| Show politicians and high police officials blamed for existence of this menace to the Count rys chief city PUBLIC ALSO indifferent TO CRIME AND CRIMINALS effort to break up the more power ful organizations have resulted in the formation of smaller bodies just as menacing writer sees possible good in the boy scout movement lawless youngsters mostly american born and come from the tenement districts YORK rival gangsters fought NEW a revolver battle from automobiles on primary day september 16 in broad sunlight at the corner of sixty filth street and broadway just as the matinee crowds were pouring out ot the theaters the police managed to get tour ot the combatants and the car which they had used in the shoot ing affray was found to contain lists ot voters in six election districts systematically arranged to enable repeating it was the gang in the service ot the politician just as in the rosenthal murder the gang had been in the service ot a high police official the gang serves those who pay it or can protect it against the law for 6 it will detail a kid to black a mans eyes tor 60 you can have a man Bt abbed and doing the big job will cost you more than or 1000 it you are properly couched vouched tor to the gang leader by some one with a big pull the man with the rf big pull Is al ways a politician or a gambler writes henry N hall in the sunday new york world the politicians alliance with the gangster Is as close today it not as open as when a district leader on the eve ot an important election gave an interview to newspaper men with one toot on a box from which bia lieutenants were distributing lead loaded black jacks to the boys tor use the next day or when a pollyl cal leader now one ot new yorks most distinguished representatives in the congress 0 the united states went over to new jersey to testify un fler oath that monk eastman was a reputable business man and an otherwise desirable citizen difficult problem there Is no more difficult problem in american civic life today than the elimination of the gang there are three reasons tor this the first Is that the american public Is indifferent to crime there Is no place in the world where the man in the street who goes about his own business and keeps ot the underworld Is as sate in his person as he Is here and the result Is that unless he himself or bomse one he kiowa personally Is the victim ot a arme he reads about these things in the paper with an interested complacency not unlike the feelings he derives from a thrilling moving picture bhoj gangs gangsters black hand crimes and bomb outrages are accept ed as among the things incidental to life in a big city and it Is impossible to ahouee anything like public indignation over their presence the second reason Is that the inter ests to which the gangs are useful the politicians the gamblers and those who grow rich in the underworld are oo 00 powerful that they are able to pro hect those who are of service to them it Is only in exceptional cases when public feeling Is outraged by some the politicians alliance with the gangster Is as close today as when a political leader went over to new jersey to testify under oath that monk eastman was a reputable business man wanton defiance ot law some very spectacular and serious crime that from above falls to secure the third reason Is that however effectively you may break up a gang its members will always ally them belvea with other gangsters and reform other associations breaking up a powerful gang is followed too often f rf i it i by the appearance of three or tour smaller nd rival it ls only scattering the trouble catching the gangster young there la only one way to put down gangs in a city like new york and that la to cut off their supply of re emits the gangster has to be caught young there la no gang in new york today which willingly adds grown men to its ranks the new recruits all streets I 1 have come up from the talked with a number of gangsters and there Is such a surprising unanimity about their boyhood days that it is not impossible to picture the of the gorilla watch almost any gang of small boys playing in the streets of the ten ement districts they always have a leader it matters not what they are doing or to what mischief they are up there Is always one who Is braver stronger more resourceful than the rest he will grow into a man of action he will make a success of life it his home influences and early unities give him a fair chance but it he goes wrong he Is the material of which the gangster ie made it Is so easy tor him to go wrong As he gets older he may commit some little breach of the law that other boys will take pride in as a proof of his daring the corner ea loon keeper patronizes him and marshals him with others of his kind he gets his introduction into the underworld and meets real gangsters upon whom the women of the streets fawn and who hod knowingly to the cop on the corner if he stumbles into a scrape the saloonkeeper or one of his newly acquired friends will appeal to bome ward politician for ball lawyers and the necessary pull to get him out of trouble theft he sticks to his friends and has won another recruit irrepressible conflict all this Is perfectly well known to the churches the settlement workers and all the reformers and many and strange are the ways of those who would lead youth in the paths of right there Is going on all the time in this as in every other great city a constant tussle between the forces of good and the forces of ehll both are reaching down into the struggling mass of human ity seeking tor new recruits A great deal of perfectly good energy has been wasted in trying to get real live boys to spend their sunday real gangsters whom the women of the streets fawn and who nod knowingly to the cop on the corner afternoons in summer attending bible classes when they wanted to play ball in the corner lot that is just an in to the daring boy to play tru ant and as the rest of de gang who lack the initiative to grow up into anything but law abiding citizens any how are not there to play with him he goes off and gets into mischief field for boy scouts only one organization really seems to be properly equipped tor attracting to itself the boys who but for its exist ence would grow up to be gangsters and that is the boy scouts it is just the kind of thing that appeal to high spirited boys and it Is doing a most wonderful work in making them into manly youths who will grow up to be good and useful citizens there is a striking sameness about the gangsters unwritten code and the laws of the scouts thou ahalt not squeal Is the first law of the gangster the gangsters honor Is to be trusted in the first law of the boy scouts is A scout s honor Is to be trusted it he breaks his honor by telling a lie be ceases to be a scout it the gangster squeals the penalty Is death next to not squealing the law of the gang la that its members shall be hunky A scout a second law Is loyalty to his country and his friends he must stick to them through thick and thin against anyone who Is their enemy and so on A scout must be brave and daring and must obey or ders without question and he must never sulk all of which things are expected of the gangster mostly american boorn A large majority of the gangsters are american born mostly of irish or italian descent the young jew does not make good gang material or rath er what gangs there are in or of the hetto differ from the real gunmen the young jew who goes wrong be comes a thief a dip or pickpocket or else be gambles generally with more or lees success in which case he hires gangsters to protect his prof its here and there on the lower east side a gang of young jews will get up a fake lottery and sell their worthless to the small who know that refusal to come across with the 50 cents demanded would lead to ft atone being pitched through their store window at night or some wantona damage being done to their goods it la a cheap form 0 blackmail leader who play safe there are meyeral gangs in new york with a membership 0 more athani a thousand thoua and but more and more thea ceif at the head of them keep their hands tree of actual crime the lead er la the man with brains and money and above all with the confidence of the politician who has enough influence to smooth out the serious troubles into which bis followers may fall in case of a murder or killing it la the general rule tor the actual mur derer to be safely hidden away while the arrest la brought about of some other member of the gang who on trial will be able to put in a perfect he will attend to that when he gets out defense or who will have to be released by the police for lack of evl dence although it is literally true that there are in new york today dozens of gangs and thousands of gangsters the great majority are without real stand ing in the underworld at a conserva alve estimate there are however from twenty to twenty five recognized gangs with a membership in excess of men from which politicians and gamblers and others requiring their services can get thugs repeaters and strong arm men tor any purpose from carrying an election or breaking a strike to securing the commission of crime against the persons or property of citizens settle their own disputes recognizes this state ot outlawry and it always settles its own disputes the recognized forces of law and order the police are never called upon to listen to its complaints it a gangster falls in any feud it be has been shot or stabbed he never gives the name of his assailant he will attend to that when he gets out it he dies he knows that his friends will avenge ahlm and often in new york hospitals when the police have vainly tried to get a wounded ang ster to squeal some member or his gang will call at the hospital bend over the little white cot and only a tightening of his jaw tells the policemen on guard that the visitor has learned tse name of the man who Is to pay for the gangsters death |
