Moonshining in North Carolina
Few people realize flint «list ill ing of whis¬
key is one «if our biggest imluslries. and
inv«ilves tlioiisainls «if people, millioiis of
«lollars.
North Carolina is proud of the prog¬
ress it has made from an industrial
standpoint. As you drive through the
state from one end to the other you’ll
sec big textile mills, furniture factories,
lumber mills, tobacco factories and
dozens of other types of manufactur¬
ing enterprises. All these mean much
in the furtherance of our prosperity
and well-being.
Another One
There's another industry of consid¬
erable importance about which you
don’t hear very much, except for an
occasional reference in the newspa¬
pers.
This is the moonshining business.
Few people have any idea of its size
or scope. The newspapers, magazines
and radio don’t carry any advertise¬
ments about it. Stores never display
its output. In order to be successful it
has to be a strictly undercover propo¬
sition. Despite this fact, however, it’s a
multi-million-dollar enterprise and has
been in existence ever since North
Carolina officially became a state.
The U. S. Department of Revenue
keeps 51 investigators constantly on
the job in this state. Their offices are
located in eighteen key cities and their
job is to keep an eye on illicit distilling
within their respective districts.
By CARL GOFKCII
Used to be that this business of lo¬
cating stills was a sort of haphazard
proposition. In most cases officers re¬
ceived tip-offs (usually anonymous)
from citizens who for some reason or
another had it in for the distillers. Some
of this still goes on. but federal, state
and county officers have been using
much more efficient methods for some
time.
When a man wants to go into the
distilling business he has to take sev¬
eral things into consideration. In the
first place he must find a spot for his
operations that is fairly well hidden.
In the second place, there must be
running water close by. Then, too, it
must be accessible by wagon or auto¬
mobile so he can get the stuff in and
out.
Planes and Radio
Airplanes have been used by the
investigators to some extent. When the
operators became aware of this they
proceeded to camouflage the stills.
This, however, didn't help very much,
because there’s one thing about a still
that you can’t hide from the air. and
that is a means of travel. Paths and
rough roads stick out like a sore thumb
and arc easily spotted from the air.
Airplanes and automobiles and in¬
vestigators who are walking through
the woods are equipped with radios
and are able to communicate with one
another all the time.
And now let’s see something about
the size of this business. During the
month of June the federal investiga¬
tors captured a total of 135 stills in
North Carolina. During the last fiscal
year, ending June 30, they captured
1 ,393 stills. Now, of course we have no
official figures in connection with the
total number of stills in North Carolina,
but we believe it would be safe to say
that not one still out of ten is raided.
If this is true, it would mean that last
year there were 1 1 .393 stills in opera¬
tion in this state.
Let's do a little more figuring.
Big Business
The total capacity of those 1 35 stills
captured during the month of June
was 29,285 gallons. The total capacity
of the 1.393 stills captured during the
last fiscal year (hold your breath) was
268,112 gallons. Now then, if there
are 11,393 stills in operation in this
state, you can multiply this 268,112
gallons by 10 and you get 2.681.112
gallons of illicit whiskey that was man¬
ufactured in North Carolina during
this 12-months period. We believe this
is an extremely modest estimate.
Chances are that the figure is two or
three times this big.
We’ll put down the average price of
a gallon of corn or brandy at S 10. and
again we’re probably a little too low.
But multiply the 2.681.112 gallons by
10 and you get S26.8I1.I20, which
tends to prove that this really is big
business.
In addition to the 1,393 stills that
were captured by federal officers dur¬
ing the last fiscal year, they also seized
26,143 gallons of whiskey, 1,030.290
gallons of mash. 322 automobiles and
made 1,414 arrests.
Keep in mind that in addition to the
(Continued on page 19)
5
A moonshine still between Benson and Dunn in Harnett County.
THE STATE. OCTOBER 6. 1951
