The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-09
Militia Hold 90 AS 1000 Mass at Georgia Textile Mill
Indictment
Helps Hauptmann
Continued from Page y

more than third of the Lindbergh
ransom money was found in his
home. That he was not tried in
New York can be largely aScribed to
Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City
who is Democratic boss of the state
a member Of the Democratic Ma
tional Committee, one of AL Smiths
most intimate friends, and the rep
resentative in New Jersey of the
Roosevelt administration.
Hague's rise to power as one OF
the most representative opponents
Of the New Deal follows closely the
careers of the majority of American
political bosses. Starting more than
a generation ago as a strong arm
man and bouncer in Jersey City sa-
looms, he quickly mastered the tech
nique of ballot-box Stufing and
stealing, skull cracking, graft, in
timidation of rebellious voters and
union-busting that has character
lied his fellow-bosSes in other
American cities. Supported by
weekly sermons in the scores of
churches supported by the predomi-
nantly Catholic population If Jer-
Sey City and by newspapers whose
editors were the recipients of large
annual subsidies from his powerful
machine, he quickly created such
conditions of terror at the polling
booths on election days that even
Republicans in Jersey City have
been numerically slugged for vot-
ing for Hoover.
Terror in Jersey City
Workers organizations in Hague's
bailiwick have had to counter ter
ror which is among the most fas-
cist-like in the United States. Dur
ing the strike of the marine work
ers in the port of New York a few
months ago, striking seaman who
was found with Communist Party
membership book in his pocket was
sentenced to nine months in Jail as
a Criminal" and a striker who was
with him at the time of his arrest
was given two months on the charge
of consorting with criminals"
1t is understandable that Hague's
favorite repressive arm of the city
government he controls like a
feudsl lord is the police department.
When he was Police Commissioner
of Jersey City it is said that he
concocted the following bit of
chicanery to raise the prestige of
the police in the eyes of the city's
population. He communicated with
some of New York's leading gang
sters, promising them a large sum
of money if they staged fake rob-
berry of one of Jersey City's leading
mems clothing stores and permitted
him end a squad of policemen to
arrest them in the act of commit
ting the robbery, the robbers" to
go free, of course. The scheme
worked to perfection, except that
after it was perpetrated Hague
forgot" his promise of freedom to
the gangsterS and they served a
long term in jail for helping Hague
convince the population of Jersey
City that it was a safe place to live
in.
Hague's Police Enter
1t is this love. of Hagues for his
Police Department that is in part
responsible for the bringing of
Hauptmann from New York, where
he certainly would have been con-
victed of extortion, to New Jersey,
where he will almost as certainly be
freed. Hague wanted the Jersey
City police department to win the
world-renown that he knew would
accrue to the police discovering the
kidnaper and murderer of the Lind
bergh baby. Consequently, on the
morning after the kidnapping, Hague
issued orders that the local police
keep their hands off the case and
permit the Jersey City Police De-
partment and Colonel Schwartz
kopf, Hague lackey who is head
of the State Police, to take it over.
The first act was to destroy the
most effective evidence that could
have been used against the kid
naper, namely, obliterate the finger
prints on the ladder that the kid
naper allegedly used. Wilentz, an
other Hague creature, is privately
wailing over the fact that hun
dreds of finger-prints of Jersey
City and State Police have COM
pletely hidden the original prints on
the ladder. 1t wasn't until Hague's
police had effectively prevented any
quick solution of the crime that
outside police forces were allowed
to enter the case.
Welter of Intrigue
All these developments, of course,
have aided the Hitlerites, who are
fighting so desperately to free the
Nazi defendant. However, it is Just
as certain that the jury will con-
vict Hauptmann as it is that the
New Jersey Supreme Court must
free him if it considers only the
legal technicalities. After the de-
cision of the Supreme Court, it is
to be expected that Hauptmann will
be brought to trial in New York for
extortion and probably convicted.
The welter of intrigue which has
been drawn around the real nature
of the crime is placing Reilly,
Hauptmann's chief attorney, in an
anomalous position. Although he
is definitely trying to free the Nazi,
and will use almost any methods to
do so, he cannot present his evil
dence too strongly because he would