A RACKETEER RRACS
A RACKETEER RRACS Fromer Strikebreaker, Now High in Democratic Councils, Paints Picture of Underworld in Pretty Colors I fjMvm ' *m ' 7<V fatlmfrmmf it tkt 0UI el mm wOmntm ky m mtmirr>»f J hi...
...A k>t ef fellows think I'm a mil Bonaire...
...It cost me s thousand casta to get the designation and nearly two thousand to win in a primary fight Then I had to pay a hundred dollars dues, end the secretary forgot to notify me when the committee met and my term expired be...
...Since then he has taken on a new line, reel' estate and insurance, and I hear he's doing well at It I spent so much time telling about Paul Just to prove my point that even the toughest and the meanest of the gangsters soften up if you give them a break...
...We're Americana, even if we're not 100 per cent Our mam trouble isn't that we're rack, eteers, but that we're not organised enough...
...If the speakeasies could be licensed nke*th< lawyers and if we made It as tough foi a fellow to get into the liquor racket at it is to get into the law racket the speakeasy boys wouldn't be kicking ovei the traces so often...
...He organized the scow trimmer* and the garbage collectors and the bod carriers and got them higher wages...
...I had just come out ef the Navy, and a fellow met me one day aad offered me six dollars a day if Td he an Iron worker's helper 'That looked like big money to me end I grabbed the Job...
...It can only continue the desolation of labor and increase the blindness and depravity of the privileged.—Professor G. D. Herron...
...There's no place for us in the legal rackets, so we organize illegal ones...
...It's all a matter of organization n the fellows that run this country coulC get together and give everybody a place in a legal racket like law or the church or the police department there wouldn't be any illegal rackets...
...The game has got a bad name Just because of a few bums...
...I didn't know what the word meant, but I got sore anyway and I knocked him fist Then the strike was settled and I went to work busting up another strike...
...I straightened Bast aw by nihtliaisa...
...Sometimes I have to spend so much time in Magistrate's Court that I don't get any time to attend to my own business...
...1 don't think any more of prohibition than you do," he said...
...Nothing was too low for him...
...But one day Big Tim SuUivan got hold of Paul K-and showed him how he could make a few dollars respectably...
...Ideals are has the stars: you win not succeed in touching them with your hands, but hke the sea-faring man on the desert of waters, If you choose them as your guides, aad follow them, you reach your destiny...
...of coarse, to get the idea that all racketeers are like me...
...Someone took out a bottle and we an had a drink, all but Paul...
...favor t, Bit Busineta I've been an organization man in politics more than 20 years, bat I've never yet asked say one for a favor for myself...
...Then he became a vice-president When the war came, he helped his country by organizing the Loyal Labor Legion aad he spent a lot of good money publishing a msgaaine called Uncle Bam...
...Yea can't expect people to be treated like cattle aad to behave She gmllcmis Bat a lot ef youngsters I know ha rackets are pretty bright Give them half a chance aad they learn to wear a tax aa good aa any fellow from Harvard...
...real mosey la It say more...
...Then Paul got feeling sorry for the poor Italian people...
...be even played stool-pigeon to the police to get rid of his rivals...
...Paul K-might have become chairman of the U. 8. Shipping Board if it were not for a dirty trick his enemies played on him at the Galveston convention of the International Longshoremen's Union...
...Keir Bardie...
...I gave them money to t imish their places end to pay the first r'.nth* rent If they get into trouble, 1 take care of them...
...But raa natify atone broke, sad I raa sac of the hnhhsl crap shooters la my crowd Bat I other t that s fellow who makes tt has got to spend it...
...I suppose because I said that I'm in politics, a lot of people will get the ides that politics helps me make money...
...I spend my aaeney...
...and raw I free these a, sastaess fifty fifty Bat there tart an...
...Then be made a proposition to the men...
...Then I found out that there was s strike...
...the rea-soa la that I'm fat polities aad It wouldn't he fair to my party sad my friends to came right out with It aad embarrass them...
...He had most of the delegates with him...
...in fact...
...Paul KPaul K- used to be one of the worst double-crossing rats hi the business...
...Things looked fine for Paul...
...He offered to get them all the money they wanted If they would give him $25,000 a year...
...A fellow came up to me one day and told me I was a scab...
...I suppose everybody has beard the story of my good friend...
...He cut out all the Bowery nonsense and settled down to real work...
...But I didn't care because six dollars a day looked big money...
...We don't believe in revolutions and bloodshed Just for the fun of It Only we do believe hi bending a law a bit now and then when it stands in our way and there's no other way for us to take...
...It it fmUuked ken betmmte at «Wf hakt mm lie mrmumm mem-mti mf rmekeleermm emd eitlmmt tke 4mm-mrtomt f<tmi #/ nm ef the f+ktuum anil mmdermirU ttmutitumi 1 % AXOKYaKH'K TV to be hard aad snslsraa Ifhr the way asoat people are...
...He learned to play the traps and opened a cafe on West 38th street so he could get a Job m the orchestra Finally the union had to take him in as a member...
...They said be bad to play an instrument and work as a musician before be could join...
...1 do all my drinking at home" That's what a few good breaks did for the most vicious gangster the Bowery ever saw...
...around only because there'] nothing else for them to do...
...Paul was running for president against T. V. O'Connor...
...O'Connor was elected and soon after was made chairman of the U. 8. Shipping Board...
...The bast way to prevent war is not to prepare to make war, but to prepare to make war impossible...
...He Joined the Longshorerens Union and soon became a business agent...
...The only reason I'm la politics is because there's a chance to do a fellow a favor...
...But the fellow...
...My own tastes are simple, but I know racketeers who hay mageitnes sad ga to musical canastas It's when yea dost give the young fellow a chance that they gat fresh and tough That -human nature, and everybody knows yon can't change human nature ras a Tough Egg When I first got into the labor game 29 years age, I guess I looked like s pretty tough egg myself...
...They're all my friend* aad they work their beads off for the organisation before election day...
...peace ha she uiiilirnsild...
...I suppose that doesn't give you a very romantic or interesting picture of myself...
...The International Longshoremen's Union couldn't break the strike, but Paul stepped in and did it on bis own...
...don't drink it myself and don't believe any one else should I've set 34 bright young fellows op id business...
...Few stiasmali boycott could rota the steong-eat of them...
...Too often the convulsions of the oppressed and suffering are replied to only with bayonets But bayonets can restore only peace due to terror and violence imposed by despotism...
...The iawyer has a racket because he gets a license and no one can be a lawyer if he doesn't have a license...
...Well, writing isn't my racket...
...It's the same way with rash Mists** Only there's so law to give racketeer lie mere It's the most overcrowded toad I get the ponce and the iiitasMlhii agents to drive eat my nsaafsMUse i aay ssstrict For a utile while, it fax**, like I weatd save sense tueMi, hecnaa the Jersey sad the Brooklyn beer ran only from thorn...
...To live straighforwardly by your labor is to be at.peace with the world To live on the labor of others Is not only to render your life false at home, but it la to encroach upon those around you, to incite resistance and hostility-Edward Carpenter...
...Mire-beau...
...Paul Didn't Cry Anyhow, Paul didn't spend much time crying over splH milk...
...Officially, my bnatnana is being • labor employment agent...
...fore I could attend a single meeting...
...I don't want you...
...If they Issue too many licenses for lawyers, the business get bad and some lawyers become crooked...
...Carl Schurx...
...The point rat trying to make bow Is that I wnilnh't be writing thai article...
...He didn't even get sore...
...But If the business were organized better, there would not be any crooked lawyers...
...We're like most of the conservative, God-fearing people of this country...
...We break only one law, while the radicals wants to break all the laws We don't believe in breaking any more laws than you have to break...
...They cant aB afford to be, because ¦onetimes it's pretty hard sledding for them...
...paper about racketeering Well I don't mind helping out The ynaag fellow who naked me to write that article wanted to know if he eoald have my picture, too...
...that I'm writing thai article...
...But if a fellow wants to help out his organisation he's got to do things like that But have you ever heard of a lawyer, or doctor or minister or merchant who puts ao much Into politics and takes nothing out for himself...
...Then be tried to put the musicians of New York on their feet He could have done it, too, if they had played fair with him First of all, they said he had to become a member before he could be an officer of their union...
...We're too esno-tieaaL aad an we jet keto trouble If an were xeore business-like, we nwald-art here a» assay shorting...
...But that didn't phase Paul...
...He west hack to New York and found that the I. W. W. had tied up ail the docks...
...Everybody, of course, know* I'm s racketeer But knowing It aad hearing It from my owa hps are two different things...
...I know that racketeers break laws and get into trouble...
...that is, I bold mortgages on 34 speakeasies and I sell them beer...
...It's cost me thousands...
...Id racketeer has has own religion aad its •rat commaadnwat Is, "Never refuse to adp a fellow earn me bread aad hotter...
...A young fellow comes up to ate sad says that he has to get aa article for a Social...
...Paul right then and there, became a different man...
...Paul withdrew...
...rlosant'f ¦ esaoUca, sat bojsae** The racketeer, tt he only esesd keep kde head, has a ¦acre ponsffs* weapaa data vloasac...
...it's wiling beer...
...1 did, though, lead a parade once when Governor Roosevelt came to my town, and I guess I'm not sorry I spent s little money...
...That's where they'd be all wet I never made a penny out of politics...
...But they wouldn't take him in...
...But nobody can remain smiling if he finds that he's playing against loaded dice...
...I was a member of the Democratic state committee once...
...To get Ub Jersey aad the Brooklyn gangs quset, agreed to pay M per east more for at] . The speakeasy bushteas la so over crowded la New York that very few a the bnoHi||»i* are making say money If it were not for side lines, like gam Ming and women, a lot of them wouk he closing down...
...I met Paul at a ball a few years ago...
...But Paul took things easy now...
...Everything would have worked out fine, but the members became suspicious and put him out If any one had crossed Paul like that in the early Bowery days, there would have been some tall shooting...
...All my influence I use for the boys in my district...
...There's no room, even In the illegal rackets, for all the people that are crowded out of the legal rackets That's why some racketeers bit below the, belt Just like lawyers become shysters...
...He Just issued a statement saying that from now on be would waste no more time on the musicians but would devote himself entirely to the scow trimmers and hod carriers...
...The note said, "If you ever wadt to see me alive again, you must withdraw as a candidate...
...They're radicals...
...Paul's brother waa kidnaped Paul got a note from his brother at his hotel...
...hat I give to Protestant aad Jewish churches as wen aa to my owa...
...they are dragged Into It-J...
...But there are bad ones In everything Racketeering is Just getting things organised...
...That's because* they see as* spessV aag money aB the tans...
...It coat s pretty penny, end I think Paul did it out of patriotism more than out of business...
...He was talking to Congressman X and when he spotted me, he called me over aad Introduced me...
...for knife...
...But on the dsy before the balloting...
...My atfs has her awn car, I gat a boy who's a lanyes aad a danghter at Yasser...
...Public Doesn't I'ndertland ™ There's a lot the public doesn't understand about racketeering...
...takmg kids frees sins an asitsmi to the ¦arias and la tli casus, I an a Calhohr myself...
...As it is, moot of Um bootleggers are getting by on credit am are ifcefchig...
...Bat of that—later...
...His brother was freed...
...If business is bad, I give them more credit...
...We racketeers aren't radicals...
...I don't touch the bard stuff...
...Bat teat's Jast way raa net ricks...
...That's s utile too much Ton see, I can't afford to admit that I'm a racketeer...
...I got a chain of 84 speakeasies...
...He wouldn't and we couldn't kid him Into taking one...
...The common people do not want to enter Into war...
...Give the racketeer time, and bell be O. K. The system that divides society into classes can bring forth no true knowledge, no living truth, no industrial competence, no- fundamental social decency...
...that run the country have fallen down on the Job...
...That's why there are Bolsheviks and anarchists and Socialism and I. W. Wj and college professors They want to destroy all the law*, just because the laws don't give them the breaks...
...Just by getting bums from the Bowery to go around to the different polling places on election dsy and vote for the organisation...
...But we can't starve, either...
...A RACKETEER RRACS Fromer Strikebreaker, Now High in Democratic Councils, Paints Picture of Underworld in Pretty Colors I fjMvm ' *m ' 7<V fatlmfrmmf it tkt 0UI el mm wOmntm ky m mtmirr>»f J hi Srm Leader gtmi mrnth e frt-mmrmt tih Uttmu *i Sent Yt*t...
...That was the first chance I bad, but I guess it's a better chance than s lot of fellows get Being a racketeer is nothing more than trying to get along In the world...
...But a laws a law...
Vol. 13 • June 1932 • No. 35
