The Wrangell sentinel., 1926-03-25
COAST GUARD DISPENSING
 RUM ROW THROUGH WELL
 DEVELOPED COMMUNICATION

by liquor smugglers 10 make safe their violations of the law, is neN used by the Coast Guard to disperse Rum Row.
 Because of the Governments highly developed system of com munication. it is now almost impos= sibIe for a rum ship to enter the 100000 square mile area between Virginia and Maine without dis eoyery.
 If a "rummies succeeds in getting by the three destroyers which patrol the outer edges of this once-popular area, it is likely to be picked up by the Coast Guard hydro-airplane which operates from a base on an island near Gloucester, Mass.
 Once it is discovered, a remark able chain of modern communiea ton is placed in operation. The de- stroyer or airplane immediately gets in touch with it's base or other Coast Guard vessels through radio or the wireless telephone. The lo- cation and course of the rum ship is then broadcast in code. Daily thereafter it's position is plotted on the secret charts of the Coast Guard until it is either caught violating the laws and taken in custody, or leaves the vicinity of the United States.
 As the "rummie' gets closer to shore, 1t is met by a Coast Guard watch dog" These watch dogs are I00-foot boats which act as mother ships 10 the smaller patrol boats. When the rum ship anchors outside the 12 mile limit. one of them immediately anchors alongside. It's patrol boats then start cruising around the rum ship to intercept any speed boat from ashore that at tempts to make contact.
 As result of this system of bot ting up" the illicit liquor at it's source, only two rum ships recently were on Rum Row, as compared with about so last year.
 Time was when the bootleggers' information organizations were of considerable scope and aided them materially in evading the Coast Guard vessels. One smuggler main tained a fleet of three airplanes near Buzzard's Bay which he used for locating the Coast Guard ships and delivering orders from big New York liquor syndicates to incoming rum ships.
 These airplanes would "spot" the Coast Guard boats and then warn the rum ships Later they would fly back and drop metal cylinders containing all sorts of information. The rum ship captains often knew as much about the Coast Guard ships as the service itself.
 Now the Coast Guard shippers can lift a telephone receiver and talk to other ships through the air Through system of storage batter les, even the smallest patrol boats can take advantage of this system of communication. And the code prevents their messages from being understood by the smugglers.
 Recently the Cutter Seminole picked up speed boat off the Jer- sey coast. When the vessel refused to stop, the Seminole opened fire. At the same time 1t got into com munication with the Sandy Hook base and other patrol boats in the yicinity.s The chase lasted for 20 miles and the speed boat would have escaped but for the circle of Coast Guard boats that was closing around it. Finally it ran into range of patrol boat from Staten Island When the patrol boat put tracer bullet near it's gasoline tank. the speed boat put up the white flag.
 Although there was no liquor on board when the boat was captured it was held for violation of the nav igation laws for covering it's namt and resisting arrest. It was a typi- cal example of the net sEuggler has to go through to land his con- hast oi go through to land hiscon- traband.
 During the past year the Coast Guard boarded more than 37,000 vessels or one every 15 minutes. Many of them were pleasure boats, because much of the smuggling was done in pleasure boats. No innocent person was injured.
 In addition to the anti-smuggling activities of the Coast Guard it's system of communication applies to the hundreds of miles of coast line