The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-05-25
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dared to tell the truth. The
fact is they were Chicago cops
acting for the police depart
ment and the Capone gang
sters.
At the head Of the police de-
paTtment on this outstanding
day in the history of Chicago
crime and graft, known as the
st. Valentines Day Massacre,
February ID, 1929, were Com
missioner William F. Russell
and Deputy Commissioner
John Siege. Russell later re-
signed. Commissioner John
Siege became head of the po-
lice department and led the as
sault against numerous unem-
ployed demonstrations, COM
handing the same gangster-
cops in viciously beating up
unemployed workers, Negro
and white, who organized to
demand jobless relief.
He Gets Transfer"
On February 10Th Major Silloway
deputy prohibition administrator for
the Chicago district, stated he was
convinced not only that policemen
with their official uniforms and
badges participated in the massacre,
but that they even used a regulation
detective car equipped with gong and
siren. For this bit of information
the Hoover government transferred
SilloWay to another district and. in
sheer chagrin. he resigned Mellon
and Hoover didn't want the workers
to know even a semblance of the
truth,
The link between gangsters anc
police exists in all ranks of the po-
lice departments Of all capitalist gov
ernments 1t begins at the top witt
the chiefs of police and is firmly
connected with the mayors, the back
ers of the political machines, tht
capitalist exploiters.
In tracing the action of the gang
sters, the growing rotten grating
system which is bred in the bone OF
the present capitalist system in the
United States. we will have occasion
to show the interlocking directorateS
of the Capones, the Rothsteins, the
Legs Diamonds and the Thomp-
sons, Walkers, Lyles. the Republicans
the Democrats and the Socialists.
Origin of Gangsterism.
We must go back somewhat tt
trace the origin of gangsterism, its
roots and its developments. 1t has q
class basis, Graft and murder are
integral parts of the capitalist gov
ernments, and the rise of the pow
erful modern gangster machines, the
ever spreading system of graft, vice
rings, ope-peddlers, booze-runners
must be traced in the history of the
growth of American capitalism.
The capitalist system, with profit
and the exploitation of the workers
a sits motive force, is the breeding
ground Of the 'racketeers,' - gangsters
grafters and gunner. One of the
leading Wall Street publications, the
Commercial and Financial Chronicle
March %, 1881 admits that racke-
teering is part of the capitalist sys-
TEN, the same system which grinds
profits out of the workers. The
'racketeer,'" said this organ of the
leading financial interests in the
United States, lis, in a sense, the
product of organization that now
permeates all forms of industry and
society"
The objective Of the gangster
racketeer and capitalist is the same
though the methods might differ at
times. Even the methods become
more and more indistingUishable,
however.
GLORY In Gold"
1.-THE gangster, said Charles Francis
Coe, a criminologiSt and authority on
crime, speaking over a nation wide
hook-up on WIZ New York Eve
ming Post, March 80, 1870, kills for
money and dies for money. The en-
tire premise of his existence is cash.
He counts life in dollars, measures
mind in money and gauges glory in
gold"
This is precisely the objective of
the capitalist system in the exploita-
ton of the workers. 1t is for this
reason that the gangsters have such
Vol, Building His