Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/650208
14 "shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same." In fact, that clause encouraged members to drink in the Capitol, rather than in a speakeasy, where, presumably, no legisla- tive business would be conducted. Also, unlike the Metropolitan Police, Capitol Police officers at that time owed their positions to a patronage system that lasted into the 1970s. Any officer spon- sored by an urban, northern Democrat was unlikely to spend much effort enforcing Prohibition within the House and Senate Office Buildings. 18 Although most bootleggers worked alone, and fought to retain their corner of the market, at least one bootlegging "ring" operated in the Capitol. In 1925, three women and two men were arrested following a tip from Representative John Cooper. According to the charges, based on evidence amassed by a "dry spy," the women and one of the men, a dentist, served as distribu- tors; the second man, Eli Wright, solicited the orders. Wright was a well-known figure on the House side of the Capitol complex, not just as a bootlegger, but as a doorkeeper. e irony that a man, monitoring the gates to Congress, would actually increase the flow of liquor, infuriated Cooper. The Ohio Republican demanded a congressional inquiry, stating , "It is a shame and a disgrace that bootleggers should be working right under the dome of the Capitol . . . . It is about time that Congress take dras- tic action to see that all men of such character are driven out." 19 Cooper's declaration did, eventually, result in action; the fol- lowing year, the New York Times reported that a police officer chased down a prominent bootlegger in the House Office Build- ing, leading to the arrest and arraignment of one George L. Cas- siday. e alleged bootlegger pleaded not guilty to possession of six quarts of "poor quality" whiskey and was released on $2000 bond. 20 ere was no mention of a green hat, but Cassiday him- self revealed the origin of his nickname, and the circumstances of his arrest, in the series of articles he wrote for the Washington Post. In the mid-twenties, "dry" representatives, including Blanton, Cooper, Upshaw, and Louis Cramton, a Michigan Republican, formed a so-called vice committee, focused on ridding the Capitol of both its bootleggers and bookmakers. 21 At the time, Cassiday had worked in the HOB "for five years without being molested" by police officers who had little interest in enforcing Prohibition. Aer the House committee became more prominent, though, an officer, who had previously allowed Cassiday access to the build- ing, stopped him in the hall (not chased him down, according to Cassiday) and confiscated a briefcase containing alcohol. When a reporter asked the Sergeant at Arms, Joseph Rodgers, who had carried the whiskey, he replied, "a man in a green hat." And thus, Cassiday became "The Man in the Green Hat" and ser ved a 90-day stint in the District Jail, which proved to be a tempo- rary hiatus in his ten-year career. 22 Now in 1930, writing for the Post, the bootlegger explained how an out-of-work ex-serviceman became the most notorious non-politician on Capitol Hill. Born in West Virginia, Cassiday A group of "bone-dry" congressmen hold bones outside the Capitol. Rep. William D. Upshaw, a leading "dry" congressman, is on the right holding a crutch. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS & PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION