National Affairs: Highlands--The Hub

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Highlands, New Jersey, was once a sleepy fishing village the Gopher it is the center of the rum landing industry. The shipyards are crowded, Prairie of the Jersey marshes. Now new boats slip down the ways every day, and ship builders are at such a premium that skippers and their crews have to do their own repairing. Under cover of darkness or fog, dozens of swift motorboats ply between Highlands and the Bahama rum fleet anchored off the coast in " rum row."

Three well organized gangs of bootleggers are said to control the landing and distributing business in Highlands, one gang from Newark, one from Trenton, one from Scranton.

The freightage or lighterage charge is $5 a case and boats usually make one trip a day with fifty cases a trip. The runners, most of whom own their own boats, which cost from $1,400 to $2,000, have formed their own insurance pool. If a member's boat is seized by the Coast Guard, the pool reimburses him.

The citizens of Highland are divided in their attitude toward the new industry. Fishermen, chandlers, shipbuilders, and truckman of the town look upon the bootleg trade as a gift from heaven, but the more respectable residents resent the presence of flashily dressed, hard-faced strangers who frequent the restaurants and put through their liquor deals under the very noses of the local police.