The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-12
WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 70, 1884
The Crime Crusade

president ROOSENELTS s. d. den
verbal attack on Crime" has more to
it than appears on the surface. That
American capitalism reeks with more crime
and bloodshed than any other country no
body will deny It would be difficult for crook
like Samuel insult, for instance to get away with
as much loot anywhere in the world he did right
here in the home of the New Deal Certainly it
would have been more difficult to fix a jury and a
court as the recent Chicago court was surely fixed
Roosevelt had nothing to say about that.
But in his speech before the Attorney Generals
Crime Conference he seemed to get hot and both
cred about crime in general. So has Mr. William
Randolph Hearst-and both for the same reason.
Hearst is carrying on, in cooperation with the
criminal pervert Adolph Hitler, the most vicious
campaign against the Communist Party in the
United States.
At the same time Hearst camouflsges his anti
labor drive by shrieking against crime" His aim
is to get the government to increase its police and
suppressive power-not against the criminals like
millionaire robber insult and other rackeeers graft
ing bankers crooked capitalist politicians and their
lesser fry, the gunmen-but against striking work
ers against militant trade unions and against the
Communist Party and Socialists.
To those who may believe that Roosevelt has
a real interest in wiping out crime we want to call
attention to the fact that Roosevelt himself con-
nected crime with unemployment and starvation in
capitalist society.
At the same time, he declared that struggle
against crime" the most important need in
maintaining the stability" of the present order.
Here we must keep in mind what the bosses, the
parasites and expoiters mean by crime" They
consider it a crime for the workers to struggle for
higher wages, for unemployment insurance = and
they act accordingly by shooting down strikers and
other militant workers
But when it comes to real criminals we find that
the most important ones protected by the capital
list government all the way from the smallest city Of
fcials up to the State Department in Washington
and at various times, at least by the White House
itself as under the Harding Coolidge and Hoover
regimes.
Very recently New York Police Commissioner
Valentine declared that the gangster Dutch"
Schultz could never have remained at liberty as
long as he did without the protection of city and
state government officials. This is true Of every
leading gangster and the majo organizers of crime
They are intertwined with the capitalist organs of
government.
On Monday for example, it was brought out be-
fore the Senate Arms Committee that the Reming-
ton Arms Co. sales manager stated in letter that
its eyes" at graft in armament sales.
Rooseyelt's right-hand man, Donald R. Rich
berg, when he was still parading as liberal" law
yer in Chicago once put his finger on the real
protectors" of graft - the capitalist government
machine In June, 1880, when Jake Lingle, the
go-between for the Chicago Tribune and the I'M
derworld was wiped out, Richberg declared:
rs it possible that the people of Chicago can
read their daily papers and yet remain ignorant
of the interIockng relations between public utility
control and corruption of government and the
political protection of crime? The close relation
ship between Jake Lingle and the police depart
ment has been published in the Chicago papers. E. .
Surely all Chicago knows that Samuel Ettelson,
Mr.. Insults political lawyer, who is corporation
counsel of Chicago, is also the chief operator of
the city government"
The names have changed in New York Chicago
and Washington, but the fundamental relationship
between the big gansters and the boss politicians
have not changed. Nor can they change under
capitalism, itself one of the most criminal systems
against the whole working class,
Rooseyelt's crusade against crime" is not aimed
at the criminals, except insofar as one group of
capitalists try to free themselves from particular
group of hi-jackers. 1t is the snnokescreen for a
most vicious campaign for an enlarged central police
force as more efficient strikebreaking and anti
working class weapon. Along with this campaign
will go real action against the foreign born against
Socialists and Communists against all those who
do not stand for the crimes committed by the New
Deal against the working class
In short, under the cry of "crime crusade" which
only indirectly would be directed against few
particularly obnoxious real criminals, the Roose-
vet regime is actually undertaking further develop
ments towards fascist drives against the American
working class and against the organized labor move
ment particularly against its most militant section
the Communist Party.