Rackrtèering in America.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17982, 29 March 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

Rackrtèering in America.

(Manchester NO development of recent years in the United States is more amazing than the growth of “racketeering.” The sums which are extorted from the public in the large cities amount 'to many millions of pounds annually, and the total is growing with great rapidity. The police are either unable to slop it or, as is certainly true in many individual instances, are secretly sharing in the golden stream. The racketeer is merely a modern practitioner of an old occupation, that of the blackmailer. He preys upon the legitimate forms of trade as a rule, exacting “fees” which, while they are unimportant in relation to any one transaction, pile up into huge amounts in the course of a year. His Rule is One of Terrorism almost exclusively: those from whom he extorts tribute have as an alternative, if they refuse, the prospect of a painful beating,', of having their business interfered with in every possible way, perhaps even of being “taken for a ride,” an excursion which means death to the one who accepts—under compulsion, of course —this harmlesssounding invitation. In order to hide his practices the racketeer is likely to operate under the guise of a labour union. Let us suppose, for example, that he intends to prey- upon the laundry business in the city of Chicago. He and his henchmen will first get control of some union —that of laundry-waggon drivers would serve. They may do Ihis by fair words, by offering to share the loot; or they may merely beat up, or perhaps kill, one or two of the existing officers and succeed to their places by, so to speak, acclamation. If necessary, . they will create a union where none previously' existed. At any' rate, once they have a technical basis for operation they will go to the Owners of the Large Laundries and announce that in future these will make weeklv "contributions" of such and such an amount—£s, £2O, £SO, whatever they think the victim is “good for.” Usually the laundryman, who knows about the racketeers and their ways, gives in, and proceeds to got back the amount of the blackmail by raising his prices to his customers. If he proves stubborn, he will find that acid is thrown on the garments in his washing vats, the tyres of his motorcar arc punctured, the glass is broken out of his windows, his employees—or he himself —will be met by gangs, of thugs as tlmv leave their place of business and beaten up- Perhaps the stiop will be dyna-' mited or the manager killed, but in 90 cases out or 100 such extreme measures are not necessary; the Racketeer Wins Without Them. This is not a fanciful picture; it is what has happened over and over again in New York or Chicago or any one of half a dozen other large cities. There is literally hardly an important industry which is not subject to the activities of these blackmailers. The building trades, to name only one example* have suffered in recent years; scores of fires during the past few months iu New

Blackmail Methods: Police as Allies,

Guardian.) York flat buildings under construction have been caused by racketeers because the contractors engaged in erecting these structures had refused to pay the bribes which were demanded. As 1 have already suggested, it is useless to apply to the police for assistance against the * racketeer. The chances ara 'that the police themselves are participating in the “graft,” and will only go through the motions of seeking to protect the citizens who appeal to them for aid, but even when 'the officers of the law are sincere they are grappling with forces too huge to give them much hope of success. The gunmen are numerous, cunning, wealthy', ana unscrupulous. They are quite as Ready to Kill a Policeman as they are anyone else who gets in their way, and they have a ruthlessness about shooting which no officer can ever share. Certainly in neither Chicago nor New York is there any evidence that the officials wish, or arc able, to put down the racketeer. In -their laissez-faire attitude the police reflect more or less accurately the desires of the municipal governments behind them, and of the community public opinion. ’Wellinformed students of public affairs believe that both Chicago and New Y'ork are now more corrupt- and more graft-ridden than at any lime for fifty years, yet there, is a remarkable public apathy in both cities. Mayor William Hale Thompson (“Big Bill”) of Chicago seems as popular as ever, and Mayor “Jimmy” Walker of New York was recently re-elected by a staggering majority of almost half a million votes- While every householder pays out in the form of higher prices for the goods he buys hundreds of dollars a year to the blackmailers, for which he gets no value in return, he does not know that this is 'true. He reads in the newspapers of n/lurder and Arson but he does not connect these with the high rent for his new flat, the exorbitant prices of vegetables, or the large amount of his weekly laundry bill. , t , . . . The racketeer is the product of at least three factors. The first of these is the war, which taught two million young American men to handle firearms for the purpose of taking human life. The. second is Prohibition, which drove a huge industry underground and made it 'the prey of powerful and unscrupulous forces, unless, it could hit back and protect itself. The third is 'America’s policy, pursued for so many v ears before the war, of unrestricted immigration. -Nearly all the racketeers are young Italians, with a sprinkling of Poles and Jews. They Represent the First Generation horn in America of immigrant parents. These parents, who usually speak English iinperfectlv or not at all. never orient, themselves in the new world, and are despised as “greenhorns” by'their children, who run wild in the sheets, join juvenile gangs, and grow up to furnish far more than their proper quota to the underworld population, both within prison and without.