The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-02-20
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

T HAVE indicated that it has been the anti
l. social ideals Of predatory finance and ex-
ploitive business, rather than radicalsm, which
have laid the economic foundations of the re-
markable development Of organized crime in the
United States. Today I shall proceed to make
this fact more clear and evident by reviewing
briefly the evolution Of the type of crimes which
have become predominant in our day.
Crime has existed from primative society, but
the crime that is significant today-organized
crime and racketeering-is a degenerate off,
shoot and by-product of finance capitalism Not
only has it derived much from the ethics and
| psychology Of finance capitalism, but many an
otherwise honest man has been driven into crime
by the inadequate income that finance capital
ism has eked out him.
The ancestors of many of our nt-day
racketeers if they lived in this country had usu-
ally made an honest living conducting shoe
shining parlors, clothes-cleaning establishments,
fruit stands restaurants, and the like or at hard
labor on farms, streets, and railroads.
The younger generation looked with envy not
at the bent backs and wrinkled brows of their
parents but rather at the achievements OF the
American buccaneers who had made away with
their millions, with little service to society.
IF our usurers of high estate could "get theirs"
why should anybody submit to hard labor?
So the future racketeers reasoned. They had
come to believe, as Courtenay Terrett expresses
Tile luedj CIldG OIlly odPo WOAA'
About the time this something for nothing
psychology was making Roadway among these
groups, the Eighteenth Amendment came into
force This provided an ideal set-up for the
budding racketeerS. Hardly anything could have
been better suited to their purposes. Public
opinion was almost everywhere divided; in many
sections of the country it was very definitely
against Prohibition and not few regarded the
bootleggers as allies in a common cause against
this restrictive legislation.
Bootlegging fostered other lawleSs pursuits
the hijacking racket among the wet outlaws,
rackets in foods milk, transportation, building
construction, and the like.
Legal recourse was extremely dlftlcuIt:
crowded dockets, timid witnesses, lenient juries,
combined with all the delays and loopholeS OF
the law which culprits, money in hand could
take advantage Of through competent legal
advice The legal profession has much to an
swer for on this latter score Professional bonds
men were also an important part of the set-up
to circumvent the law.
The depression further stimulated the growth
Of racketeering, since it threw out OF work MIL
liens who might otherwise have preferred to
earn an honest living. From three millions IL
was easy to recruit the few thousands needed
as the underlings of the master minds OF the
underworld
THE belief that when prohibition ended the
l. criminals who made millions in illicit SELL
ing of liquor would meekly turn to lawful pur-
suits was downright naive. They are already
applying their technique to the dope ring kid
naping bank robberies, hijacking of legitimate
liquor supplies, and the like. And again there
are not lacking crafty lawyers all too willing to
defend them from the STRONG arm of the law"
The combined crime and racket bill has been
estimated by competent authorities to run be-
tween $4,000 100000 and $18,0O0,00OO00 year.
Of this total, the racketeering bill amounts to
around $4,000 100000 to $5,0O0,0OOOOO.
This appalling crime bill is produced pri-
marily by organized criminal gangs and rack
eteers, for the total depredations of isolated
crinlinals-the lone wolves Of the underworld
are today slight by comparison The criminal
types of the last generation have all but dis
appeared. Once the great majority of all crimes,
the older thefts and pocket-pickings are now
insignificant in their costs, compared to the
levies of the organized gangsters.
The latter execute a great variety OF ANU
social actS-bank robberieS train robberies, loot
ing of warehouses, and theftS of securities; the
rackets in connection with liquor, dope, food,
milk, the building trades, laundrleS, cleaning
and dyeing establishments garages, taxlS, ana
the like; the use of gunner in labor troubles;
the swindles of the bucket-shop operators; and
host of lesser offenses against life, property,
and personal liberty.