“Chicago as I Found It”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1028, 19 July 1930, Page 18

“Chicago as I Found It”

Edgar Wallace on “Wickedest City in the World”

■ HICAGO is a great and wonderful city. It epitomises all that is best and most robust in America. It stands for

something so typically and hopefully American that it almost seems impossible that its name can also be associated with that peculiar brand of lawlessness which has no parallel in the civilised world. But the truth is—Chicago is almost too busy to notice what is going on in its midst. Its millions say in effect:

“Oh, yes, we know there are ten thousand gangsters operating, that hardly a week passes but somebody is ‘taken for a ride’ or ‘put on the spot,’ or shot down. One of these days we will take a look at them and deal with them.”

Liquor Trade Rivalries And one of these days Chicago will do just that. It will put down its tools and its pens, it will come out of its offices and its villas and apartments. it will put off till tomorrow the urgent business of today, and gangdom will be obliterated. Truthfully speaking, gangs do not' bother Chicago. The men who occupy the offices and the apartments, who throng vast stadiums and watch ball games, who fill the restaurants and the theatres, who come flying down Michigan Boulevard in glistening limousines, whose wives cover the gigantic floors of Marshall Fields and other great stores, need a little alcohol for their comfort. They do not care where it comes from so long as it is good and the analyst gives it the O.K. You would never dream of drinking liquor in America unless you submitted it to analysis. They know there is a great competition for the privilege of supplying this good liquor and beer which come into their cellars every week. They may be acquainted with their bootlegger, a very pleasant »nd intelligent man, and they have, perhaps, evidence that behind him is an organisation which is keptlausy day and night. Silencing Opposition They know that if they are approached by another bootlegging representative of a rival firm, either he or the original seller is likely to be found dead on the prairie outside Chicago. But so long as the hooch is all right, that is not anybody’s business but the gentleman concerned.

Gangdom fights for trade. Murder is the consequence of competition. You cannot advertise that you sell a beter brand of drink than another gang, except by word of mouth, and the glib and persuasive tongue which persuades you to go over to the oppositfbn is likely to be quickly silenced. Chicago knows all this. It knows that there are other gangs working in the city, that all sorts of spurious little societies offer their protection to various trades and businesses, and that if the trade or business does not accept their kind offices they are liable to be shot up. But this must be emphasised—it is very much the affair of the gangs Citizens who are not concerned with the operations of racketeers and bootleggers, who have no financial interest in pushing forward one or the other "traders,” are completely safe from interference. Nobody is murdered but gangsters, and Chicago says, in the language of Moran and Mack, "Who cares about that?”

When English people say, “I would not like to go to Chicago,” they are all talking nonsense. They will go there by the thousands this year, when the great exhibition opens. And they will take no hurt from it, but a tremendous amount of profit and

pleasure. They will find the most hospitable people in America ready to receive them with open arms. They will find a truly American population, with the Westerner’s sense of humour and the Easterner’s- shrewd understanding of human nature. They will hear beautiful opera and enjoy hotel comfort beyond their dreams. Capone is back —a surprising circumstance. The authorities were satisfied he would never again return to the scene of his activities. If Jack McGurn, his lieutenant, is for the moment under a cloud—he was pulled out of a cab the other day and charged with carrying concealed weapons—we can be sure that the organisation has not been seriously disturbed by Al’s temporary sojourn in a Philadelphia prison„ His return makes the situation very piquant. Will Bugs Mofan, a North Side gangster, seven of whose men were machine-gunned to death a little over a year ago, accept the situation. Three of A 1 Capone’s most trusted killers died with characteristic suddenness after the Valentine Day massacre. Anselmi and Scalesl, proved murderers, and a third mau, who probably had to do with the killed, were found huddled in an abandoned car by a policeman. They were de-ad. Chicago read the news on its way to (lie office. “Three more of those guys bumped! Gee. it is certainly a grand life! Oh, say, I’ve got a tip that Anacondas are due for a rise