Speech #710061674

I visited every Government station along that line. There is not a prohibition agent along the whole linenot one. The entire burden of protecting the border from the inflow of liquor from Canada is left to the immigration officers and the Customs Service. I want to say that I found those officers energetic. loyal. and determined to stop the inflow of illicit liquor. but there are not enough of them to do it with merely the officers of the Immigration Service and the Customs Service. The immigration officers are not allowed to go out and search for liquor. they can only turn it in- when they find It in connection with their duty. Yet there is not a prohibition officer along that line. I went out to Touissant Twomblys place. which was described to me as the worst place for smuggling liquor across the line on the northern border. It is situated something like this: His house is built on the line. and on the American side of the line and connected with the house there is a long shed which the officers said would hold five automobiles. On the other side of the line. a little way over. is what looks like a barn. hut I was told it was his liquor storehouse. He has a patrol of his own organized to watch the Government immigration patrol. because there Are no prohibition officers there. That patrol watches. and when the roads are not guarded for 10 minutes an automobile will slip out of that shed over across the Canadian line. and in 5 minutes it is loaded with its liquor. and in 5 minutes more it is down across the American line. well down in the country. and the prohibition agents are away down in the country. Once in a while they catch one of them. but not often.