The Rumrunners

By Frank W. Anderson

Subjects: Contrebande, Histoire, Drinking of alcoholic beverages, Smuggling, History, Prohibition

Description: **The thirsty days of Prohibition in Alberta began at midnight on June 30, 1916, but many had been drinking so hard that the booze had long ago run out.** Suddenly, the rum runner was king, and backyard stills popped up everywhere. Even though the government introduced new laws and set up a new police force, liquor was still being made, sold and consumed by those who could outwit the law. **Here is Frank W. Anderson's rollicking account *[2004+ editions are revised],* of the Prohibition years:** - the schemes by temperance and moral leaders to convince the government to pass a Prohibition bill to halt the use and trafficking of liquor - the loopholes in the law that rum runners could easily drive their product through - the escapades of Emperor Pick, the Bottle King, whose lucrative bottle-collecting business was a front for his more secretive liquor trafficking business - the covert operations of John Greenburg and Mike Segal, whose backwoods still was never found - Mr. Big's many hideouts along the Crowsnest Pass road where he could cache the liquor if the police was chasing him or his cohorts - and stories of ordinary citizens across the province who risked their lives and livelihoods just to be able to lift a glass. ***The question remains: Did Prohibition really serve its purpose of preventing crime or did it have the opposite effect?***