CHICAGO’S GANGSTERS

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 24 April 1935, Page 14

CHICAGO’S GANGSTERS

HUMOROUS ALLUSIONS ROTARY FOUNDER BANTERED PLEASANTRIES IN THE SOUTH.

The prevalence of gansters in Chicago, tiie home town of Mr Paul P. Harris, founder of Rotary International, was referred to by Mr Harris and other speakers at the civic reception to Mr Harris in Christchurch. The subject was not treated very serious and raised more than one laugh. Mr Harris said it was true that Chicago had a serious gangster situation to deal. with. Change, however, was a difficult matter; it was necessary to revolutionise thought. The trouble had its .root largely in the foreign element in the city. Immigrants were inclined to retain their own nationality and each section was inclined to work for its own benefit. Sometimes, when one section was vying with another to retain office or secure advantages it might forget the people. The second generation of foreigners was generally the trouble, Mr Harris remarked. Sons and daughters who had been educated above their emigrant parents were encouraged to lose their confidence in them and sometimes to despise them. This rotten situation naturally led to crime.

“HOLD-UP’’ IN TASMANIA. “Unfortunately for me,” sdded Mr Harris, “I said when I was in Tasmania recently that I had lived for 40 years in Chicago without ever being held up. Apparently some kind people thought that that was too bad and that I should be taught a lesson. A hold-up was staged for me just out of Hobart. The incident has probably been telegraphed all over the United States.”

The gangster subject was raised again at the Rotary Club luncheon by Mr Denys Hoare, “Fellow Rotarians,” he said, in beginning his speech, “but I might have called you fellowgangsters. If there is such a thin line between Parliamentarians and gangsters, it might also be said that we comprise a gang.’’ Mr Hoarse recalled a remark of Professor J. B. Gondii ffe’s on the subject. “We don’t cail them gangsters in America,” he had said, “we call them banksters.”

LAW-ABIDING MAJORITY. Mr Sullivan opened the subject when he said that many people seemed tc have twisted ideas about the United States. The cablegrams told them about the gangsters in Chicago, but Mr Sullivan said he was sure that. American big cities did not possess any more undesirable features than big cities in other countries. The overwhelming majority of American citizens were living quiet and dignified family lives. Professor Shelley referred to the need for goodfellowship among men and to the benefits of sane organisation of human interests. This feeling, he said, might account for the formation of gangs in cities like Chicago. If gangsters could not work together with society they would find some wav of working together against society. The gregarious instinct might be considered natural. Moreover, said Professor Shelley, a slight twist in the life of a man might turn him from a gangster into a Parliamentarian. The professor .added that be was only illustrating from an example at random, and Mr Sullivan said he would have felt better if the word “professor” had been substituted for “Parliamentarian.”

“When we see how easy it is to switch a. gangster into a politician,” said Mr Harris, “we might consider it easier in some communites to switch a politician into a. gangster. The responsibility, however, would continue to rest on our own shoulders.”