BEHIND THE ROTHSTEIN MURDER
BEHIND THE ROTHSTEIN MURDER Unparalleled Story of Police Corruption Being Covered Uo LADIES and gentlemen; meet the Tammany Hall Police Department. To the last man, intelligent, hard-boiled,...
...fr*« nigh time the decent people of New York tutted the Police Department a fete questions...
...There are plenty of people in New York today who believe that "Becker's execution was a tragedy of politics and police graft in New York Gty...
...We should like to see the advocates of non-partisan political action get it through Congress unemasculated...
...The needle trades y*e gone through a harrowing experience and are hav*t difficulty in maintaining present standards...
...IF THERE WAS ANY FIXING TO BE DONE IN WHICH THE SERVICES OR THE ABSENCE OF THE SERVICES OF THE POLICE WERE REQUIRED, ROTHSTEIN, IT IS SAID, WAS THE MAN WHO COULD DO IT...
...Ship's crews risked their Uvea in the turbulent waves to poll others from the waters...
...So long as labor does not have its own political party, the trade unions must choose between the representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties...
...It Is believed now that a door in the coal bunkers was not closing property aad enough water waa shipped to cause the bagtoalag of the trouble...
...Bnt the ship listed aad cabins ware fined with water hours,boA Jt boats over the side...
...Ever since he formation of the Union Labor Life Insurance Company with its reliance upon group insurance the A. F. of L. Executive Council has been studying, investigating and meditating over old age pensions...
...The first to be organized was the Union Cooperative Insurance Association run by the Electrical Workers...
...Bat when a high-toned gambler is murdered in the lent of the new Tenderloin—well, that's a different sutler...
...As for old age pensions, the situation is a disgrace to organized labor...
...So you see,.what with all the politicians for whom he had done favors and the gamblers and the rich "fancy men" and the wealthy "snow-snifters" and the rest, h just doesn't pay to be too hot about finding out who shot Arnold Rothstein with that neat little detective model pistol that a thoughtless taxi-driver picked np on Seventh Avenue, the night of the shooting, and handed over to the police...
...He would very much like to ask them some questions, he says...
...Now comes the "American Federationist," the official organ of the A. F. of L», and announces a new theory...
...Labor banks, insurance and workers' education are the chief developments...
...The big insurance companies, however, do not worry...
...Why did the skipper, Captain William J. Carey, fall to call for help until It was too late to save scores of Uvea...
...Individual labor laders will support one or the other because, of their allegiance to local political machines, hope of personal gain, or perhaps as a matter of principle...
...HE DID IT EXCEEDINGLY WELL, ACCORDING TO REPORTS, IN THE COMMUNIST-RIGHT WING IMBROGLIO IN THE NEEDLE TRADES UNION TWO YEARS AGO...
...The "racket" is generally supposed to be a Chicago institution...
...There are two companies in the field...
...Great companies neglect to invest a few dollars hoping that It wont matter...
...They were not disappointed In other human beings, who gave their lives to save persons who were strangers to them, but their trust In the great steamship company was misplaced...
...Insurance and Education—Backward Steps When we turn to the auxiliary organizations we see a sorry spectacle...
...They never got the real criminals hi that case...
...The employers have had little need to ride rough shod over their workers for resistance by wage earners has been feeble...
...If the real facts about the Rothstein murder ever come out, they will rip the town wide open and make the Rosenthal murder seem like child's play...
...Tell you his name...
...Joseph Pollard, another Barbadoea Negro, found himself ha a lifeboat with 64 other men who knew nothing of navigation...
...Was the good name of the line—which means dollars In profits—more important than Uvea...
...The negUgence of the company is an object lesson tat what business means...
...That magnificent organization, the United Nine Workers of America, which for years has been a *«wAay of the A. F. of L. is merely a hulk of its for¦** adf, though in its reports to the A. F. of L. it has ••en claiming its old membership...
...East Side, West Side, all around the town are wellcreased, quiet-spoken young men who seem to know a lot more about the man behind the gun that finished Rothslein's flashy career than the entire police department from "harness bulls", through plainclothesmen dear up to the fat Inspectors...
...Dollars come first...
...Well, he was a big racketeer...
...But then the human animal, who la supposed to be selfish a d greedy and to have no incentive but the hope of gain, thinks first of human life and nothing at all of dollar* or even medals...
...The •*eatshop has taken on new life...
...Never in the forty-seven years of its exigence has the A. F. of L. faced such a crisis as confronts it today...
...Then, as if that was not enough, the Union Labor Life Insurance Company, backed np by the A. F. of L., was founded...
...W. presented...
...Organised labor instead of marching forward to storm the ramparts of capitalism is groveling in the dust...
...A complement of lifeboats in condition would have r>-veil the Uvea of everyone...
...Economically, politically and socially it is making noheadway* Progressives in the trade unions are letting 'the battle go by default...
...The moment the word waa Sashed through the air that Uvea were la danger all thought of profit was set aside aad great ships raced to be there first...
...It has practically committed itself to the narrow confines of adult education, looking with disfavor upon any schooling that is based upon class consciousness...
...And then there was the fixing of baseball game* and dealing with dope-fiends and various other practices arising out of this advanced capitalist civilization •f ours...
...But the ship Is lost and the Uvea are lost...
...They cut no figure in the world of businessThere have been some failures...
...Even the heroic struggle * Kenosha, Wisconsin, is but a symbol of the diffi*Hies which face the American Federation of Full fashioned Hosiery Workers with the expansion of its ¦dnstry...
...It can not rival their enormous business and it is the most effective protection against social Insurance that they know...
...Socialism u4U go forward together...
...And what is the logical outcome of non-partisanship but neutrality accompanied by the submission of the platforms of the old parties for study by those who care to read the record in the form prepared by the A. F. of L. The Feeble Legislative Battle In the field of legislation the A. F. of L has been committed to two major propositions: limitation of the use of inunctions in industrial disputes and old age pension laws...
...HE AND THE POLICE DEPARTMENT NEED TO BE INVESTIGATED THEMSELVES...
...Great battleships, hwllt for destruction, tied with merchant ships to be there first...
...Mayor Walker has as much right to investigate the Rothstein killing and the part played in it by the police department as the Kaiser would have to render an impartial verdict on who caused the World War...
...As this is being written ten days after the fatal shootjaf of Rothstein following a conference of gamblers d the Park Central Hotel, the police have been holding "conferences", acting mysteriously, posting guards at the Rothstein offices at 45 West Fifty-seventh Street...
...The wine of idealism must intoxicate the fighters...
...Who was Rothstein anyway that police inspectors, captains and sergeants are suddenly stricken dumb and impotent at the mention of his dreaded name...
...What we need is renewed activity by idealists, men and women who are willing tm start the fight again...
...The heroism of all human beings connected with the rescue la n forecast of what human beings would like to be...
...His biggest racket was gambling, of course...
...Everywhere workers are clamoring for overtime...
...On The Political Field—Impotency On the political field the A. F. of L. can no longer pretend to be a factor in national politics...
...The metal ¦jpea have not born • serious contender for power in their open shop industry for many years...
...There waa no complaint that the ships had gone out of their way for days to save the Uvea of strangers...
...But the moment the mortal blow was struck at the ship the hui mIsih hi man came to the front...
...Worst of all, it has tried to turn the little workers' ed> ucation there is into channels dangerous to the labor movement...
...No one counted the rest If a single life had been saved and It had oast mlUlons la coal and deferred profits from trade no one would have cared...
...The new conception of workers' education means that only orthodoxy as interpreted by the Administration of the A. F. of L. shall be taught in workers' classes...
...It will be empty boasting...
...Business is cruel, heartless and brutal...
...At best can they bo distinguished from any other bank owned by private capital...
...No doubt the Executive Council will sing its own praises for maintaining the traditional non-partisan policy...
...The men back of the Rothstein affair are much higher up even than they were...
...LABOR MOVEMENT FACES THE CROSSROADS Present Policies Point the Road to Eventual Extinction THE convening of the American Federation of Labor on November 19 at New Orleans calls attention to the precarious status of organized labor in the United States today...
...That's what always happens when labor plays ball with the old-line politicians and is nowadays aa much taken for granted as the "framing" of insurgents by conservatives or the bribing of foremen, or the beating up of members of rival factions within the union...
...Trade unionism anal...
...Negro, dived into the wreckage again aad again, ptilltag out sixteen- people...
...In fact this is what Harry H. Klein, New York attorney says hi so many words in his fascinating book, "Sacrificed, The Story of Police Lieu tenand Becker...
...The balm of company unions and welfare work bas taken care of most of the dissatisfaction that has showed itself...
...The Workers* Education Bureau, which is practically the Educational Department of the A. F. of L. has been languishing...
...VP UNTIL A SHORT TIME BEFORE HIS KILLING ROTHSTEIN WAS KNOWN THROUGHOUT THE CITY AS "THE BUSINESS BROKER FO» THE WEST 30TH STREET POLICE STATION...
...Re-valuation and reorganization are in order...
...More than one passenger says that If he had act gone down he would have had to face serious questions as to the reason he put to sea with leaky lifeboats aad defects hi hn ship...
...His "legitimate" racket was real-estate, which means that he owned a number of apartments and small hotels in the Forties and Fifties where you ring certain bells and are admitted to certain apartments at the showing of certain cards and are then at liberty to make what research you want into what President-elect Hoover calls "the noble experiment of Prohibition...
...It forbade injunctions to prevent damage to intangible property and roused the fury of lawyers who were interested in patents, copyrights, "good will" and the like...
...Commissioner Warren issues statements which a few minutes later are contradicted by District Attorney Banton...
...The A. F. of L. was fortunately committed to old age pensions many years ago or a reversal of policy at this late date would not be unthinkable...
...And now Mayor Walker enters the picture...
...AT THAT TIME, IT APPEARS, HE HAPPENED TO BE SERVING THE COMMUNISTS...
...It would probably not change the present analysis in any essentials...
...Today we have comparative plenty, employers and labor leaders preach cooperation and even if we give consideration to the upstart Communist dual anions, there is none of the danger to the American Federation of Labor that the Knights of Labor or the L w...
...After every crook, gunman or police official who might have had anything to do with the case has had almost two weeks time in which to cover-up and get away, the Mayor thinks it is time for him to act...
...He ought to know by Ibis time...
...He had been a antler aad he teak command of the craft, saving all their Uvea...
...Was he afraid to expose the Lamport and Holt Line to the criticism that Its ships were not safe to send passengers aad cargoes...
...From the stories of survivors every one of the lifeboats was leaky...
...Boat after boat slowly filled with water as refugees balled and balled...
...Everywhere there is speeding up...
...At the time of writing, the report of the Executive Cornell of the A. F. of L. is not yet available...
...Only this Rothstein got his goat, with his four-flushing and be got mad and plugged him...
...The American labor movement may be considered •nder three heads: (1) its industrial aspects, (2) its political phase, and (3) its auxiliary organizations...
...There is not the spirit of old to fight the one or the idealism and intelligence of former years to dodge the other...
...And what of labor insurance...
...In fact, they encouage labor insurance...
...All of which put Rothstein on the same social standing as a successful stock-broker or permitted him to move within the inner circles of polite New York society so that Mayor Walker was proud to claim bis friendship...
...Therefore, workers' education should be controlled by trade unions...
...When the Lamport and Holt liner Veetris went down la a boding sea off the Virginia Capes on Monday It carried with It nearly 120 human Uvea, Men and women prayed to their God aad hoped for the safety that the law provided, should be at their disposal, and they counted upon the unselfishness of ether men...
...And then there wera side-lines...
...Bat they haven't been making any arrests...
...So corrupt have certain elements in the labor movement of New York become that Rothstein made fat pickings out of "fixing" strikes...
...WALKER HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO...
...The break-down of non-partisan politics was inevitable for practical and logical reasons...
...Did the mighty Lamport and Holt line, one of the leading steamship lines in the world, choose to bet the lives of passengers against th possibility of aa accident...
...And then watch them go to work on the killing of , racketeer like Arnold Rothstein...
...On The Economic Field—Retrogression The economic wing of the American labor movement consists of the trade unions themselves...
...all we wanted was to get them people In," said the sailor...
...Now they compete with one another...
...WHAT SPELL DOES THE GHOSTLY PRESENCE OF THE DEAD GAMBLER CAST UPON OUR PAD3 POLICE THAT THEY ARE SO OBVIOUSLY AFRAID TO MAKE ANY IMPORTANT ARRESTS IN THIS CASE...
...To the last man, intelligent, hard-boiled, courageg0 when it comes to hustling pickets, push-cart pedfget, poor pickpockets...
...HIS JOB IS NOT TO INVESTIGATE...
...The vision of a world from from capitalist exploitation is the wine...
...They are still puny...
...He was a sacrifice for both...
...Five weeks before he was bumped off he was in a game where a turn of the cards involved hundreds of thousands of dollars...
...It is plain to see that this is aimed at Brookwood Labor College which has refused to hand down official dogma to its students, and which, while it is controlled by labor officials, has fought shy of domination by the A. F. of L. as such...
...N'sw...
...That's all a part of the famous non-partisan tactics of "rewarding your friends and punishing your enemies...
...The American labor movement is at the1 cross-roads...
...Bnt long before the official name came out of Cook County's gang-land, Arnold Rothstein was racketeering all over the side-walks of New York...
...When there is apathy there should be evangelical seal, missionary fervor...
...AT OTHER TIMES, ROTHSTEIN WOULD WORK FOR OTHERS...
...In textiles we wit¦** the evaporation of the Passaic organization, the ¦"•ausfactory settlement in New Bedford and the unS»py refusal of the Associated Silk Workers of Pat"*•«« to affiliate with the A. F. of L. union, the United fertile Workers of America...
...Utterance wiU be given to the higher philosophy of trade unionism in terms of voluntary association, productivity and cooperation...
...His life had been courageous, aad his death noble...
...We hear also that the Willimantic strikers, after ¦•fe than three brave years on the picket line, have ***** unable to bring their struggle to a successful con¦ohm...
...Say, call up the Commissioner...
...It declared its neutrality as between Hoover and Smith and, hence, can not even claim that it delivered the labor vote to one or the other of the capitalistic candidates...
...H the A. F. of L. were really anxious about old age pensions and other elements in an adequate system of social legislation, it would not even give the verbal allegiance to non-partisan politics that it still does today...
...There was a time when the labor movement was a religion...
...You should get a medal," a reporter told a sailor who risked bis Ufe in a cockle shell life boat...
...MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS ANOTHER dreadful disaster of the sea baa given another ghastly example of cupidity and greed of great organizations of business, and another shining example of heroism and nasal ushness...
...But that was the "innocent front...
...Who dares say that In a decent society, where greed and cupidity does not get the greatest rewards, human being* will fall to act like decent people...
...When, therefore, we get union officials who would rather bolt the A. F. of L. with their unions than see Hoover or Smith endorsed, the non-partisan policy comes to a miserable end...
...Captain Carey waa true to the traditions of the sea, and be went down with his ship...
...A reawakening is coming...
...Are "We any gains to which one can point with genuine •Mwfaction...
...It wants to surrender cultural education to the conventional schools, while workers' education will devote itself to those things which will make the worker more effective hi the trade unions...
...The report will no doubt breathe a spirit of complacency...
...In 1912 on the North side of Forty-third Street just off Broadway a gambler named Herman Reseatthai was called out of a restaurant on the early morning of July 16th and shot to death by some young meat who rode away in a car...
...What has happened to the labor banks that were going to capture the financal system of the country...
...There have been business depressions, employers' offensives and rival unions but through these difficulties organized labor has been able to pass by •beer vitality...
...A new iron door In the coal compsu-tements would have saved the ship...
...The building trades' unions prospered with ¦*• boom, and while they have not yet had any sersetbacks, they admit they can expect no further !*in«- The railroad workers both in and outside of the J* F of L. have expressed their dissatisfaction with |» workings of the Watson-Parker law...
...It is safe to say that it will continue to do so until the workers in no uncertain terms demand a showdown...
...Which means that he went to the police for whom he acted as "business agent" and told them to lay off his group of pickets or lay on that...
...A e"refal survey shows the economic, the political and *ke auxiliary programs of the A. F. of L. in sharp dedines...
...And when ud if they do, there isn't an informed newspaperman tr politician in all New York who won't bet you that the man they finally accuse of the murder is any more than some minor crook, "framed" by the proverbial itool-pigeon...
...The police handling of the Rothstein ease has been aa complete a piece of bungling and ineffectiveness as has ever disgraced New York city's "finest...
...Watch these bully-boys bust hell out of a radical Meeting* frame a prostitute who hasn't come across, rWgt».hoage a delinquent Third Avenue speakeasy...
...Passengers and crew of rescue ships bagged the survivors to accept clothing, staterooms, food and money...
...Indeed, If It were not for criminal negligence the ship need not have been In distress at aJL Sunday evening the ship was Hating badly...
...Late as nsnal...
...He was a decent enough chap," said one of these decant young men standing in front of a hotel in the Forties, "he'd never been in any shootings before...
...How have they helped labor...
...Every passenger who has told his story reports that feet were wet all the time because of the leaky boats...
...For his murder Charles Becker, a police lieutenaatt and four doped boys were electrocuted...
...Why were the boats not kept-in proper shape...
...The expenditure of a few dollars, a careful Inspection1 of the ship, and the door's peculiarity would have been discovered and corrected, and the Vestrle would now be on bar way toward Barbadoes aad South America...
...He announces through the press that he wishes certain gangleaders would come and see him...
...Imporant too is workers' education...
...The Senate sub-committee finally emerged with a biU that had some sense...
...Bread and butter will not win the battle...
...Clara O. Ban, a stewardess, had keen la taw water 2* hours bouyed np eeuy by a life belt, aad when rescuer* came she begged that passengers floating with her he rescued first...
...Bat why did be not send for help in tune to be saved himself...
...The "new Tammany" that will be asking for our votes next year seems to have expanded in a number of directions—no less among them than in the gentle art of hiding np murder...
...In the last session of Congress a silly anti-injunction bill was introduced which was worthy of the dentist who sponsored it...
...According to survivors of the disaster every single Hie could have been saved If the lifeboats had been lowered on time...
...The campaign to organize the automobile factories, even with temporary concessions to industrial unionism, never really got Under way...
...Uvea are pawns In the gamble for profits...
Vol. 7 • November 1928 • No. 48
