The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-01-16
Crime Threat Ahead
Cincinnati Enquirer


 Most postwar planning has been of a roseate nature, dealing with new comforts and convenences. But there is other postwar planning, of much grimmer nature, which clamors for attention
 Of late there has been some debate whether not World War II will be followed by breakdown of law and morals comparable to the postwar era of gen. eraton ago, When the pendulum finally swung back from the of rigors and deprivation it led in a matter of a decade, to crime on scale unpre cedented in the United States During the twenties we had the flappers and the flaming youth,' with immortality reaching it's highest peak since the found ing of America. And then gangste1'ism, which went unchecked until it controlled most every major city in the United States.
 Much of this, of course, may have been CO., incidental The existence of prohibition certainly was a major factor in the spread of gangsterism and in the spawning of flaming youth in the speakeases and the moonshine hideaways. The thing We noted during the twenties may have happened had there been TO war-had adopted prohibition in peace time and surrounded it with the years of relative prosperity which the nation experienced up until the stock market crash sounded the knel of economic good times It cannot be dismissed as an entire coincidence however, that the flappers and their brothers were the generation largely forgotten about so far as home guidance was concerned, during the war and that some veterans of World War I turned to crime Although, when we say the latter, are constrained observe that the typical gangster of the late 192Os was different animal usually, from the veteran.
 The problems Of youth guidance ana veteran rehabilitation which we faced after the last war seem childs play compared with those developing We were scarcely immersed in World War l when it ended this time we already have been fighting for three years and the end i5 not yet in sight. The rupture of home life has been much severe In World War I we did not have anything like the num- per of women working in plants and factories. Today the number of called to the Army is several times what it was in 1917 and 1918 There is less oarison in the type of training; the Army men of oday are much proficient at violence and killing.
 We do not think there will be any widespread use these grim talents The average soldier provided he was a stable individual when he entered service will blend into civilian life again without ripple of provided, more, he has decent opportunity to reestabish himself in civilian life. The so-called "GI Bill of Rights is intended to assure him that, although the overall economic
 situation of the nation will determine the long-range opportunities of the returning veterans
 But there will be some men with criminal ten dencies worsened by Army service. Add to them the products of our presently flourishing juvenile de- linq..cy And count in the stresses and strains of a severe economic readustment, with millions of men returning from the Army and millions more people now working in war plants being forced to look for new jobs.
 It adds up to perhaps the gravest public crime threat the nation has ever faced And whether the threat materiazes or not depends upon the wisdom and energy with which cope with its causes and effects beforehand.