Evening star., 1940-05-07
Letters to the Editor
Tells Of Bootlegging
Long Before Prohibition.

Tells Of BOotleEging ',t'-
Long Before Prohibition.
To the Editor Of The Star:
Writing in The Star some time ago
concerning the so-called prohibition
era" Mr.. Charles Mayer says:
IF my memory serves me right, gang
dom was conceived during that era.
been rum-runners and bootleggers?"
Now, IF my memory serves me right"
a very similar assertion was made re-
peatedly by prominent politicians and
others during the campaign tor repeal
of the eighteenth amendment, to wit. an
assertion that prohibition was responsible
for all the bootlegging and running.
Any person with sufficient experience in
public affairs to have become a promi-
nent politician must have known be-
yond question that such an assertion
was without foundation in fact. Similar
assertions are frequently heard or read.
AS former Gov. Alfred E. Smith Of New
at the record" No better record can be
produced than the reports of the United
States Commissioner Of Internal Reve-
nue.. The act of Congress of July 1, 1862
az stat. 432) created the Office Of COM
missioner and (page 446 provided for
taxes, ETC., on spirits, ale, beer and por-
ter. This was not a prohibition law in
any sense of the word, but was revenue
law passed to raise money to pay the
enormous expense Of the Government
caused by the Civil War. 1t will always
be found, however, that wherever govern-
ment levies tax or duty on any article,
whether it be whisky, narcotics, silks,
diamonds or income, persons Of criminal
tendencies will Immediately plan how
they may increase their wealth by de-
feating the tax or duty. This law was
no exception. The "moonshine" end
bootleg" practices began Immediately.
The report OF the commissioner &c. A.
Rollins, dated November 30, 1866, under
the heading Distilled Spirits" states As
follows:
1.-The provisions Of law bearing upon
the distillation of spirits were in
sufficient, even in the hands of the most
experienced and vigilant ofncers, to pre-
vent frauds, either In large or small
distilleries.
Great numbers Of small stills, for
the illicit manufacture Of rum from
molasses, were secreted in the garrets
and cellars of the most populous cities,
while many Of the recognized and Ii
censed distilleries were run by night,
their proprietors keeping fraudulent
accounts. ."
In the commissioners report made .
year later, he says on page 8:
"The frauds connected with the pro-
duction and removal Of spirit are of very
alarming extent and character. ="
On page Is he says:
"The failure to collect the tax upon
distilled spirits, and the imperfect col
lections from several other objects Of
taxation, are attributable more to the
frequent changes Of ofncers, and to the
ineniciency and corruption Of many Of
them, than to any defect In the law
write this = with shame. : The law
can never be thoroughly enforced ex-
cept in those districts where the onacers,
both principal and subordinate, In the
revenue and judiciary departments alike,
are earnestly determined that 1t shall
be, nor except where the combined and
active hostility of all those against whom
It is enforced shall be insufncient for
the removal Of any ofncer opposed to
their plunderines. - hooOe marc
A