THE HONGKONG TE LEGRAPH, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1936,
DEWAR'S "White Labels
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Stubbs Rd.
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The
Hongkong Telegraph.
MONDAY, FEB. 17, 1936.
HELPING BRITISH
AGRICULTURE
on
Lo
IN BONDAGE
To The
AT LUNCHEON recently the
conversation turned, as it
brought were
The
the
up.
80 frequently seems to in America these days, to the topic of Jaw
enforcement. dificulties of combating racketeer One of the members of the party, an automobile executive. just returned from the Pacific Const, had entertained his dis tributors in San Francisco. Just before dinner he went into the dining-roum that everything was in oriler.
to see
Suddenly, across the dining- room came toward him a man who might have slepped direct- ly from the set of some gangster film in Hollywood.
BY ROLAND KILBON
In the London "Morning Post"
RACKETEERS
About RİX feet tall, well dressed, be Wore! bowler slightly tilted. A cigar pro- truded at a militant angle from one corner of his mouth. Hard; eyes looked threateningly from
America's Billion Dollar
Tribute to the Underworld
in his voice as he said, "Hey, thrown through windows of an I ain't bech fixed up yet." apartment house owned by the
Realty "What do you
Corporation. mean, fixed Trippe
Shopkeepers commonly buy up?" asked the automobile may.
for their windows, protection "Well, you got sine extra, but it was the first such demand waiters here, ain't you?, Ain't this landlord had received and
the head waiter?" asked he was willing to fight, intruder, who, when in- formed he had the wrong per-
you the
and walked off.
The great difficulty in com-
son, remarked, "Aw, skip it bating racketeering lies in the fact that amounts extorted, at least at first, are so small that average individual would sooner pay up than risk trouble.
Attempts to. find out who the visitor was and how he had to
th
of a trade
him to assume the presidency association. With this name as a "front," they olleit other merchants, hold- ing out much advantages as protection from labour troubles, price stabilisation and the benefits of collective buying. If these sales talka are ineffec- tive, there are always such weapons as chemicals thrown over goods, emery powder spilled into genrs of delivery vans, the tyres of which can also be slashed, and similar: sabotage. And finally there are beatings and even murders. The type of trade association described
by Inspector Lyons often has from 300 to 600 mem- bers, with initiation fees any- where from Ave hundred dollars, depending on the size of the business, together with weekly dues of from one to five dollars. The laundry, bakery, dry-cleaning, fish and poultry industries in New York. have been the especial victims of this type of racketeering..
Once the merchants, have
under heavy black brows, but be "fixed up," brought only the If he is a business man, he can beer united, it is the ordinary
there was a touch of complaint,
Consumer.
it on to the that the questioner pass conviction
The labouring man has been Was treading on dangerous ground. He got the distinct finding jobs too scarce to com- NOTES OF THE DAY impression that the interloper plain-risking discharge and represented some organisation possibly a beating against the which levies a tax on waiters, levy made on him by the many racketeers operating as officials and wanted 10 make certain
of Labour Unions ongs of the extra help escaped
workers protective bodies. paying for the right to work.
EMPIRE'S DEFENCE
There is a rfront move, afout in Great Britain to subordinate the three fighting services, Navy, Army
*
ele
That episode, or something and Air Force, to a Ministry oflike it, is being cureted in eve
city, large or medium-sized. throughout the United States every day in the year. In New York City alone, estimates by police officials and competent observers range all the way from millions to five hundred
Defence, this Ministry to be rea ponible for the framing of a gen- including policy, eral defence strategical and tactical questions of equipment and
and matters personnel, Our first, and probably our list reaction to this suggestion. is favourable, It has the mark of practicability: unified control' and centralised responsibility, to bring cali.boration in the movements of all branches of fighting forces, are its aims. The value must be obvious. But for the moment the British Government has delayed its decision. The fact of the matter is that the suggestion came by way of a Private Member's Bill, and Lord Eustace Percy, for the Gog- ernment, asked that judgment of the House be suspended until the Government's owl proposals were known. Presumably. then. the Government-has-some similar surt of scheme in mind. The Empire will be impatient to hear it.
The extension of unemploy
to benefits ment insurance workers employed in Britain's agricultural industry is a step The which is long overdur. industry, it is of interest note, provides employment for abant six per cent, of the gain- fully occupied prople of the ma tion, and it ranks as one of the most important productive in- For dustries of the country. many years past, it has been under a cloud of depression, a fact reflected not only in its financial position, but also in the relatively low standard of, wage in force when compared with Much has other industries.
the way of been done, in Government assistance, latterly with a view to placing domestie farming upon a sound fooling and increasing the production of those commodities which are to the life of the necessary nation. The measures so far taken are largely experimental, and they are not without their defects, but as time goes much will be learned from ex- perience, both in relation to the industry itself and to the effect af the Government measures on the consuming public. It has well been pointed out, as economic truism, that, ideally, industries should be located in those countries and districts where natural advantages en- able production to take place at the lowest cost compatible with quality, Judged from this standard, agriculture in Britain is in no position to stand on its own feet and successfully meet outside competition. This is the main circumstance which lles behind the Government as- sistance plans, for it is also realised that apart from econ- omic considerations there must always be certain industries which are essential to the life
countered in applying totally of the nation. The most desir-
new measures to the industry, able remedy for the depression it is encouraging to know that in British agriculture would be in the past four years the in- the development of consump crease in agricultural produc- tion, for which there is still con- tion has been nearly as large siderable scope: This fact was as the 'rise in industrial output. recently emphasised by a former Now that the unemployment in- Parliamentary Secretary of the surance benefits, are to be ex- Ministry of Agriculture, when tended to workers of the in- he declared that "we have to dustry, there is a prospect of face the fact that unless we in-attracting to the soil a larger crease consumption, there is no number of contented men, for it alternative, to restriction. ... Is only right and proper that' If farmers can produce more those engaged on. the land food, they have to find more should be at no disadvantage customers. Despite the dif- whom compared with workers in ficulties which have been en- other walks of life.
an
What lies behind this agitation for a change in the old and tested methods? The questions of Rear- Admiral Sir Murray Sueter. He in a Conservative M.P; The fact that he is a naval officer of splendid record allows one to presume that he knows something of the cap- abilities and vulnerability of fight- ing ships. The fact that he is a pioneer in British aviation, and the Air creator of the Royal Naval Force leads one to think that his knowledge of the striking power of this new arm of defence service is probably worth considering. He knows a good deal about mechania- ed war machines generally, and is an expert in anti-aircraft defences, having built up the first anti-air- craft corps for London and con- tributed much to the evolution and adoption of tanks. This man has achieved much in making the Bri- tish forces more formidable in at- tack and less vulnerable in defence.
His word commands respect. When Rear-Admiral Sig. Murray Sueter questions the advisability of spending £120,000,000 on new wars ships, and suggests that the money would be spent to better effect on aircraft and anti-aircraft defences, we know he has good reasons.
fifty
millions of dollars annually. Multiplying even the most can servative figure by the number of muj cities
keteering
where
rac-
la rife runs the annual tribute the public pays to well apwards of one billion dollars.
of
practice of the racketeer to demonstrate the need for pro- tection. This is done through labour organisations of a mush- room type and usually without any ablation with the Ameri- can Federation of Labour. The Unions. sponsored by racket- eers, who recruit their members from among reluctant cm- Mr. Dewoy in a recent broad- ployees by thuggery, call strikes cast address stated: "There is and begin a reign of terror. to-day scarcely a buisiness in The Association then
Ak
New York which
underwork
*
does
Or
offers
The
not special protective services of somehow pay its tribute to the which the ordinary employer is
tribute levied glad to avail himself, by force and collected by fear, racketeer simply calls of his There is certainly not a family thugs and collects an added in New York City which does
fat fee from his victims, not pay its share of tribute to
From the minderworld every
small beginnings day it racketeering has grown in can- lives and with every meal it cer like manner until there seems eats. This huge unificial sales to be no cure. The so-called tax is collected from the ultim- "big shots" of the underworld,
consumer in the price he who found
boot-legging 80 for everything he buys. lucrative, have found even There are few vegetable greater fortunes to make in
ate JELYS
or fish markets in the City of racketeering. They have taken York where merchants command, appointing as their not forced-by sluggings lieutenants
the Hmall fry
The true "racket" has been' New well defined by Mr. Thomas E. are Dewey, appointed by Governor destruction of goods, threats criminals who formerly headed Herbert Lehman to prosecute and stink bombs-to pay heavy rackets.
They have brought organised vice and crime in tolls."
with them the higher priced New York City. He describes
and have maintained their re- attorneys who
their "mouthpieces" in bootleg days,
The first
were
it as "the systematic extortion racketeers and their methods is One close student of the of money through intimidation John A. Lyons, acting Deputy for that purpose." by an organisation conducted Chief Inspector of New York's ions with, the corrupt police Police Department, whose de- official and the machine politi- ease Mr. Dewey proscented was tail involves the command of in-- typical of true racketeering and the Anti-Racket Squad. He unusual only in that the victim describes the genuine racket- had enough backbone to seck cars as opportunists rather than latter lies in the fact that under The importance of the the prosecutor's aid. Dominic Tassone, nineteen years
old,
long-range planners, When-
ever an industry appears dis- the general practice of clecting hand represented himself as the organised and helpless, they: Judges to the primary Courts, agent of a "protective" organ assume control.
the Judge can be compelled to isation which, for an initial ›
pay political debts from the Bench. Fortunately, of late sufficient public feeling has been created against the racketcor to fortify the position of those Judges who refuse to pay this price for their places.
payment of thirty dollars and a Their favourite method is to monthly retainer of five dollars, contact a prominent and res- would see that stones were not peetable merchant and "induce"
SIDE GLANCES By George Clark
"Oh, you know the type. He will fall for any girl who will laugh at his puns.".
115
The American Federation of Labour is trying to shake off the hold which racketeers have- obtained on some of its local Unions, since with the arrival of bigger figures in racketeer- ing, legitimate well 18 "rump" Unions have been taken- over by outlaws, At its last. convention, the! Federation named
↑ committee to Co- operate with law enforcement agencies in combating this evil. It declared in its resolutions, "We want every racketeer, who has fastened himself on a local Union exposed and punished," and invited harassed members to take their complaints direct to the parent Union. But the mombers know that one caught complaining will receive at least
cracked pate, if not serious injuries.
д
more
Mr. Dewey has deferred to the feelings of the racket .vic- tims in conducting his inquiry. He has created an independent organisation of young men and ... women free from political en- tanglements. His offices in the Woolworth Building are care- fully guarded to prevent any leaks. And within six months of his appointment he has al- -ready placed behind prison bars. the leading figures of the group of outlaw loan sharks who were extorting usurious interest by threats and violence from those too far down in the economic. scule to be considered safa risks by legitimate loaning agencies,