The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1932-09-02
FINAL PART OF THE
CLARION CALL TO CITIZENSHIP
Continued from last week.

But the wise business man, like the
conscientious officer, is using his
present leisure to prepare for the
battles to come. He is deyisine
new economies of production anC
distribution. He is studying the
problem of how his product may be
varied or made more attractive
He is getting ready to take advan-
tage of the upturn when it comes,
He lis not accepting gloomy defeat
ism. He is thinking for himself.
have touched at some length on
the depression because it has so
glaringly shown u the folly of care
lessly delegating our thinking to
others.
1t has also thrown a bright cold
light on the flaws in our political
methods and on our crime problem.
During the years of prosperity fol-
lowing the war an underworld of
%gangsters and racketeers unpar-
alleled in any other civilized nation,
grew up and fourished in our cities.
The criminals who manned this I'M
derworld yer of a new type. They
were not the masked and shabby
plug-uglieS who filed the jails in
earlier years. They were expensive
ly dressed; they owned machine
guns, high-powered cars, and speed
boats; they had money in the bank.
With this money they we're able
to establish a relation with corrupt
officials and police which seemed
to make them immune from prose-
cution.
Lulled into complacency by pros
perity, our citizens passively &C.
cepted this poisonous growth with
small concern.
Now that our c~omplacency is
gone, we begin to study this foul
phenomenon more carefully. We see
it eating more and more deeply into
u national life, injecting politics,
~extorting tribute from business,
threatening u very homes. From
my own study, as an individual, 1
am convinced that prohibition has
largely financed this new postwar
underworld of ours. Vast profits
have drawn multitudes into the
bootlegging business, and, once out
side the pale of the law, they do
not hesitate to turn to racketeering
and other forms Of crime. Thus a
criminal army has been built up
which defies the very government it.
self.
But neither the repeal nor the
modification of the prohibition laws
will altogether abolish crime. The
estimated one million or more men,
accustomed to the easy money of
the bootleg and speakeasy business
and with an utter contempt for law,
cannot be thus converted into vir-
tuous, law-abiding citizens over
night. Many will turn to other forms
of Legitimate activity. Corrupt
officials, deprived of bootleg tribute,
will seek new sources of graft.
Our frontier ancestors, when the
criminal element got out of con
troll, formed themselves into Wig
lance committees, rounded up Grim
inals, and strung them up on the
nearest tree. Every red-blooded
man, when he reads Of the criminal
activities Of our modern racketeers
and of their apparent immunity
from capture and prosecution,
feels a natural impulse to go out
and organize a vigilance committee.
But action can be taken, under the
law, only through the constituted
authorities. Any other course would
lead to abuses greater than those
It might correct.
The ability of the underworld to
.terrorize society lies in the fact
that it is thoroughly organized,
while society is not. At present 1t
Is more the gang against the in
dividual than otherwise. Why
should we not form neighborhood
and community committees, so that
the gang will find itself confronted
with an organized body Of men
and stronger than itself? The
more important his position in the
community, the greater the obliga-
ton of the citizen to join the COM
Can Force Action.
Such committees, made up Of sub
citizens, who regard citi-
zenship as a paramount obligation,
could force action. Suppose a
neighbor of yours gets a kidnapping
threat, or a merchant is visited by
4 gangster who tries to extort trib-
ute from him, or a section of the
town experiences a series Of hold
ups. If the individual citizen goes
% the police station or city hall and
to get satisfaction possibly be-
,ause Of an alliance between Off
,ials and the underworld he is pow
But If the neighborhood commit
zee stands ready, at the very first
threat Of gangster activity within
is borders, to take common action
the invasion, the picture
,hanges. The threatened man i'm