They Built A City: 150 Years of Industrial hibitory laws, enforced by city, state, and Federal authorities, went into effect. For a time conditions improved. It appeared that would do what the reform elements claimed for it—reduce crime and increase employment. But dissatisfaction among many people, who believed the law took away rights not spe¬ cifically covered by the Constitution, brought about desultory private manufacture of beer and whisky. In time this circum¬ vention of the prohibitory laws became the largest illegal system of production and distribution of intoxicants the country has ever known. About 1921 came the bootleggers, who not only produced and distributed beer and whisky, but in many cases used dynamite and sawed-off machine guns to hi-jack shipments of rivals. Soon Cincinnati, like other cities, was honeycombed with home brew parlors, , private “clubs,” and “blind tigers.” Arrests of operators were frequent, but convictions were hard to get. Although several members of the police department were convicted and sentenced (1925) for accepting bribes from known violators of the prohibition law, Cincinnati was com- paritively free of organized law breaking. Enforcement facilities of the Federal, state, and local governments were increased an¬ nually in an. effort to halt the growing disregard for violation. But the traffic in illegal liquor only became heavier and more damaging. Cincinnati became the headquarters of George Remus, an attorney from , whose exploits as directing head of a bootlegging gang brought widespread publicity. Remus and several of his lieutenants, who had built an organization which owned distilleries and breweries doing an illegal yearly business estimated at 25 million dollars, were arrested when Federal enforcement agents raided “Death Valley,” a wooded section of valley and hills along Queen City Avenue used by the gang for liquor storage and distribution, and patrolled by heavily armed guards. The city heard rumors of pitched battles, of deaths when rival gangs were repulsed; but no official reports were made, and it was impossible to check their accuracy. Remus and 143