Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-02

ne American rCtLOn tOFtteTS place nero
,aths on their grangster and gunn,an
instead Of depicting them for the
TX co,Cards they really are, charges Lord
ytLerOsse.
attached to drinking. Wherever one goes, one
finds drinking parties The bootleggers do
tremendous business This has naturally had
q decided effect crime. I have spoken to
your prison wardens, your crime experts and
others who are close to the situation. They all
agree that it is prohibition which is making
crime the big thing that it is. Before the day
of the bootlegger crime was organized and
financed a very limited scale. The income
was derived chiefly from petty robberies. But
Of the gangsters.
zone thing have noticed in America Is
that many of your big and important men are
not sufficiently interested in the crime situa-
ton. These men, who are in a position to do
something, busy with their own affairs
that they don't bother about wiping out the
underworld. The English a rather slow
people, but when 1t comes to crime we don't
let things go far. We wouldn't have an Al
Capone very long on our hands.
But then" smiled Lord Castlerosse, "you
don't have to worry about catching him. He
won't die on his bed. Every one knows he's the
worst insurance risk in the world. Your under
world gangsters have a very obligng habit Of
killing each other. If they keep on the way
they are going, there won't be any gangsters
left and your underworld problem will auto
matically be solved. One can hardly pick up
a newspaper without reading that some gang
sters have taken one of their brethren for q
ride. They certainly don't show each other
mercy. If the judicial machinery would func.
ton as quickly America would be able to con-
centrate on other problems.
tn mir mi he
you have here. In England we at least
haven't the complexity of criminals that you
have. You have some of the lower elements Of
all the races in the world. Then, too, your
country is growing at such a tremendous rate
that 1t must suffer from a few ailments Amer
lea is a positive country-glowing, vital, alive.
It's energy is amazing, its potertialities UNI
limited. There is no other country like it.
"If you want to reduce crime. though don't
make it romantic storybook stuff. 1t then
won't be so alluring for those with small in
tellects and low order of cunning.
1.-THE City of Marseille has about as many
gangsters Chicago has. Being a seaport
place, it attracts criminals from many parts Of
the world. At night there are only certain
quarters that safe to walk through. Yet
how many people know this about Marseille?
Very few. Crime hasn't been romanticized and
featured in headlines
But Chicagos criminals-who doesn't know
about them? friend of mine who had just
arrived IrOm England GOiQ me CKlaC he nau I'd
go to Chicago on business. What do you think
he asked me for? gun. If he hadn't been
reading much about Chicago's gangsters, do
you suppose he would have known anything
about them-that he would fear to go there?
st have visited good many parts of America.
but I have never been to Chicago Yet I'll
vouch it's just as safe to walk there as it is IN
any other large city of the world. The general
impression is, though, that one takes ones Life
in ones hands II one ventures into Chicago