high as 10000 cases to anchor off
New York and transfer the shipments
to smaller crafts and market quota
tions were regularly posted on
board on the side of this steamer. At
times, however, when several laden
| ships would be about, price cutting
was vigorous and drastic and then
people who were known as bottle
Fishermen" did good business.
The Bottle Traders.
These were people from the nearby
coasts-fsherm rmen, longshoremen and
pthers-who would come off to the
ships and buy small quantities, from
bne to ten cases, either for their own
use or for disposal in quarters where
lhey could be easily got rid of.
AS this is written the Newfoundland
government has set on foot crusade
gainst rum running to the island it
Elf, for while St Johns is used as a
Iase for the distribution of liquor de-
tgned for other countries, the island
tself has been dry for the last seven
It'll ntoI,