Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-31
MORE RACKETEERS
FACE CAPONE FATE
New York and Chicago Re-
main as Chief BattIefrontS
. of U. S. Drive.
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
The case against "Scarface Az Ca
pone was regarded by Federal au-
thorities today as only a minute
gun in the Governments war against
racketeers who have made big business
Of crime.
be others to go the same road" This
was the declaration of Attorney General
Mitchell in connection with the Capone
case.
Meantime, It was said authoritatively
that plans for concentrated Federal
anti-crime activity centered principally
around New York and Chicago and
that for the present these would con-
tinue as the main battlefrontS.
Despite the actions against Capone
and 10 of his contemporaries, 1t was
learned that a considerable force Of
Justice Department agents and internal
revenue men have continued their bur-
rowing into Chicago gangland affairs.
Co-ordinator Back at Work.
william j. Froelich, special assistant
to the Attorney General. who acted as
"co-ordinator" for the various Federal
agencies in the drive against Capone,
has returned there and Is now at work.
Discarding their customary secrecy, Jus
tice officials have made known also that
more than two score special inveStigat-
United States Attorney George Medalie
peerlng into gangdom's bank accounts
and tracing its narcotic and liquor &C
tivities.
In addition, Prohibition Director
Woodcock has regularly assigned IS of
his force Of New York dry agents to New
York State alone, and 81 more to the
Chicago district, all of them specifically
instructed to go after the higher-ups.
More than 800 agents of the Justice
Departments Bureau of Investigation
are now distributed throughout the
country, many Of them in Chicago and
New York. and more in such cities as
Philadelphia, st. Louis, Cleveland and
Detroit All of them are available for
action under the orders OF local United
States attorneys
Of1cials have discredited reports that
Federal activities in many of these cities
have reached the proportion of drives,
but it was conceded that agents Of the
Internal Revenue Bureau were follow
ing down every suspected income tax
evasion, and justice agents were pre-
pared. to carry out the orders of the
Attorney General to hit out at the
gangster problem wherever it becomes
particularly obnoxious"
War Started Two Years Ago.
The start Of the Federal war against
racketeering gathered steam more than
two years ago, when President Hoover
in his first public address declared that
life and property in the United States
had become relatively more unsafe
than in any other civilized country in
the world" He asserted the Govern
ment would proceed by steady pres
sure" against those responsible.
To this, Attorney General Mitchell
added, in commenting upon the three
years of effort in building up, piece by
piece, the evidence against Capone, that
while the responsibility for eliminating
the gangster lay primarily with the
States, the Government was determined
to carry on.
THE fact that these criminal gangs
incidentally violate some Federal
statute" Mitchell said, docs not place
the primary duty and responsibility OF
Furnishing them upon the Federal Gov
eminent, and until State police and
magistrates, stimulated by public
opinion, take hold of this problem, 1t
will not be solved"