Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-05
BY LEMUEL F. PARTON.

1
NEW YORK, July 5.-Traversing the
northern boundary from Maine to De-
| troit. and watching the engrossing
game of volley ball, back and forth
across the rum line, this correspondent
finds the encounter between the Gov
eminent and the booze runners compli-
Gated by factors and interests which the
extremists of both sides in the prohibit
ton argument apparently fail to con-
slider.
No isolated instance Of law violation
is ever quite so simple as it appears in
newspaper account of an arrest or a
shooting. Invariably there are legalis-
! tic, economic and political byways, and
/ the Government finds the straight
highway to enforcement hard to find.
Perhaps more important still, there are
psychological patterns and backgrounds
which help to confuse the main issue.
Quite considerable proportion of the
Puritan ancestors of these border dwell
lers believed in and practiced rum
smuggling. Around such towns as New
buryport, Mass, for instance, there is
more than one stable fortune which
was built up in the early days OF dog
ging the excise tax on jamaica rum.
AS the IroQuois Indians are being used
for rum runners now. the Narrangan-
Sett Indians were used a century or
more ago.
Refused to Accept Issue.
There is a stubborn refusal among
the old stock to accept the prohibition
issue AS a clearly defined question of
obedience to law. 1t was perhaps the
consideration Of such social sanctions
which led President Hoover to search
out the heart of the enforcement prob
lem in trying to inculcate belief in en-
forcement.
Political hindrances to effective en-
forcement are observable all along the
line. There are jealous and incor-
ruptible officials crippled by the Oregon
boot of politics, and there are others,
less honest and competent, who hold Of
flee behind political bulwarks. In
every large city the enforcement prob
lem in its larger outlines is a political
problem. Again, President Hoover
probed down toward fundamentals by
suggesting separate enforcement au-
thority.
There are underground tendrils and
roots of economic interests, which. in
the opinion of this observer, will prove
a greater obstacle to complete enforce
ment than any other factor. There
are several known instances in which
banks have been bankrolling the boot
leggerS. A low-browed, gun-toting
booze gang is apt to shade off, through
intermediary cooperative supply COM
panies," incorporated and openly OPP
Grated, into the high shades and grades
Of responsibility. A shot at bootleg
ger is apt to blow the shingles off big
bank. Sovereign voters get cut, all
along the line, and the alliance be-
tween economic and political interests
grows like ragweed.
Border Lawyers Accused.
AS to legal aspects of enforcement,
Government officials accuse the border
lawyers of ranging far beyond their
professional picket rope in acting as
scouts flXers, manipulatorS and gen.
eral utility men for the big booze rings.
1t is unquestionably true that the string
OF border lawyers has been an excel
lent first-aid crew for the rum-runners,
and that they have found returns in
proportion to their services.
In the opinion of this courier, who
has no reason to make apologies for
-triggered enforcement, the border
customs officials have been getting the
short end Of the national argument
about shooting. 1t Is not generally
realized that most of the work Of guard
ing the boundary is in the hands of the
thority. They have been on this job
of catching smugglers since the start
Of the country, and prohibition was
handed to them as just something else
in a days work. In 1903 a Smuggler
named Dean was hanged in the public
square at Burlington, VT, in the pres
ence Of 10000 persons, for shooting a
customs officer. Then and since, the
shooting problem has been worked
over, and it has settled down to a def
mite policy that a patrol officer must
brush with the patrol officers, and ex-
aiming records in the offices Of the
collectors, this writer records his con-
viction that the authorities have done
everything possible to hold to this rule.
With regards to the exact legal metes
and bounds of the shooting business,
Judge Cooper of the northern district
of New York, in the case of ex parte
Dickson, IA Fed, rep. (2d) 60s, atated
the law as follows:
Before the use of firearms Is justi-
fled, these things should obtain. The
customs officer should plainly see, or
have excellent reason to believe, that
the automobile contains Struggled
goods brought by it over the border.
He should be sure that the operator of
the automobile knows the official char
acter of the officer and sees his signal
to stop and to submit to the search re-
CURED by law. It should be clear that
the operator willfully and defiantly re-
fuses to stop. There must be no other
means available of stopping the auto
mobile, arresting the operator and SELF
ing the struggled goods"
(Copyright, 1929