The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1925-05-26
RUM RUNNING
VESSELS NUMBER 1886
SMUGGLING FORCE COMBATT-
ED BY GOVERNMENT WITH
$3O,oOO,OoO EQUIPMENT.
A STATE OF WAR NOW EXISTS
Vast Organization Reported Conduct
ing Shore End of Illicit Business.
Picketing OFF the New England and
Florida Coasts by U. S. Craft.


Picketing OFF the New England and
Florida Coasts by U. S. Craft.
NEW YORK, N. VA million
dollar rum running combine is being
combatted by the United States coast
guard with $30OO00OO equipment,
government officials announced at the
completion of a four-day official and
newspaper inspection cruise of the
mid Atlantic rum smuggling area.
There are 385 foreign rum running
boats of all descriptions, according to
Lieutenant Commander Stephen ).
Yeandle, aide. to the coast guards
commandant, Rear Admiral Billiard.
These craft have been pouring con-
traband liquor into the United States
with the assistance of large and far
reaching shore organization with IN
tricate ramihcations.
Picketing to Continue.
Against this array the coast guards
entire force consists of sixteen cut
tiers, whose primary duty is the safe
guarding of ships and lives at sea; an
authorized feet of twenty converted
destroyers, not yet completed; 208 pa
troll boats, each Is feet long, and 1903
thirty-six picket boats.
! 1t is under these conditions, Com
mander Yeandle said, that the coast
guards force in less than two weeks
! has sent more than seventy smuggling
craft scuttlng to sea and has so tight
| ly ringed the remaining smugglers
with small, heavily boats as to
put virtually complete stop to the
once copious quantities of liquor that
flowed through Long Island, New
, Jersey. New York and New England
seacoast channels.
The plan itself is simple enough 1t
calls for the continued picketlng OF
every rum boat that comes within
striking distance of shore and the con-
tinued patrolling of all waterways
leading from the sea to the shore
bootlegger bases. After the foreign
lliauor carriers have been held off-shorc
weeks or months, as the case may be,
the coast guardsmen believe that the
shore liquor organizations vast army
of men who operate under huge
complication of details-will rust with
disuse.
Commander Yeandle pointed out
that the largest of these shore rum
running organizations were at New
York and in New England. Others
! exist in Florida cities, to handle the
contraband smugged by way OF the
coastless sand spits, bays and islands
| between Florida and Cuba and the
! Bahamas; on the Gull of Mexico, to
attend to the shore end of the bust
ness for the rum fleet off the mouth
of the Mississippi river; in Georgia,
North Carolina and South Carolina;
at San Diego, Los Angeles and San
Francisco. in California and on Puget
Sound.
Twenty Destroyers Converted.
Less than a year ago the govern
ment forces began to organize for the
/ blockade now in effect. With $751;
600, COO appropriation from congress-,
and orders to suppress liquor SNUG
Cling, the coast guard, which had been
conspicuous in American history since
its founding in 1880, began a deter
mined building of patrol and picket
boats and the conversion of twenty
lsubmarine destroyers taken over from
the navy.
A state of war virtually exists on
| the seas off New York, New Jersey,
Rhode Island, and a portion of Mas
sachusetts. All movements against the
beleaguered "Rummies' are transmit
ed in code by wireless from coast
guard headquarters in Washington.
The coast guardsmen are getting lit
tie shore liberty.
Crews and members of crews are
being shifted constantly to offset at
tempts of the enemy" to Illustrate the
blockade by bribery, intimidation and
sabotage. Captain Wheeler, on the
cutter Mojave, and Commander Mum
ter, aboard the destroyer Downes, have
i elaborate maps and charts in their
chart rooms, on which pins denote the
lines of friend and enemy forces.
Commander Yeandle said the coast
guard, for the purposes of the rum
war. had been welded into mobile
organization. Twenty movable bases
have been established at various places
along the 10000 miles of seacoast
which the guardsmen are responsible
| for, including bases at Atlantic City,
Staten Island, Greenport, Long Is
land; New London, Conn; Boston,
Gloucester and Woods Hole, Mass;
Cape May, N. j.; Miami, Fla; Nor
folk, Va; Block Island, Lewes, Del;
Port Townsend, Port Angeles and
Anacosta, Wash, and Goat Island, in
San Francisco bay.
Shore Ring Fought
"Our only hope" Commander Yean-
die said, lis to break up the shore or
CARNATIONS, and | think we can and
will do it. 1t will take a long time,
and we're in the fight to stay"
The commander said the billion-dol-
lar estimate as to the rum organiza-
tons worth had been arrived at after
comprehensive and careful considera-
ton OF all available details.
SAVED HER NEW HAT.