Evening Post. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1928. AMERICA'S UNDERWORLD

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 68, 29 September 1928, Page 8

Evening Post. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1928. AMERICA'S UNDERWORLD

Anollier striking instance of the freedom of American manners was reported in a message from New York on Monday. Mr. Arthur Ruben, secretary of the Motion . Picture Operators' Union, described as "one of the strongest Labour organisations in Detroit," had been seized by armed men at his office, doubtless in the heart of the city, and evidently in the, broad daylight, carried off, and, as the police believed, killed. Ruben was actively engaged in a factional fight in the union's ranks, with a private detective agency involved. He was attending business undor the pro tcction of an armed guard, but eight men entered his office and forced his staff of 20 to hold up their hands. They then carried Ruben away, presumably to his death. Here was something quite apart from the standing feud between unionist and non-unionist Labour or the normal interchanges of gang politics. Differences of opinion within the Motion Picture Operators' Union provoked both parties to take up arms, and what was presumably the unofficial minority triumphed by kidnapping and murdering the secretary. It is probably safe to add that the police have no clue, and that it would not do them much good if they had. Though we have drawn a distinction between Labour politics and gang politics, there is no doubt that in some parts of the United States the two are very closely related. At the very time when "bloody Herrin" was making a name for itself by the murder of 30 or 40 unarmed non-unionists, of whom many had been previously beaten, broken, and mutilated, the great city in the same State was showing itself equally helpless in the presence of a similar, though less hideous, orgy of crime. No less than 23 Labour union leaders were tried in the Chicago Courts on charges which included first-degree murder, extortion, conspiracy, bombing, and criminal assault. In one of these cases six eye-witnesses testified that a double murder was premeditated and unprovoked, but the accused was acquitted "because," according to one of the jurymen, "the employing contractors were guilty of as serious crimes as Walsh, and they were not brought to trial." The other twenty-two Labour leaders who were tried about the same time shared Walsh's good luck. In every case the jury brought in a verdict of "not guilty," or disagreed. It is indeed probable that both Chief Justice Scanlan and the State's Attorney were in greater peril. of their lives than any of the accused. After the Chief Justice had ordered an investigation of the charges that the accused had escaped conviction by wholesale corruption, some of their friends openly boasted "that his body would be filled as full of holes as a sieve if he attempted to walk the streets of Chicago." Similar threats were made against the State's Attorney, with the result that police protection was given to both men when they appeared in public, and their homes were guarded. Another result was the institution of a movement to break the power of Labour unions which, it was believed, had been honeycombed by Communists from abroad, and to loosen their "hold on the throat of Justice." The "Chicago Tribune" commented as follows:— The movement to break unionism completely is gaining most of its headway in the lawless management of some of the unions, organised by criminals and controlled by sluggers, gunmen, and murderers. Unionism once fought convict labour. It is now going on the rocks because of convict control. Fred Madder, President of the Building Trades Council, told a committee of the City Council that he feared an outbreak of violence if an adjustment was not reached soon in the building trades. That was not a warning. It was. a threat. If gun-ruled unionism thinks that Chicago is entirely gun-shy and afraid, it is mistaken. Groups of gunmen cannot run Chicago continually. Even with powerful political connections, it cannot be done. To what extent, if any, the Labour unions of Chicago have since been purged of their Red elements we are unable to say, but the faith of the "Tribune" that "groups of gunmen cannot run Chicago continually" seems to lie at least as far from realisation as ever. .Five years after its article was written, "Big Bill" Thompson - scored a great victory at the Mayoral election, and not only gunmen, but machine-gunmen and bombers, played a conspicuous part in his triumph. Thoughhe received a set-back at the Republican primaries a year later, the report of a "gangster chief's" funeral about a fortnight. ago supplied convincing evidence that the power of a mightier man even than "Big Bill" is still unbroken:— The gangster king, "Scarfaec Al" Caponc, wanted for numerous crimes, arrived in a bullet-proof expensive sedan. . . . Despite the fact that there was no police protection, perhaps rather due to its absence, there was no violence Protected as he was by his bulletproof car and his army of gunmen, the police knew better than to want "Scarface Al" just then. Some two months previously another Chicago funeral had called attention to the sinister part that the Labour unions, or those who purport to speak on their behalf, are still playiiig in the underworld politics of Chicago. In the cablegram which reported the murder of Tim Murphy at the end of June he was described as a

"Labour leader," but he must not be confused with a Keir Hardie or a Ramsay Mac Donald. Like the little boy who, when asked what his father's religion was, replied, "My father's a Christian, but he ain't been doing much at it lately," it is but fair to say that, though "Big Tim" was a Labour leader, he had not been doing much at it lately. Well over six feet in height, of good proportions, and "handsome in a way," "Big Tim" Murphy is said to have desired to be "friends with everybody," and if he was not all things to all men he certainly succeeded in playing many parts. Early in his career he distinguished himself as a Labour leader; he gained a good knowledge of both State and Federal politics as a member of the Illinois Legislature, and as the private secretary of a member of Congress; and this useful experience he followed up by a less satisfactory term of service in a Federal prison. Apropos of Murphy's discharge, the "Springfield Republican," to which we owe these particulars, gives the best definition that we have yet seen of the ''racketeering" to which he now devoted his talents: — Upon his "triumphant" return he became a big figure in the institution of the "racket," which has been developing for some eight years. The nature of the racket is somewhat baffling, but it can be described roughly as a system of blackmail, supported by the terrorism of gangs of gunmen. Frequently it is carried on through organisations of business men and of employers controlled by crooks. By "racketeering" Murphy acquired an immense fortune, but he is believed to have met his end by trying to "cut himself in" on four organisations —one of employers, the others apparently of workers—rwhich are reputed to be taking' 1,500,000 dollars out of the cleaning and dyeing industry. Murphy, says the "Republican," was disposed of in regular movie fashion. He was lured to the door of his home by the ringing of the door-bell, and as he stood looking for a supposed visitor a volley of shots came from a slowlymoving automobile whose approach he had observed without alarm. It was not a Labour leader but a rival gangster that these machinegunners had killed.