OCR Text |
Show the revenue establishment as "retail dealers in malt liquors." The beers they were selling were largely full-strength beers. Believing that the railways and these beer joints were the chief factors in the problem before him, Mr. Johnson addressed his atten-tion directly to them. Though nearly every train brought in whisky, the express companies and railways generally denied tho right of officers to search their cars. Mr. Johnson insisted on his right to search for evidence where a crime had beenxommitted, and in cases where a warrant was demanded he,offered to procure one, but warned agents everywhere that, if he were put to this trouble and found the whisky, he would immediately arrest them onthe charge of introduc-ing liquor. By degrees the objections were withdrawn, and thus his right of search became recognized, and by parity of reasoning the right of deputy marshals also. The increased seizures of whisky resulted in putting a considerable check upon such shipments. The next attack was upon the traffic in low-grade beers. Mr. John-son procured samples of every brand of these drinks which were sold inthe Indian Territory, and submitted them to a chemist for analysis to ascertain the percentage of alcohol and whether malt was used in their production, and to a bacteriologist for examination to ascertain whether they were fermented products. The experts who passed judgment on the beers were men of the highest professional standing i n Oklahoma, whose testimony was not only safe in itself, but bound to be satisfactory to the public at large. Their investigations showed that some of .the samples contained but little less alcohol than straight beer, that all were malt products, andthat all were fer-mented. Mr. Johnson submitted the reports of the scientists to the four United States attorneys in the Indian Territory, each of whom gave him a written opinion that the introduction of the disguised beers into the Territory, and their sale there, were prohibited by the act of 1895. He then held conferences in St. Louis, Chicago, and Kansas City with the general superintendents of all express companies and the general traffic managers of all of the railways doing business in the Indiaq Territory, who, without exception, issued general orders to their agents to refuse further shipments of the brewery products mentioned, if destined for points in the Territory, and also to exer-cise great watchfulness against liquor concealed in packages of other freight. These sweeping orders had the effect of closing up sub-stantially every one of the low-grade beer joints in the Territory. Attempts at smuggling were made here and there, but with little success. A few months later, however, a scheme' was devised to have these low-grade beers shipped clear through the Territory to some point ih an adjoining State and have the. freight paid all the way through, |