The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1930-07-01
WHEN THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC WAS SUPREME
lies Newspapers twenty-five and Thirty Years Ago Reveal News Items and Editorials Which Ia SO
M N1annrof Law
htonbI n Rcod IN 0

the speakeasy vice and laWlessness. The
police there are resolved on the suppress
sion of this evil, if it is within the limits
of possibility. The Police Superintendent
therefore, proposes to attack the speak
easy III a vulnerable quarter by Directing
to the granting of licenses to all whole
sale dealers who sell to speakeasy pro-
prietors. The granting of a wholesale IL
cense is, under the law, matter of dis
cretion with the court Evidence that a
wholesaler sold liquor to speakeasy pro-
prietors, thus conniVing at and aiding a
violation of the law, would warrant the
license court in withholding license. The
Philadelphia chief of police proposes to
submit evidence of this character and
make it basis of protest against the re-
neWal of any wholesalers license who has
so offended. Whether the license court
will refuse licenses on this ground de-
ponds somewhat on the temperament of
the individual judges who compose the
court. There is no doubt, however, that
the wholesalers and brewers who supply
speakeasies with liquors keep these I'M
lawful resorts in operation.
THE PHILADELPHIA VICE CRUSADE
Editorial from The Pittsburgh Post of
February 10, 1905
On Saturday more than 100 ministers
of all denominations in Philadelphia lis
tened to an address by D. Clarence Glib
honey, secretary of the Law and Order
society, on the protection of vice in that
city by the municipal authorities. In his
speech Mr.. Gibboney, among other
things, said:
ST assert that the city is honeycombed
with speakeasies and unlicensed clubs,
where liquor is sold to all corners.
that criminals are protected in their dia-
bolical business by policemen and poll
ticians, otherwise they could not carry on
business. 3"
This was terrible arraignment of the
policemen and politicians and mayor of
the city, but there is a good reason to be-
lieve that it was well within the truth.
They told. nte-"Speakeasies" had multi
piled under prohibition What do
you sag after reading belolU:
SPEAKEASIES FLOURISH
News item from The Pittsburgh Leader
of March Is, 1896
"If any man denies that speakeasies
exist in large numbers in Pittsburgh, I.
will guarantee to take him into ten such
places in any one ward which he may
name out of fifteen which I will select"
It was Mr.. E. P. Hesser, manager of the
keystone detective agency and the agent
of the Allegheny County Liquor Dealers
Association, who thus challenged the Pc
lice Department. Continuing Mr.. Hesser
said:
ST do not want to antagonize the po-
lice, and I would not go so far as to say
that the license laws, so far as the police
are concerned are dead letters, but I do
say that the police do very little to en-
force these laws, and that I can accom-
plish more with four men in one week
toward procuring evidence of and bring
ing to justice violators of the Brooks Law
than the police department has done in
the seven years which the law has been
in operation. I will not only locate ten
speakeasies in any of the fifteen wards
referred to- but will take the police to
seven speakeasies in one square. This is
not idle talk, but fact, and stand ready
to substantiate what I have said in the
way have Indicated"
$4,000 SPEAKEASIES IN
DENMCVT WANNA