Evening star., 1931-11-29
THE SUNDAY STAR WASHINGTON D c. NOVEMBER p 1877

business has brought fantastic riches to
many fishing villages and no small num-
ber of communities have allowed their
nets to rot while they devote their ener-
gies to the unlawful and better paying
enterprise. Many of the fishing districts,
was told, will vote only for representa-
tive to Parliament who has committed
himself as an enthusiastic dry Their
era Of prosperity depends on the prohi-
bition law, and they aren't going to do
anything that may wipe it off the books.
There is one family of fishermen who
will never vote for repeal Of the dry
law. Their story was told me by one of
Finland's better known rum smugglers.
The family lived in a barren settlement
of hutS on the bleak shores of an island
near HelSingforS. Through her earlier
life the wife had been rabid temper
ance woman and it was generally goS-
Siped in the village that she thumped her
husband soundly whenever he returned
home from the mainland with a breath
that smelled of the tavern
A/HEN the dry law was enacted, the
husband, along with many of the
and took to rum running. At once the
family income increased. And with
equal SuddenneSS the wife modified her
attitude toward the matter of drink.
Within two months she had attained
such liberal view of the liquor evil that
she sent to Helsingfors for her son. He
was a janitor in an apartment house
there, but, at his mothers insistence, he
quit his job and joined his father as g.
rum runner.
That was 10 years ago." the smuggler
concluded. To-day the family owns the
building where the son used to tend
fires"
The hazards Of smuggling are small,
and, as a result prices are in a moderate
range. They vary in accordance with the
season, the distance between the coast
and the purchaser, and the wealth of the
customer. Because the sea is ice-locked
six months of the year, there is slight
rise in price during the late Winter In
the interior 10 to IS per cent is added to
the price at the harbors. The average
wholesale price for spirits at the boat is
to 10 cents liter. It can be bought
retail from so cents to SIPS liter-and
a liter is little more than quart
Drinks of alleged whisky are 80 cents
to 81 at the better restaurants, but a
service of about three ounces-three
times the amount served in American
SpeakeasieS- dispensed for this price.
An excellent grade of slightly cut liquor
is available at 81 a liter and a moder-
ately good grade can be purchased for SIS.
I met Finland's Al Capone-the ma
cd
liquor who holds his position in the illicit
business without the use of automatics
or machine guns He is tall, ruddy-
faced Northman with the dress and man
ner Of a business man. Arriving two
hours late for dinner appointment, he
threw big coat lined with seal across
a davenport, sat down carefully so as not
to disturb the press of his dinner jacket,
and talked freely of bootlegging in Fin
land.
There is no graft here, as there is in
the United States he said. 'I worked
the racket five years in the States and 1
know. The cops here are honest. I give
some of them an occasional drink but
that's all. The people just don't want
the law, and they do want liquor. So it's
an easy business. Except for my run
ms with the rum boats 1 don't have any
trouble"
How does the liquor you sell here
compare with that you sold in American"
Il believe it's better" he answered II
don't sell much uncut liquor, but I do
use basis of good Scotch in all my
whisky. This 1 cut with alcohol, water
and a preparation that is my own Sc
cret"