The American Issue

Liquor Lawlessness Worse in London Than America

People whose memories go back to license days recall how brewers, distillers and saloonkeepers were persistent law violators. They resorted to every device their cunning brains could conceive to evade any law which they did not like because it interfered with their business.

Now those who are pleading for the return of the licensed liquor traffic pretend to be very much alarmed over bootlegging and home distilling and rum-running and all violations of the prohibition law, and solemnly tell us that a return to the license system will do away with all this lawlessness on the part of the liquor makers and liquor sellers.

To those who can not recall the old days, the press report appearing in the Columbus Evening Dispatch, carrying a London dateline of December 19, will indicate how utterly futile is the attempt to eradicate liquor lawlessness by licensing the liquor makers and sellers. London, of course, is dripping wet, but the law requires liquor sales shall cease at midnight. And running true to form, London liquor dealers do not like this regulation. Accordingly they evade it. The story says:

Night clubs of London experience almost as much difficulty in evading the liquor laws as do those in America. Though the padlock has not become famous here, the violation of the liquor law is nearly equal. This is explained by the fact that although spirits can be purchased quite easily they can not be sold after midnight, and London's night life seldom shows any evidence of gaiety before that. So here as in America thrive the blind pig, stool pigeon, and the graft, but it is worked on an exceedingly larger scale and much better organized than in America. There it is done privately; here it is an institution.

The detective takes the place of the prohibition officer, and, of course, there is the police. To those to whom graft holds no temptation there must be other means, and so enter the "invisible guards."

These are well-organized gangs of the underworld, in the majority of cases paid by the proprietors of "disreputable" resorts, and their business is to keep these clubs informed as to the movements of the legitimate spies employed by the police.

Not only are they able to extract valuable information as to the movements of the police from those cops who find use for a little "pin money," but they know the plainclothes men by sight and quite often are informed, often days beforehand, when a raid is to take place or one of "their" houses is being watched.

There have been occasions when parties of police have been seen assembling by these spies, and warnings are sent around immediately by runners who work in conjunction with the spies.

It is astonishing when one realizes the salary these "invisible" agents draw. Those who have close connections with the police and are informed of the movements of such, receive on an average of a hundred dollars a week. Like baseball players, they are traded each year with different gangs.

However, the police in many instances have found a solution to this problem, for unlike the "underworlds" of other countries, it is said there is no honor among the crooks of London.

Thus the police often benefit by "double-crossing."