Foxy Agent Stories

Forty-two years ago a child was born at Hillsboro, Ohio. Fifteen years ago that child, grown to manhood, became editor of the Hillsboro Dispatch. Two years ago last June 11 he was appointed United States Prohibition Commissioner by President Harding. He is Roy Asa Haynes. During the last two years he has, in his own words, " devoted every ounce" of his energy to his official task. Daily he was importuned to make addresses or write articles on his work. Finally he came to believe that the public and the prohibition cause could best be served by writing a "simple, accurate story" of his progress in enforcing the Volstead Act. The result of this decision was the production of a book on prohibition enforcement, which is now appearing, serialized into 43 articles, and syndicated, in newspapers throughout the country.

"Details, such as localities and names are frequently omitted, as their publication would be incompatible with the public interest." Nevertheless, Mr. Haynes succeeded in producing some thrilling tales of foxy agents fooling gullible bootleggers. The first of the stories is roughly typical of the group:

An anonymous prohibition agent was approached by a group of anonymous bootlegging brewers. They offered him $360,000 a week if he would turn his back while they flooded the cities of the Central Atlantic states with beer from an anonymous "brewery city." He cunningly fed the hopes of the bootleggers. He accepted $25,000 in advance bribes, a fur overcoat and an automobile of anonymous make (specifically not a Rolls-Royce). He allowed himself to be taken on a three-day party to Atlantic City and elsewhere while the bootleggers recklessly dissipated "grands" ($1,000 bills). He had them show him where their contraband was hidden. Under his encouragement the original syndicate of "six to nine" brewery-bootleggers grew to 15, and plans were laid for inducing 50 to join the criminal ring. But the bootleggers insisted it was time to begin operations. Finally he could put them off no longer. "That night the underworld rejoiced. A damp and fetid night it was ... a dreary, dismal night, hung on the edge of the calendar, where approaching Winter touches the garments of departing Autumn." At dawn laden trucks rolled out of the brewery gates--and prohibition agents snapped them up, arresting all the bootleggers. Weeks later a friend approached the agent who had schemed it all and told him that the bootleggers had him marked for death. "The agent whistled."

Despite the fact that President Harding wrote a brief foreword to the articles saying that he had given his wholehearted support to the Prohibition Unit and thought the public would be "greatly interested" in the observations of Mr. Haynes, the articles have not gone without criticism. The Courier-Journal (Louisville) called attention to the fact that "Izzy" Einstein (Manhattan prohibition agent of some fame and many disguises) had been refused permission by the Treasury Department (overlord of the Prohibition Unit) to publish his exploits, and questioned the fairness of Haynes' being permitted to go ahead with a similar project.

Others objected to Mr. Haynes' adding to his meager salary of $5,000 by what should be the handsome returns of his syndicated articles and book. Lloyd George, who attempted a similar feat while in office, was compelled by public criticism to promise the proceeds of his memoirs to charity--and finally abandoned the project.

In Mr. Haynes' thrillers, however, there is always this moral, that thousands of dollars in bribes taken from foolish bootleggers find their way into the United States Treasury, and in the end, having gulled the bootleggers, "the agent, alone in his office, enjoyed a hearty laugh."