The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-07-12
By c. c. NICOLET

(COpyrlSnJ 1USO, Dy ohO OhhVOu
 Press)
 The underworld of New York is in a state of Aux, revolutionlzed by the rapid change in stats or the liquor trade, but the racketeers go on collecting just the same. The once profitable illicit peer business is gone, and whisky mas become an over the counter com- modity which offers only a meager portion of the revenue it provided until a few months ago. AS Tar as New York is concerned, the elgn- teenth amendment already has been repealed.
 Thus the dependable revenue from alcohol for which the gangs once fought with guns and knlves has been eliminated and the 'mops are at the crossroads. They must increase materially their revenue from rackets, or face extlnctlon. And New York legitimate business already carries, many observers believe, all the racket load that the traffic can bear,
 "If we can get the racketeeers on the run they will never come back" says Chief Assistant DIS trict Attorney Thomas Kane, who handles personally most important racket cases in the courts Of New York county. 1T believe we are get ting the upper hand"
 ! New York is the ideal city, geo. graphically, for the racketeer. Ex- cept for the Bronx it is built on islands, and that makes 1t easy for the robber barons of the un- derworld to control the passage ways through which all commo- dities must come to reach the crowded millions of the city. From 0 head of lettuce to a carload or steel, everything shipped into Ne" York pays it's tribute. | A Gloucester fisherman cannot dock his schooner and put ashore l his cargo without paying a mem bership fee" to a "Protective Asso- | ciation" If he pays, he is unmoI- | ested: if he does not, his fish may rot on the docks or his crew may be beaten, even shot, by water front thugs. The produce mer- chant pays his toll for the privil- ege of handling perishable food from surrounding communities. If he balks, his perishables stay on his hands until they spoil. If he still tries to fight, he will be at- tackled by strong arm men.
 | A carload of building materials cannot be unloaded and distribut- ed without the approval of the 'labor czars" who will see to it that no workers can be found un- less the proper fees are paid-and paid at both ends, one fee from the builder, one from the laborer.
 The racket permeates New York so thoroughly that from the baby's milk to the grandfather's coffin, tribute may be exacted under the guise of Protective associations" or Benevolent societies" or. such high sounding titles.
 l we go about racket prosecu- tions quietly" Assistant District Attorney Kane explains. "We try to I get the victim before the grand jury before the racketeer knows we are preparing a case. That way we can get his story without having him intimidated first. But the victim almost never makes the complaint. We have to find out a. bout it from some outside source, and go to the victim, and persuade | him to tell his story. Business men  are becoming somewhat more will ing to help by testifying; they are learning that we can protect them, and that we will. More racketeer- ing cases are prosecuted success fully in New York county than anywhere else in the country. l | believe"
 With federal action, the racke- | teer will lose the tremendous ad- vantage that he now has, Kane points out, because of the fact that New York city itself is divided into five counties, each with different prosecuting organizations; and that the close tieup between the city
 itself and Westchester county, Long
 Island outside the city limits, and the New Jersey communities just across the Hudson gies the skilled
 racketeer an easy chance of mix ing his activities between counties and states so that prosecution un- Ider- the state laws becomes involv-