Evening star., 1932-06-05

T N THE last 10 years an arlStocracy
has arisen in this country.
Its leaders. in the main. are the
l spawn of the brothels. the gam
bling dens and the corrupt political
machines of the big cities, and the
prisons Their followers are drawn
from all walks of life.
Its law is the law of terroriSm-the
law of the club, the torch, the bomb
and the machine gun.
Like all ariStoCracies, this aristocracy
within the Republic is a drain on the
wealth of the Nation beyond definite
calculation
Its annual cost to the American peo-
pie exceeds, by far, the expense of main
tanning the Federal Government in any
IL months of the last decade; and the
appropriations of Congress in the 10
years beginning with 1928 averaged
81, ,329, ,684 ,210l0 annually.
Extorted From Business.
The main source of income of this
ruling claSs-the phrase is not an empty
one in some of our larger cities-is ex-
torted from legitimate business. This
highly organized, well armed horde Of
racketeers is commonly called gangdom.
The racketeer-to use the popular
designatlor-has been with us for many
years especially in the building trades,
but the gargantuan growth of racketeer-
ing and the golden masks of respecta-
bility worn by its leaders are the gifts
of prohibition.
1t was not SO long ago that the under
world Signlfled the slumS and the dives
of the cities, the offspring of poverty
and ignorance. But in this country. for
the last 10 years or so, the word has
kna toto .rtth do
lionaireS with their yachts and cars
sometimes armored-toWn houses and
pretentious apartments in fashionable
neighborhoods, palatial country estates
and Winter homes in Florida. Ten and
more years ago the only contacts with
official life known to the denizen of the
underworld were the policeman. the
judge and the prison warden. Today
he struts with a becoming air of pro-
prietorship, in some of our city halls
and State Legislatures; he mingles with
the politically elite in the Capitol of
the Nation, and he laughs at the law.
In the year 1923, the units making
the Nation, and the Federal Govern
ment itself, spent S1,124,314,000 in the
vain effort to crush our aristocracy.
This is the only year for which the ma
tional costs of fighting crime have been
computed. This was done by the Ma
tional Commission on Law Observance
and Enforcement-the WickerSham COM
mission, appointed by President Hoover.
The utter helplessness of the Repub-
lies struggle against the new order was
borne in upon the civilized world on
March 6. 1882, when Col. Charles A.
Lindbergh and his wife, daughter OF the
late Dwight w. Morrow, announced that
they had retained two underworld char
acters to aid in the hunt for their baby,
then kidnapped five days.
One was Salvatore Spitale, alias
James Martin, reputed aspirant for the
headship of the New York Malta when
Giuseppe Masseria. known to his
countrymen as Joe the Boss, was slain
in the Villa Nuova Tammaro, in Coney
Island. Joe the Boss was not above the
law in ante prohibition days. Then he
was regarded by the authorities as an
outlaw, and dealt with accordingly.
They sent him-then-to Sing Sing for
three and a half years as a burglar.
But along came prohibition and Joe the
Boss became a millionaire with pent
house dwelling and string OF race
horses-2l of them. When he died, in
1881. with bullets in his back. the news
papers referred to him as president of
the New York branch of the Unione
Sicilana a synonym for the Malta.
The other aristocrat was Irving Btz,
sometimes known as Morris GroSsman,
known dealer in narcotics at the age
of %. and with one prison sentence
imposed by a Federal judge for selling
dope. Bitz, or Grossman, maintains a
home IN a tenement house in the old
Jewish quarter of New York's East Side.