Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-20

ness Of me tUarfare betrcen the Ian
enforcement bdttdltonS and re nm
mich the Government has selected as
a testing ground.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
DETROIT. June 20 IN. A, N. Az
Proof both of the increasing effective
ness of the Federal blockade of the
Detroit Canadian border against rum
runners and the desperate character of
men engaged in the Illicit liquor traffic
was given here yesterday, when runners
took the aggressive and opened IRE on
a customs border patrol speed boat.
As the customs men Speeded out OF
hiding place on the river front on the
east side of Detroit to intercept the rum
boat coming from Canada. the runners
opened fire and turned back toward
Canada. When they passed into Cana
dian waters ard thus were Tree from
pursuit they fired a second time. The.
two inspectors in the customs boat were
not hit, but the bow Of their ship was
smashed, the windshield broken and
some of the machinery wrecked by the
rum runners bullets.
In the past the river rum runners, as
distinguished from the gunner VINO
guarded the liquor cargoeS when once
landed. have not been armed, but nave
resorted to the superior speed OF their
boat coming from Canada, to run
the blockade.
Every trade has its tricks. and the
rum runners have theirs. They stand
ready to uncork every tried and true
one developed through years OF Skin
mishing with United States dry agents
and to spring some new ones TO r1eeI
the toughest situation they have ever
their
perate refuge.
Mobilization Shows Results.
The mobilization of the cream of the
Governments dry enforcement agents
at Detroit is already having results.
Canadian beer is at a premium, ana
little is coming over the Detroit River.
No big loads of distilled liquors are be-
ing run, either. The rum runners are
lying low, mapping out their campaign
to meet the new disturbing threat.
Eighty-seven per cent OF the liquor
exported from Canada to the United
States has been coming through the
Detroit district, Seymour Lowman, As
sistant Secretary of the Treasury, as
sertS. But with the new drive on 10
blockade the border against rum SNUG
Cling loads have shrunk enormously.
Only sneak loads are being run now,
Federal officers here say. Canoes, row.
boats and small cupboard motor boats
are being employed instead Of the fleets
of to 10 speed boats that used to
cross boldly from the liquor export
docks in Canada to Detroit, Ecorse and
Wyandotte.
The customs border patrol recently
seized a rowboat to the bottom Of which
three cases of whisky had been wired.
other loads, somewhat larger but by
no means beginning to measure UP with
loads run before the present drive, have
been submerged in the shadows OF va
rious reedy islands down river, OF which
Grassy Island, which is all that its
name implies, is an example. At night
the runners have gone to the marshes
in black-painted canoes and rowboats
or In small cupboard motor boats, called
skip jacks, and have brought the liquor
ashore in small parcels of case or
two.
Ofhcers Using Skip Jacks.
The skip-jac can enter marshes
that speed boats are unable to pene-
trate. Now the customs border patrol
are using IL of the skip-jacks them
selves, conflscated from the rum run
ners. and are probing the marshes for
liquor caches.
already ascending, and consumers will
soon feel the increase themselves, liquor
operators here say. The present drive
is bringing a golden harvest to a COM
bine of big down-riveF operators who
stored away large supply of whisky
and gins in anticipation of shortage
of good Canadian liquor, but Detroit,
If 1t wants to drink it, must pay for 1t.
And this is the rum capital Of Amer
lea! other cities will have to pay
higher prices also.
No such reserve supply of beer was
laid up, beer having been peddled by
the rum runners as soon as they got it
safely ashore here. AS a result Detroit
is drinking "alley beer" made in I'M
foreground and camouflaged breweries
in this city. But Federal agents have
been so active in finding these that a
beer shortage, even of the alley variety,
is reported.
Federal officials state that they have
come upon carloads of beer shipped
here from Philadelphia, Chicago and
Milwaukee. The beer, however, proved
to be near-beer when tested. 1t was to
receive its alcoholic kick when in the
hands of the retailers.
Cleanup Alley Brewerics.,
In the last year Federal agents have
broken up scores Of alley breweries in
this city, the breWeries and blind pigs
dependent on them suffering a loss of
81 200, 900. including equipment, auto
mobiles. liquor and beer. Fines totaling
$500 900 have been paid into the Federal
Court in that period. Since July, 400
permanent and 500 temporary padlocks
have been placed on premises in this
district.
Much of the alley beer made here
has been converted by the simple pro-
cess of fraudulent labels (turned out by
the hundred Thousands here) into
Canadian beer" So, too. much Of the
moonshine turned out by Detroit dis
tilleries has been put in bottles with
counterfeit tables and sent to other
cities In the country as the real stuff"
Federal officials literally have bales
of evidence of this. When bribery failed
or was accounted too expensive, rum
runners have resorted to ingenious de-
vices to get real Canadian liquor into
the United States through the Detroit
| territory.
One method, which meant either
great profits or huge losses for the rum
| runners, depending on its success or
failure, was shipping liquor in freight
cars. brought under the river through
the railroad tunnel or over it on rail-
road ferries.
Millions of dollars worth of liquor
has been shipped in cars as hay, wheat
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