Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-06
INSTITUTE IS TOLD
OF GANG PROBLEMS
Present Situation in Larger
Cities Traced to Basis of
rs Years Ago.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
StafH CORRESPONDENT Of The Star.

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, August
e-Ranging from Chicago's builet-swept
slums to the tumble down mountain
churches of the Blue Ridge, speakers
before the Institute of Public Affairs
here today discussed a wide field of
fundamental social problems.
The round table on law enforcement
was attended by Col. Henry w. Ander-
son of Richmond as an Official observer
for President Hoover's Crime Commits
sion. The chief speaker was John Lam
deSco, research director of the Ameri-
can Institute of Criminal Law and
Crininology, who analysed the notorious
gang warfare of Chicago.
The roots of the present situation
extend back quarter Of century, lN
said, to the conflicts between racial
groups to obtain control of certain areas,
while the situation was aggravated by
the legal suppression of vice, which
merely drove it into hiding. This re-
suited in forming the nuclei of gangs
with feudal hold upon their respective
territories.
Gangster Natural Product.
The gangster, Mr.. Landesco said. is
neither an innocent youth led aStray
by bad companions nor a hardened and
vicious individual waging vindictive war
on society, but "the natural product Of
his environment, the slum of the large
American city"
These slums." he continued, "have
been ports of first entry for each new
wave of foreign immigration. The con-
slant ambition that grows with the rise
OF the people is to get away into better
districts. AS the successful families
move away they leave behind the un-
successful, laboring foreigner who Is
not accepted as a model for the chill
dren in their progress of Americaniza-
ton. But there also remain the gang
Ster and the politician chief, who be-
come practically the only models Of
SUCCESS.
1T follows that the gangster is a
product of his surroundings in the same
way as the good citizen. He has lived
, his life in region Of lawbreaking,
graft and fixing. That is the reason
why the good citizen and the gangster
have never been able to understand
each other. They have been reared in
two different worlds.
The stories the gangsters tell Of their
own lives should enable the public to
realize how deep-rooted and widespread
are the practices and philosophy of the
gAngSter in the life and growth Of the
city. Such an understanding should
make possible a constructive program
that will not content itself with pun
ishing individual gangsters and their
allies. but will reach out into frontal
attack on the basic causes Of crime in
Chicago"
Leaders Not Punished.
A Who's Who" of organized crime in
Chicago, Mr.. Landesco said, shows that
the overlords Of bootlegging, gambling,
vice and labor and merchant racket
eering" are never punished and that
only the underlings ever fall in the
hands of the police and receive only
petty punishments. 80.
Much of the gangster's success, he
pointed out, Is due to the feudal rela-
tionship that exists between him and
the people of his section, based not upon
law, but upon personal loyalties. He Is
the friend and protector of everybody
who is loyal to him. Concepts Of right
and wrong are superseded by concepts
of friendship.
Ward politics." he said. sis carried
or in a smaller. more intimate world
than that which makes and defines the
law Government seeks to be equal,
impartial. formal. Friendships run
counter to the innpartiality of formal
government and formal government
cuts across the ties of friendship. Pro-
fessional politicians have always rec
ognized the importance, even when
they are not moved by real sentiment.
of participating with their friends and
neighbors in the ceremonies marking
the real crises of iife-christenings,
marriages and deaths. = In the great flu
nerals the presence of the political boss
attest the sincerity and personal char
acter of his friendship for the deceased,
and this marks him as an intimate In
life and death"
This intimate personal relationship,
Mr.. Lanesco said, has declined of late
since the gangsters and politicians have
increased in power. Actual political
corruption, he pointed out, is by no
means so great as is generally supposed.
The gangster politician wins and keeps
his Office not by stuffing ballot boxes to
any great extent, but because people ac-
tually vote for him. What needs to
be appreciated" he said, Ifs the ele-
ment of genuine popularity in the gang
ster, homegrown in the neighborhood
gang. idealized in the morality of. the
neighborhood
Too Many Churches. q.
The average village has too many
churches. DR.. H. N. Morse, survey di-
EAtor of the Home Missions Council,
A0sE the round table on the country