Arizona state miner., 1925-05-16

Sad Swan Song Of Bootlegaer Glad
iators
Oh, Comrades, if we must die,
Let it be under the clear sky,
By the bright waters
In noble, honorable battle.
Can you beat it? Everybody loves,
nay adores that elusive slippery 81
mOleOn Everybody is in quest of it,
trying to attract it. An ancient writ
er called it the root of all evil, yet
everybody nowadays seems to be after
the root. Mark Hanna first intro
duced the dollar into politics when
CartOOnist Kast pictured him in a
suit of dollar marks. Today we find
the Almighty Dollar introduced into
every activity and effort of the hui
man race from the cradle to the
grave-from the most fashionable
churches of the American, metropolis
to the booze chasers in rum row.
Oh, you dollar, changeable and slip
perry as frozen pavement on a frosty
morn!
Popular themes, slogans and aphor-
isms are all planned to attract the
shiny simoleons. Towns, cities and
states all emulate each other in a
quest of dragging in the dollars.
Reno for long time has dragged
the dollars of Divorces so success
fully that she now is citadel of
lawyers-all prosperous and finding
it a perfect Monte Cristo of wealth
New Jersey, New York and Long
Island are popular places where the
dollar chasers shine. While a few
int 10Ox
nix are having the time of their lives
peddling short pints of bootleg, rum
runners of the Atlantic are handling
the stuff by the shipload. Billions
are invested in the traffic and it has
the advantage of making bootleggers
that are successful-milliona in a
day. Fortune hunters are drawn into
the traffic with lure that is strong
er than the Klondyke of old Alask-
an days. All the carefully laid plans
of shrewd commercialists, aided by
nationally known financiers, are
worked out in detail-same as in war
times
The bandits get theirs by the we'll
known methods of holdups and high
waymen. Corruption in high places
is a byword. Everything is legiti
mate SO long as they can get away
with it and don't get caught.
Besides the bootleggers and bandits
there are the bankers, brokers, and
realty sharks-all after the dough. -
That old Injunction attributed to Hor-
ace Greeley, to "go West and get
money; get it honestly If you can;
but get the money" seems to be
working overtime. The special "cop"
and policeman has to have his, and
his quest for money is blinded to law
and order by the "side" money he
gets in putting on his binders when
crime and lawlessness are committed.
Evasion of law and laxity of law
enforcement is educating our boys
and girls to the condition expressed
by the little Sunday School girl who
was told by her teacher that Goods
followers are very few, but the devil
controls all the wealth and armies
of the world" Looking up after q
second Of deep thought, the little girl
said in reply: "If | belong to Gods
followers Pm sure up against it, amt
I teacher?"
Phoenix is a paradise for "birds
who get the money on any and
every pretext. Old John Dunbar,
while he was alive, told some Of
them what lot of leeches they were
very much after the style that the
Savior told scribes and money chang
ers in Jerusalem. John is now where
money getting is only a little radio
scheme by st. Peter, who is trying
to get even on Judas for swiping that
$50 pieces of silver" but can't handle
it very well because the metal is too
hot to pass out. l recall how poor
John told of the grOcer's combine
and the local jobbers who dictate
prices on everything we eat, drink or
wear; about the realty board that
fixes rentals so that native residents
prefer to live in tents and shacks
with small breech clOut for shade;
how eastern folks who have got used
TO living in houses Ego up in the air"
when they ask the price of a house
TO rent in Phoenix.
But those were only other instances
of chasing the simoleums into a cor
ner where nobody else could pull
them away. Now, take the local the
ater and amusement combine, that
controls nearly every amusement VEN
ture in the Capital City. Yes, they
are blamed for all the vice in Phoe-
nix, and a syndicate of sane 1nd1v-
iduaIs who will dress up poor little
chickens" in pants as ushers and
then attract them down to Morleys