Word: billard
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...interview Rear Admiral Billard disposed shortly of the constitutional and moral sides of the prohibition question, and then devoted his time to recounting briefly the history of the United States Coast Guard...
...Commandant of the Coast Guard made it particularly clear to the reporter that the enforcement of the prohibition was only a small part of the work done by his men. "The Coast Guard was started," said Rear Admiral Billard, in 1790. Its purpose is to protect the customs laws of the United States. In these days, around the end of the eighteenth century, smugglers were very active in running contraband into secluded bays and inlets along the Atlantic seaboard. The original Coast Guard cutters had to combat this activity, which they succeeded in stamping out, and smuggling of that character...
Rear Admiral Billard has denied that the Coast Guard was charged with enforcing the prohibition laws. "Only a small part of prohibition enforcement falls upon our men," the Commandant said. "The Coast Guard is charged with the duty of preventing the smuggling of intoxicating liquor into the United States from the sea, but of course this is not enough to stop drinking in the United States...
Asked whether he thought that the Coast Guard would ever succeed in downing the rum ships, Rear Admiral Billard said: "Napoleon is reported to have said that 'in any military operation, the importance of personnel to material is three to one.' This I believe to be true, not only of operations in war, but also of the present determined fight that is being waged by the government to uphold the law. Any body of men actuated by high traditions and by the ingrained habit of doing their duty under all circumstances, and sustained by high morale, are bound...
...course they do," Mr. Billard told his interviewer, and rapidly went over the history of the Coast Guard. "The first commission issued by President Washington to any officer for service afloat was bestowed upon Hopley Yeaton of New Hampshire, as Captain in the Coast Guard...