Word: rum
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...plan to convert the " 50 or 60 " submarine chasers into rum chasers was developed by Prohibition Commissioner Haynes in collaboration with naval officers. He presented the plan to President Harding for decision...
...seems that there is no legal bar to the President's using the navy for enforcing prohibition laws. Navy officials, however, object to the use of line officers for such a purpose, so it is probable that if the plan is put into effect the rum chasers will be manned by petty officers and placed temporarily under the Coast Guard...
Adventurous souls who find safe-cracking monotonous and petty thievery degrading have flocked to rum running, a trade to test their spirit and to make their fortunes. In that occupation they find the tang of a sailor's life, the profits of a swindler, the exhilaration of evading the law, and a dash of old-time bucaneering...
There are places for all. Two rum fleets have recently appeared off the Atlantic coast, one last week from Scotland hovering outside New Jersey, and one in the last few days from the West Indies sailing for Rhode Island. Only the boldest, hairy-chested sailors may apply to man these ships. On the smaller fry, motor-boats that steal out at the whisper of a radio, there is a place for hard, ham-fisted nondescripts who can plant a heavy blow and shoot a sawed-off shotgun. Gunmen out of work will find employment here, for close encounters are frequent...
...quicker-witted "con" man comes when the cargoes are unloaded at the wharves. Then in little wide rooms, perhaps with the persuasion of a revolver, the purchaser gladly pays $50 a case for the liquor. Brazen daring, cool savoir faire, are essentials in the successful applicant. . . . Perhaps these rum fleets serve a useful purpose--at any rate they attract the riff-raff of law-breakers and give the city police a needed rest...