Evening star., 1933-06-26

Machine gun killing Of four police
men and their prisoner by Tour gang
sters in Kansas City arouses the coun'
try anew to the menace OF armed gangs
and there is a renewed demand foi
regulating the sale of firearms. IL Is
also held that the Federal Government
must join with the States IN putting
organized crime out Of business.
Evidence is found by the San Antonio
Express that "gangdom in this countr!
has developed into sort of state within
the State-a de facto power to be bar
gained with That paper advises tina
"the Government must take up the
challenge or confess itself helpless.
The Baltimore Sun sees the country
stirred up to new sense OF the men
ace of organized crime" with this
"glaring light thrown on the audacltJ
of the new type of desperadoes." The
Sun adds: "It is a threat which mus
be met, a challenge to law and ordel
which, if unpunished, will encourage
gangdom to believe that society cannon
cope with its depredations. The Attor-
ney General of the United States has
said that all the power of the Depart
ment OF Justice will be put behind the
effort to break up organized crime
This is necessary, since most OF The
States seem unable to accomplish the
lob and all are handicapped by move
ment of gangsters over State lines"
America is undergoing, not a crime
wave. but rather a flood OF brazen
rriminality, hoodlumism and unthrot-
tied barbarism," declares the st. Joseph
Gazette, with the further statement OF
public need: Are we reverting to par
barism, or are these phenomena just
part of the great cycle of change which
we are experiencing? Did prohibition
start this thing, inculcating lust Tor
easy money in the minds OF the rack
eteers which has led on to kidnap1ngs,
wholesale murders and crime OF every
description? How far is it going to go?
How can it be stopped? These are not
academic questions, as the issues they
raise are getting closer to the lives OF
each one of us every day."
"Assuredly the Kansas City crime
was one to startle and shock the whole
Nation" in the opinion of the Roches-
ter Times Unicn, which states as to the
need of arousing public sentiment: In
what other civilized country could such
thing happen? Right in the heart
of a large city, in front of the union
station, these gangsters opened deadly
fire with machine guns on group OF
officers, including a Federal police
agent, who were taking back to the
Federal prison at Leavenworth an
escaped train robber and bandit This
numbering of police officers, this out
rageous exhibition of criminal violence,
demands the most determined, the most
persistent effort to round up the gang
sters who dared commit such crime,
and thus braZenly and murderously
defy and show contempt of the law"
Grimes Of violence are reproach
to all the States of the Union" asserts
the Boston Transcript, finding "evi-
dence that lawlessness impudently de-
fies the social order" The Transcript
points to one factor of Importance
which gives force to the menace: Con-
ditions in the United States are in
large measure due to the fact that in
no other civilized country is the COM
mission Of crime made easier. For one
thing, this country contains many more
automobiles than are to be found in any
other land, and the automobile has given
the criminal assistance of ineStimable
value to him in his criminal enter
prises. The result is that the gangster
knows the chances of escaping punish
ment at the hands of the law are all
in his favor He robs and kills and
dashes away that he may rob and kill
again."
When effort Is made to induce citi-
zens to put down the terrorism" AYERS
the Portland Oregon Journal, nobody
responds, nobody seems to care. The
machine gun and the revolver are for
one and only one purpose-to kill. A
machine gun. for example, is strictly an
offensive weapon. It cannot be used in