The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-02-27
Jim The TRUSTY
TOURING COUNTRY
!. FOR BIG BUSINESS
Crook Talks to Boys
Clubs on Morality

tGpecl0 70 Inc DattN WutAtNe
NEW YORK, Feb. 26.-New Eng
land has for the past few months
been the scene Of a tour by Jimmy
the Trusty," who has appeared in
movie houses as the reformed con-
Wet" has spoken to Boys Clubs,
and has shaken the hand of mayors
of the provincial towns, including
Springfield, and of business men. His
picture is featured in the local press
Of most cities; his views on crime are
considered good copy.
A career of crime, and the con-
fidence man reforms, but instead OF
getting to work, he conceives the bril-
liant idea Of redeeming mankind.
He would preach to boys, paint the
danger in such lurid colors that they
would thru fear, tread the straight
and narrow path. Easy graft he had
for many years. In one of the pens
where he did a bit, he was an un-
trustworthy cuss, cumming with the
screws (guards), long before he
reached his present exalted line, thru
mounting from the lower forms of
crime to the confidence game. Even
before he became a trusty, he was a
miserable, Shiny creature, with his
eye on the Warden's Office, looking
for favors.
He may have played the confidence
game Of late, but only as step to
some bigger graft. And playing up
his attempt to fleece a leading So
ciety woman gives him that society
finish before which we must inevi-
tally bow.
Under Wing of Big Biz.
Jimmy is taken under the wing of
big business, because of the Stop he
hands out. eff you're on the level
with mother, you'll never go wrong;
don't shoot craps, don't be dishonest
its only the sucker who commits
crime; do you realize, your honor
| speaking to the mayor of Spring
| field, the moral message that the
newspapers are going to carry to the
men in gray behind these bleak
walls" And after reciting his life
history, he ended with an original
poem, entitled "If Everyon Was
Only on the Square"
Big business can use anyone who
blames himself for not enjoying the
good things of life; who proclaims
that conditions in the country are all
right, and that anyone who wants tc
make good can do so. The reds are
continually hammering at the system
| of capitalist production, sweatshops
child labor, poor pay, unemployment
are hammered at; and child labol
laws, a joke both in their text an
their enforcement, the hollow mock
cry Of the workers safeguards, tn
blind alley jobs-these facts tend t,
grip the imagination of the workers
But it would not do to have thu
masses get the idea that economic in
CAPABILITIES form the mold for shaping
criminals.
Never Blames the Rich.
Just as preachers tell us that W,
are poor sinners, and responsible foI
our misfortunes, so they have preach
ers like Jimmy the Trusty, to keel
those from rebelling who are down
trodden victims of capitalist oppres
sion. Just as preachers paint tn
horrors of hell, so Jimmy the Trusty
of capitalism, warns against jail
Instead of condemning the rich, WHIT
are responsible for crime, he put
the blame on the individual. Crafty
treacherous Jimmyl Respectable
munition makers and hell roarers ge
away with their graft. Why SHOULD
we condemn a poor fish like you?