Evening star., 1934-12-12
TIGHT LAW URGED
TO CURB NUMBERS
Crime Conference Delegates
Say Stringent Penalties
Will Smash Racket.

Mote: Acceding to recent re-
quest by United States Attorney
Garnett, The Star, the Post, the
Times, the Herald and the citys
four broddcdsting stations are re-
Jusing to aid the numbers racket
by dissemination of the race total
numbers iDith Which the game here
is conducted. Publication or broad
casting OF such totals is OF no in
terest outside the numbers racket
Effective laws by which police and
the lower courts are given direct
jurisdiction over such activities as
the operation of the numbers racket
are required in any successful fight
against this form of gambling, in the
opinion of several law enforcement
of1icials in Washington to attend the
Crime Conference.
In each case, this opinion was ar
rived at through actual experience
with the racket and the difficulties
of stamping 1t out. An outstanding
example Of community's battle
against this evil was described by
Mayor Frank Hague Of Jersey City,
the campaign there succeeding only
after two changes in the city statutes.
"The numbers game started up my
way" Mayor Hague recalled today.
II watched II grow, and I've watched
it die. We broke it up, but there's
only one way to do it-by enactment
Of q law which makes simple posses
sion Of numbers slips illegal and
which gives the police courts juris-
diction over the cases.
Recalls Legal Delays.
when we started to fight against
1t, the law was such that we had to
indict runners and bring them before
a jury for trial. Smart defense coun-
sci would picture the runner as an
innocent man, guilty only of a minor
indiscretion involving q few pennies.
Inevitably, the result was acquittal.
Delays clogged the courts and even
the prosecuting attorneys reached a
point where they despaired Of making
any progress.
Meanwhile, we were finding that
the game was being run by big busi-
ness organizations, so smart that they
even picked their runners by types and
character, so they would be least likely
to incur q jury's disfavor. They had
regular counsel engaged, ready to step
into cases at any moment. And with
the increasing size Of the organiza-
tions came competition and bitterness
between groups. Violence cropped up
and conditions grew increasingly seri-
ous-all springing from this seemingly
cheap racket.
$50 we enacted new law which hit
directly and quickly at the runners,
enabled the police to pick them up if
they had slips in their possession and
empowered the police courts to handle
the cases and slap these fellows into
jail for as much as 80 days. This first
law conflicted with the State consti-
tuition, so we found ourselves in trouble
again. We corrected the wording of
the law in a second enactment and
now have a legal foundation for our
drive which has never been questioned
and which, we believe, would stand in
any circumstance.
Started Drive on Runners.
1.-THE next step was to 60 after the
runners, and we did it. We arrested
them by the hundreds, rushed them
into police courts and from there to
Jail 50 fast that they were helpless.
Even the big organizations couldn't t
stand up against that. The runners
were scared when they found that the
sharp lawyers hired by the big shots
couldn't help them, plenty of them
quit the racket and 1t was difficult to
find new recruits.
Right now the numbers racket is
q dead game in Jersey City. Give
Washington law like ours, put the
police and the lower courts to work
on the problem and you can break
it. But that's the only way"
Similar emphasis upon the neces-
sity Of effective laws and vigorous en-
forcement was voiced by Floyd E.
Thompson, former chief justice of the
Illinois Supreme Court, recently
brought into the spotlight by his sue
cessful defense Of Samuel insult and
Is others in their trial for mail fraud
before q Federal court in Chicago.
Says Game Breeds Trouble.
"That kind Of gambling (the num-
bers racket Is o filthy business, bound
to lead to all kinds of serious crime
and wholesale gang wars such as Chi
cago experienced over many years.
Chicago's disgraceful condition at that
time was brought on by just such
rackets as this one you speak Of, and
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