The Coolidge examiner., 1933-09-01

sters formed corporations and as
such preyed upon business under
the protection of the law. Shysters
reaped a harvest by directing sa-
botage. intimidation and monopoly.
! with machine guns.
Today literally billions of dol
lars are being extracted by the
scalpel of force in the hands of MUIR
derous thugs who were spawned in
| the gutter, who throve in the slums
of thought and grew to the distor-
tions of bribery. malfeasance and or
| ganized corruption.
People ask if the bootlegger will
turn TO crimes Of violence with the
passing Of prohibition. The answer
is frightfully simple. He already
has. In the upper crust Of the un-
| derworld today bootleggers are as
scarce as Hottentots in the United
States senate. Bootlegging no long
er pays. People are wise to prices.
Competition is too broad. At
tempted enforcement has waned,
thus increasing the ease of distribu-
tion of liquor. The enforceabllity
of law has been made doubtful In
the mind of the professional Grim
inal. That goes for all law, not
| just prohibition. AS a result. he
is still riding in his Limousine.
The commercial racket is simple
in operation. So the passing boot
logger operates 1t. In most large
cities the cleaners are organized" !"
/ SO, too. with the laundries. the win
dow cleaners, the dyers. the poultry
markets. the garages, the fruit deal
ers, the ice cream dealers. the
trucking companies. Space does not
permit enumeration Of all the COM
mercial and industrial activities
which have fallen under the spell
of this one-tlme alley rat called the
gangster.
New York city disclosed recently
poultry racket" that paid its OPP
orators some sixteen millions
year. How did it operate? Intim-
idatiOn, pure and simple, alone and
unaided. Instead of a diplomatic
note, bombs were placed in offices,
freight stations and stores. In
place OF sales letters machine gun
bullets whined their expressive and
usually conclusive message. Force.
PAY US, or well blow up your
plant, murder your wife, kidnap your
children"
Drivers of trucks in many lines
are forced to join a protective or
ganization, pay dues. then refuse
work unless it is approved by rack
eteers.
The business of the racket is just
as widespread today as the business
of the bootlegger was three years
ago. This is not a comforting con-
dition. On the other hand Ii is
not half so bad as it sounds. Put
in a nutshell, the business OF the
gangsters before prohibition was
cheap and hazardous because its
revenues were insufficient to pay for
protection. The crime of violence
never in history has proven profit
able. Burglars may rob a house of
nothing, but assume all the risk in
the world. A hold-up man may rob
a pedestrian Of dollar or two. He
faces the same penalty as II the
pedestrian had had great deal
more.
Crime is safe only when protect
ed by venal police or courts. That
protection is a commodity not Of
fered Of inferior prices. So violent
crime is stupidity. In its very es-
sence 1t Is failure.
Successful crime must be profit
| able on great scale, to pay bribes,
nurture corruption and hire skilled
lawyers. Footpads cannot do that.
Neither can burglars, robbers. petty
thieves and the like. The gangster
who became the bootlegger must
now again become the gangster, be-
cause he has never changed except
in purse. He Is the same old beetle
brow with a few new ideas con-
ceived in bootleg gold. a few new
ambitions certain to trip him up.
few condolences that will prove
mantraps as his bootleg revenues
change into those for which he
must resort to violence.
There is a way and a simple way
to rout the racketeer. II involves
national action. 1t demands a unfit
cation of protective measures that
never can be subsidized by local
| politicians and criminals. So closely
| are these local politicians and Grim
inals allied that the line of demar-
cation between them is often indis-
tinguishable.
1t is a deadly truth that the boot
logger never could have grown as
he did without political protection
he bought with bootleg money. 1t is
helpful truth that the passing of
prohibition will enable honest Off
cials to break the tie-up between
thief and cop and so disrupt the
so-called gangster organizations the
| country over