Utilizing a Border as a Local Economic Resource: The Example of the Prohibition-Era Detroit-Windsor Borderland (1920–33)

Abstract

This essay describes a border between nation-states as an economic resource for a borderlands local economy, an exploitation that not only has an impact on the borderland itself, but also on the nations along either side of the border. The borderland of Detroit-Windsor in the prohibition era (1920–33) provides a vivid example of such use of a border. This example highlights how legal and, to a lesser extent, cultural asymmetries between both sides of the border were used to generate numerous very profitable and innovative businesses. First, the legal foundations of smuggling, which developed during the prohibition era in the Detroit-Windsor borderland, are described and analysed. Second, the impact of the Detroit-Windsor Funnel narrative about this smuggling and the illegal alcohol business in the US is highlighted. Third, ‘border vice’ in the Detroit-Windsor area and its use of legal and cultural differences on both sides of the border is analysed. In this context both the use of asymmetries and spatial proximity to the border are described as the principles of a borderland-specific economy.

Keywords:

• prohibition
• borderland
• Detroit
• Michigan
• Windsor
• Ontario
• vice
• vice industry

Notes

1. Detroit’s proximity to the border, however, is responsible for it being politically peripheral, since danger for the state government in case of a British-US war was one of the main arguments in favour of moving Michigan’s capital to Lansing (Dunbar, 1980: 282).

2. The cross-border entanglements of the automotive industry in Detroit-Windsor were early and significant. The foundation of the Ford Motor Company in 1903 was followed by the foundation of the Ford Motor Company of Canada in Windsor in 1904. Maxwell and Chalmers, which later became Chrysler, had factories in Windsor from 1916. General Motors (GM) established a subsidiary plant in Windsor in 1915 (however, most of GM’s Canadian ties were to Oshawa, Ontario). Other than the ‘Big Three’ car-producing companies, a great number of smaller firms, which did not survive the concentration process in the US car industry, had their presence in Windsor as well, including around thirty companies that produced parts and accessories for the car industry (Karibo, 2010: 40). The main reason these companies could profit from the border at this time was due to a tariff system, which allowed the US companies to use Canada as a basis for exports to all of the British Empire (Anastakis, 2009; see also Anastakis, 2004).

3. Mabel Walker Willebrandt was United States Assistant Attorney General from 1921 to 1929; dealing with prohibition enforcement was one of her main tasks.

4. A New York Times article from 11 June 1929 even assumed the amount to be 85 per cent; see note 10.

5. The reasons Engelmann gives are not only the many islands, but also the many private homes along the US side of the river, which the police could only access with a search warrant.

6. Other than by a very good ferry service (Klug, 2010: 399), both sides of the border in the area were connected by one railway tunnel in 1910, the Ambassador Bridge in 1929, and an underground highway in 1930.

7. These experiences had been had by police and smugglers alike (Mason, 1995: 20, 44), but obviously smugglers had learned more than the police.

8. The so-called Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre was the murder of seven men in Chicago, most of them gangsters, which caused a massive public uproar and played a considerable part in the downfall of Al Capone (Welskopp, 2010: 361).

9. Even then liquor sale was controlled by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. Public drinking houses only became legal in Ontario in 1934.

10. This was especially evident with the Geddes-Hughes treaty. The idea was that the Canadians would inform the US about any alcohol transportations that left Canada with the US as their destination, so that they could be intercepted. Indeed, Canada did inform the US about these transportations but they did so in the form of weekly lists sent to the US government in Washington, thus rendering any kind of fast response to a smuggling operation impossible (see Schmölders, 1930: 199).

11. For example, a US Customs Border Control officer claimed in Bak (2001: 142) that he was offered US$1,500 a week at a time when his yearly payment was only around US$1,800.

12. Probably in connection with the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel (not to be confused with the nearby Michigan Central Railway Tunnel, which was completed in 1910), which was, however, only completed in the late phase of prohibition in 1930.

13. This photograph has been reproduced in Bak (2001: 143), Mason (1995: 56), and Gervais (2010: 63), among other places.

14. A great number of such pictures have been collected in many publications. In connection with Detroit, Gervais (2010), Mason (1995), and Bak (2001) are particularly noteworthy.

15. For example, ‘Jake’, ‘bald face’, ‘bust head’, ‘pine top’, ‘white mule’ (a bootleg whisky with 85 per cent alcohol), ‘white lightning’, and ‘Panther sweat’ (Welskopp, 2010: 232).

16. Ossian Sweet was an African-American physicist, who had bought a house in a white neighbourhood in 1925. When a white mob laid siege to the house, shots were fired and a man in the mob was killed. Charges were brought against Sweet and some other African-Americans in the house, but they were ultimately acquitted. The case received a great deal of publicity.