That 95 per cent of the Sheriffs of this state are untrustworthy in the enforcement of prohibition laws, and that to request aid of the average sheriff in the apprehension of illicit distillers is equivalent to warning the suspect outright, are some of the sensational statements made in an interview given this newspaper by Prohibition Officer E.R. Jackson, now operating in this section with a squad under the direction of Officer W.J. Manning.
Mr. Jackson says that fully 95 per cent of the sheriffs are either hostile to the enforcement of the law, or will notify distillers of the presence of officers. Asking aid of a sheriff in apprehending distillers usually results in the escape of the suspect. Politics is probably the biggest motive in this, for in officer Jackson’s opinion a candidate for Sheriff has no opportunity for election if he opposes the liquor element.
He also rapped many of the preachers, who, instead of trying to find information to use in the apprehension of bootleggers and distillers, are forever flaying the officers for their laxity in enforcing the law. “We prohibition officers,” says Mr. Jackson, “cannot enforce the law without the co-operation of the public. Fully 90 per cent of the arrests we make are the result of information given us by some citizens.
“It has reached the point now where arrests are comparatively easy. The apprehension of distillers is becoming less difficult every day. In some neighborhoods where people have refrained from informing on a citizen who is in the business, we find there is little hesitancy now, for the distillers have so outraged the common decency of the communities and made themselves so objectionable with their traffic, that the public has become disgusted and indignant.”
In the opinion of officer Jackson, nothing so debases a man as association with the liquor traffic. The lure of easy money first gets some of the most intelligent men in the business, and after that they begin to excuse themselves, finally sinking lower and lower in the ranks of law breakers until there is nothing too low for them to stoop to.
“Distilling has become to be so much in vogue,” he stated further, “that nearly everybody is at it, and it looks as if no man thinks a farm properly equipped without some sort of a distilling apparatus. Many who are considered among the best in the community are in the business to one extent or another.”
Asked if there was much hazard in the enforcement of prohibition laws, he stated: “most every one we catch are good sports. There is little danger of an officer getting shot, for they realize that he has no right to shoot first, and they usually submit peaceably. However the first thing they ask is who the informant was. Of course we never tell who the informant is.”
Officer Manning is stopping at the Raleigh hotel in this city, and all one has to do, if he knows of anyone in the business, is to stop and tell this officer, and the information will be treated confidentially. Naturally we do not want to go on any wild-goose chase, said the officer, and we want definite information, but no one will ever know who gives it.
“The most serious menace to enforcement of the prohibition laws are the distillers and not the bootleggers, as is commonly supposed,” states officer Jackson. “Therefore we are not concerned so much with the bootlegger and the fellow who has small quantities, for when these are caught there are dozens of others somewhere else. The thing to do is to get the big distillers who are supplying dozens of bootleggers. If we only break them up for a week, we are doing some good, even if only to give the hardware man a chance to sell a new still.”
“Many big wholesale grocers have sufficient evidence to convict a large part of the distillers,” he says. “These grocers are getting too much money out of the business to do this, for they sell the supplies without which the stills could not operate. Many of your reputable grocers are, in a way, in league with the distillers.”
It is no trouble to find men who want to be prohibition officers, according to Mr. Jackson, who says the department has hundreds of applications on file. The great trouble is lack of money to keep enough men in the field to successfully combat the evil. North Carolina has 100 counties and only about 50 officers. This number is inadequate, for four officers now have to work as many as 10 counties, and the exigencies of the service made it imperative for officers to work in pairs or larger numbers.
The four men working this territory are W.J. Manning, J.F. Ratledge, T.W. Snell and E.R. Jackson. This squad began operations about a month ago, and their efforts have constituted what looks like the first real attempt to cope with the liquor traffic in Northeastern North Carolina.
From the front page of The Elizabeth City Independent, July 14, 1922
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