Evening star., 1933-02-21
MITCHELL WARNS
OF CRIME MENACE
Attorney General, in Radio
Forum, Says End of Rack
cts Is Up to Cities.

Warning the American people against
the strange hold" which organized
crime and racketeering threatens to
extend from larger cities to smaller
communities. and from liquor to other
forms Of racketeering less palatable to
the average citizen" Attorney General
William D. Mitchell last night laid re-
sponsibility for dealing with organ
ized criminal gangs" squarely upon
municipal government.
If business concerns engaged in sup
| plying food, clothing and other neces-
saries of life are forced to pay tribute
to racketeers." he declared. "the added
cost of business must be passed on to
the ultimate consumer. 1t Is the aver
age citizen who suffers most from these
conditions"
| The Attorney Generals message went
to the whole country in the National
Radio Forum, arranged by The Wash
| ington Star and broadcast over the
Nationwide network of the National
Broadcasting Co.
| IF national prohibition is abolished"
he said, I'VE may awake to the fact
that we no longer have that alibi for
| crime conditions"
Outlining in detail the relative pow
ers of the Federal, State and city gov
ernments, the Attorney General fatty
| declared: organized criminal gangs
must be dealt with by local authority.
| The conditions in our great cosmopoli-
| tan areas are not to be cured by the
Federal Government or even by the
State government but by the municipal
| government"
"The man who really knows what IS
going on in a community is the police
man on the beat" said the Attorney
| General. "In all the police forces of
our cities honest men overwhelmingly
outnumber the corrupt. They will do
their duty If given a chance, but they
take their cue from those higher up:
| The governing officials must be sound"
"I am firmly convinced" he de-
clared, that there is not a city in the
Nation in which organized bands OF
promptly wiped out if local public
opinion could only be aroused to de-
mand such action by municipal officers
and back up that demand at the polls
Text of Address.
The text of Attorney General Mitch
ellis address follows:
No one can serve long in any post
Oh uulOTIdIlCt dG OllC oCd1 Va NAAS 49,
tional Government without being con-
scious that grave problems confront
our large ccnters of population, and
some aspects of the situation come
home with special force to any one
dealing with administration OF the law.
The endless battle with lawlessness Is
taking on new forms in our coSmopoll-
tan areas New types of criminal activ-
tiles have been developed. Malefactors
who operate alone and on small scale
still exist, but they are back numbers
in the progress Of crime. Organized
crime is the thing. No longer are the
turns of small depredations. The frenzy
to get rich quickly with which the
public has been generally inoculated
in recent times has affected the crimi-
nal element. They operate on large
scale in big organizations with numer-
Gus personnel. They want millions, so
they have gone into business They
are levying tribute on commercial ana
business enterprises, and on the ols-
tribution of the necesSaries of life. So
numerous and powerful have these or
ganizations become and SO large their
revenues that at times they have dom
mated politically great wards In large
cities, and when decent citizens have
been apathetic have welded the bal
ance of power in municipal elections.
They aspire to and at times succeed In
obtaining representation, in executive,
legislative, and even judicial offices.
Thus has been born what has become
known as the racket. These rackets
operate in an infinite variety OF ways.
Let me illustrate. In one instance or
ganized gangs levied tribute on those
engaged in the business of buying and
distributing perishable fruits and vege-
tables in one of our large cities. No
commission house was allowed to un-
load and transport by trucks carload
of perishable foodstuffs without paying
a tribute of $25 per car to the racket
eers. Payment of the tribute was en-
forced by threats or violence directed
against the truck drivers, and lacking
adequate protection from police and
local law, business houses chose to pay
the tribute rather than go out OF busi-
ness.
In another case the poultry trade in
a great city fell into the hands Of such
racketeers, who levied a regular tribute
on those engaged in the business, who
passed the cost on to the consumer. In
another cosmopolitan area organized
criminal racketeers mastered the build
ing trades, forced the formation Of
ring of local contractors to monopol1ze
the business, used their gunner 10 drlVe
others out of the field, operated through
local labor unions and levied tribute
on the business, reflected in higher bids
for construction work.
Al Kinds of Rackets.
These operations extend into distri-
button of milk, of food. and other sup
plies in our cosmopolitan areas. If
obedience to their demands for tribute
is not exacted by threats against en-
ploye engaged in transportation, the
racketeers endeavor to get control of
the local labor unions and by threats
and intimidation or other means to con-
troll union officials, and through them
to force employers to pay tribute 10
keep their employees at work.
In one OF our largest Eastern cities
AZ different kinds of rackets have been
developed operating along these lines.
Recently a group of business men from
one large city called at the Department
of Justice and showed me a chart as
large as a table ton setting forth the