Evening star., 1938-01-30
By John Jay Dalv.

band smuggling along the Great Lakes
from Canada into the United States
and in Texas, down by the Rio
Grande.
While the battle ragged between giant
1ndustrialists of America and the vari-
Gus factors of organized labor, and
between the United States and eco
nomic royalists, fight ended between
predatory interests and Uncle Sans
enforcement agents. At least there is
little gunplay on the Fairgrounds of
the Border Patrol
In other words, all Is quiet along
the international boundaries. And
there Is reason:
Big business is not big business any
more in the snug smuggling trade.
AL the old-time alky chiefs are now
nothing more nor less than little
butter and egg men. In two years
no one has brought over the borders
any great amount of diamonds or
gold. wines or liquors-and very little
Of narcotics. Smugglers who once
made fortunes in boom times now go
in for butter at net profit of IL
cents pound-the II cents being the
difference between Canadian and
American prices for this commodity.
Occasionally the boys bring in some
onions.
Contraband onions make their way
into Detroit. This came about through
the high duty imposed for the pro-
$npfinr nf InvSonctip
Biggest illicit consignment ever cap
tured is recorded at 10000 pounds of
onions.
And poultry, too. gets big run
especially at Thanksgiving and Christ
mas time, but. taking it on the larger
scale. and from the big business view
point, smuggling is not what it used
to be. This is the consensus OF all
those who know their customs patrol.
A CCORD1NG to Felix Cotton, an
expert assigned to the Treasury
Department, who knows everybody of
importance in one of Uncle Sans
really mysterious organizations-the
United States Customs Service-the
$40 sentries stationed along the Ma
tions 35,000-mile tariff wall are get
ting their first breathing spell since
prohibition. They are getting break,
at last. in the form of large-scale
liquor smuggling on the decline.
When rum-running was major in
dustry along the lonely inlets of the
coast and the wild border stretches,
these men had many thankless and
dangerous tasks to perform. At that
time, death in the afternoon, the
chill of the night, or the soft gray
OF dawn. was often their lot At that
time. too, there we're 800 members Of
the United States Customs Patrol;
now reduced to the $40 sentries.
That the men of Uncle Sam went
up against stiff opposition in those
days is attested by the record. In
the prohibition era. % patrol inspec-
tors we're killed outright and 81 seri-
ously wounded in the line of duty
. total of 81 major casualties. Since
repeal only one inspector has been
killed and two seriously wounded.
Minor gun wounds, Of course, do not
count.
Fierce gun fights no longer are
staged in the Florida Everglades and
on the northern and southern border
rivers. All is quiet along the St. Law
renee and the Rio Grande. And all
because big business has parted COM
pany with the art of smuggling.
Criminal bands that once made for
tunes have disbanded-gone with the
wind. or into other work. They went
and took their airplanes and rum-run-
ming boats with them. While Edison
J. Shamhart. chief of the border
patrol, says certain amount Of liquor
smuggling still goes on. he claims the
offenders are individuals-not gangs.
First inkling of the reform comes
out of Buffalo, N. Y, where John j..
Mullen, district superintendent of the
Northeast Customs Patrol, cites the
fact that the territory under his COM
mand-from Michigan to Maine and
down the Atlantic Coast to Virginia.
is practically free of contraband
runners.
'Of course, cannot say that snug
Cling has ceased entirely" Superin-
tendent Mullen says, but our men
have not made commercial seizure
on the Great Lakes In two years."
Same let-down is true of other spots.
Some attempts have been made to
smuggle furs In from Canada, but the
border patrol put stop to that, and
In short order.
ZONE are the big operators. known
~ smugglers of prohibition days, and
with them their fleets of speed boats.
Gone, too, most of the romance of the
game-the gunfire that made life on
the border interesting If unsafe What
few holdovers remain try now to out
wit Uncle Sans men by smuggling
alcohol into Canada and butter and
eggs into the United States. Hence,
the patrolmen call these fellows the
little butter and egg men.
Because of this let-up on the border,
some Of the customs agents along the
Canadian and Mexican fronts have
OCGAA SAAAVCu. lucy IlUW kIdtTOl AL.
lantic and Pacific seacoast ports-on
the lookout for narcotic shipments.
Any organized smuggling operations
nowadays have to do mostly with mar
cotics. At the instigation of Secre-
tary Of the Treasury Morgenthau,
most of the border patrol and other
Treasury enforcement services are on
the trail Of the narcotic vendors. The
problem Is greater or the coasts than
on the borders, naturally.
Drugs that figure in this traffic are
smoking opium and morphine. on the
Pacific Coast, and crude opium and
heroin on the Atlantic Coast.
Since smuggling on the coasts is
the work Of professionals. patrol duty
necessarily consists Of riding herd on
these gangs-and the boys of the
Customs Service do it to a fare-thee-
well. Patrol inspectors, working un-
der the direction Of customs agents,
are on the Job "a hours Of the day.
The customs agents do the investi-
gative work and the patrol inspectors