The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-07-12
BY BRUCE CATION

States that had had prohibition acts
of their own knew about the words
"bootlegger' and "speakeasy" long be-
fore 1920; but it was not until after
Jan. 16 of that year, when the 18th
amendment went into effect, that the
words passed into the vocabulary of
the country as a whole
The illegal liquor industry seems to
have got under way with no loss of
time. The federal prohibition en-
forcement service made it's first raids
on Jan. II. Selling two stills in De-
troit and two in Hammond, Ind. In
the first six months of that year the
government seized 1883 stills.
The first prohibition commissioner
was John F. Kramer of Ohio, law
yer and former legislator. He took
ever his new job announcing that "the
law will be obeyed ;. and where it is
not obeyed it will be enforced add
ing that his men would see to it that
liquor was neither made. sold nor
transported "on the surface of the
earth or under the earth or in the
air
linen came Deluge
A few chances at the calendar may
be interesting.
Before the amendment had been in
effect month a customs officer was
complaining to congress that a ver-
liable flood of booze was being snug
gled in over the borders. and demand
ed an appropriation of 100000 to
help choke it off.
On Feb. 10, 1920, two prohibition
| agents were arrested for selling out tC
| bootleggers.
Before spring had come. federal
agents had found that certain drug
gists were selling medicinal whisky
without waiting for doctors permits.
! BY May, federal agents in New
York were complaining that the New
York police didn't help them enforce
| the law.
! BY early summer the federal dis
! trict attorney in Chicago revealed that
the federal court there was congesteo
with prohibition cases. with more
| than 500 such cases awaiting trial.
! All of these announcements were
to be duplicated many times during
! the coming years. Meanwhile, the IL
1 legal liquor industry, was getting its
! feet on the ground.
Smuggling First Source
| At first, smuggling was the most
| important source.
The United States has more than
| $1,000 miles of border. In 1920 to
/ prevent smuggling along those $4,000
miles it had 1850 dry agents and 5000
congress reorganized the Coast Guard
1t soon developed that this combined
force was hardly adequate.
Booze came in by auto and truck
over the Canadian and Mexican Dor
dcrs. At sea, especially along the
north Atlantic coast, there sprang in
TO existence the famous rum rows
lines of liquor-laden ships, safely an
chored or hove-to outside Of territorial
waters, which transferred their loads
to smaller boats for the trip ashore.
For time this went on in amaz-
ing proportions. BY 1924, however
congress reorganize the Coast Guard
spent S13,OOO,O00 to equip 20 old navy
destroyerS for it's use, and built g
large fleet of small. fast boats armed
with FOUNDER rapid fire guns and
machine guns.
In addition, the state department
negotiated treaties with such foreign
governments as Great Britain, France
Germany, Italy and Holland by which
it's revenue cutters were permitted To
stop and search suspected liquor
boats anywhere within one hour
sailing distance of the coast.
This proved much more effective
and rum row lost a lot of its proml-
hence. Nevertheless, in 1925 General
Lincoln c. Andrews, prohibition COM
missioner, told the senate that only
about 5 per cent of the struggled IL
quor was actually being seized.
Industrial alcohol also was proving
problem. Certain plants had per-
mits to make alcohol for industrial
uses, and it soon became evident that
a lot of this was finding its way into
various beverages. The government
tried various formulas to make this
alcohol unpalatable, but the bootleg
gers had their chemists, too, and they
were able to counterfeit practically all
of these formulas.
Some of the near-beer plants fur
Their complicated things. To make
near-beer, you first make real beer
and then de-alcoholize it; and the
bootleggers were not long in finding
ways of shunting large quantities OF