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48

The Nation

[Vol. 126 No.

3

Pineapple

Politics

By FREDERIC BABCOCK

pril 6

EE T Bi g Bill. Blatant, muddle-headed, obnoxious,

incoherent.

A

big noise in

a

bighulk. Some say

he

is

theSpi rit of Chicago. That harge held

good until Tuesday, April

10.

On that memorable day some-

thing came upandhit him. Now hehas hat touch of

melancholy so essential to th e ar tof a

clown.

Meet Abie Arends. In the mauve decade hewas he

masculinemadame of ahouse of prostitution. More re-

cently he has moved up a notch and has been engaged by

Bill to teach the populace the plaintive song-poem of Pack-

ingtown

Scanning

histrys

pages,

of

all

find names we ove well,

Of

their deeds

we

love

s the one,

son?

Its Big

Bill,

the Builder-

90 on, foqfourteen verses.

Meet I Gapone, called Scarface. Ruler

of

the realm

of racketeering. Overlord of th e underworld. The man t

whom

3,000,000

people pay tribute- 76,000,000annually.

The man in charge

of

the procu rers and the killers who

manage the elections.

Meet Harry Gusick. He hi s were once con-

victed of pandering, of selling bewildered country

girl

into

the pit that has no bottom. Len Smalls pardon saved them

from the stigma of doing a stre tch in prison. Now Harry

is. one of the main cogs in the machine of l Capone.

Four of the principals in

our

offering or th is evening:

amelodrama of intrigueandadventure, of suspenseand

conflict, of thrills and super-thrills, of passion and plunder

-and pineapples.

The plot has

its

beginnings in he making a ma-

chine that

is

to become the

most

formidable, the most

men-

acing, in all Chicagos history. The plot ends in the smash-

ing of that machineon the rocks of it s own placing.

Threaded through the recitaI runs an amazing tale of the

rise of open terrorism, of almost unbelievabIe corruption,

of demagoguery and thuggery, of a government of

clowns

and

a

super-government of crooks.

For the settingwe have a city which some of us believe

is destined to be the greatest in theorld, but which today,

we

all

admit, is still the callow youth

of

the plains.

A

city

dominatedby a stockyardsaristocracy. A city uffering

from growing pains.

A

ci ty with a bad-boy complex, smok-

ing its first cigar. Give it time; it will come out all right.

I :

THE RISE

F

The lif ting curtain finds Scarface Al Capone in the

center of the stage. He has held the spotlight ever since the

mayoralty election of a year ago, when Bill Thompson was

returned o power. The votes had carcely been counted

before

l

set

out

to join the citys gambling, prostitution,

brewing, moonshining, and bootlegging into one vast ring of

vice. succeeded-in suchpectacularashion as t o

arouse he envy

of

many aptain of more egitim

industry.

He alone supplies beer to downtown Chicago. He

exacts tribute onnearly every barrel

of

beer tapped bet

Madison Street and the Indiana State line. And thous

of stills percolating in Littl e Ita ly and throughout the

andSouthSides enderhim ribute ncashor a.

Commercialized vice, too, recognizes his thraldom.

He

an inte rest in every section of city and county. The

bling trustbears he same mprint. A1 controls

at

fifteen of the larger establishments, and from member

the Thompson administ ration he has bought the

wide gaming privilege a t a flat rate. Besides setting u

own

little Monte Carlos-some of them palaces and som

them just joints-he takm 5 per cent

of

the

gross

p

in every place that aspires torun without fear of the po

At imeshisdictatorship is disputed. Especiall

theNorth Side,where the pickings ar e rich.Polack

Saltis, Frank McErlane, and others from time to time

set up independent duchies. Some of them are still am

the living. ,Others have been taken

f o r

a ride, have f

afoul of

a

machine-gun bullet, or have stepped in the

of a pineapple-Chicago parlance bomb.

Inbuilding up hisorganization Capone has gath

around him as choice a group of racketeers, gunmen, h

lums, and what-not as ever saw the inside of a rogues

lery.

He

never ventures out without a bodyguard of te

more of thesecreatures, well-dressed, tight-lipped, sh

eyed. But he duties

of

theseminutemenconsist of

more thanguarding hei r precious package. When r

dare enter the Capone kingdom,

o r

distillers dare que

the Capone levy o r the price of -sugar, or barkeeps see

source

of

supply other than theCapone brewery, the Ca

army akescare of them.Lawandorder of the Ca

varietymustbeand is

maintained. An obdurate m

shiner may see the light with the crash of a gun bu

his head.

A

saloonkeeper may decide, while spitting

a

half-dozen teeth, tha t Capones beer

is

what his custo

cry for.

O r

almost any morning acounty-highway po

man

o r

a small-town constable may find a bullet-torn

in a roadside ditch. Whereupon another casual ty

is

ma

up in the gang-war column

o r

there is an addition to

lmist of sixty-eight bombings in

six

months time.

Thus Chicago lives by gang law, Thus he wo

sausage metropolis, which used to limit

its

slaughteri

the stockyards, takes on new airs. But Scarface Al,

cused as he has been of participating n a score of

murders, is no wanton killer. He knows th at money

is

as

powerful as death o r the threat of death.

When the hunder of political oratory sounds, A

summoned into council for the goodof theparty. C

paigns

cost

money; there are halls to be hired, bands

be paid for braying,speakersmust have the ir hono

printersmust have thei r cash, and thereare incid

expenses. And, when properly shown

the

need

fo r

m

the impulsive, warm-blooded Sicilian Scarface is no

to et hecountry go to he dogs. Hecontributesgene

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y to the coffer s of both factions and both parties. His

in

this regard

is

to align himself with the

ty faction picked to win, lett ing a trusted lieutenant

is

necessary f o r theother side. No matter who

the Capone interests win.

On election day Al

is

no laggard sitting

at

home and

ting for -a precinct captain or a civic organization

est him in the voting. All day long he is a t his head-

hoodlums hither and thi the rwhere

is

hottest, where an unfavorable ballot-box

is

to

or where

a

judge or

a

clerk of election is to be

ired with the fear of King Capone.

Thus, from the evolution of bullets t o ballots we now

the devolution of ballots o bullets. AndScarface

his

satellites ar e persons of exceeding importance to the

and theirpart ies. When thosepoliticianshave

of

the pardons, t he police, and the prosecution, the

becomes mutually magnificent. Bothsides are no

afraid of the law; they adjust the law to suit thei r

Oply one th ing keeps A1 fr om beingsupreme: he

t o

split the millions in profits with his compatriots, the

& l?

THE MACHINE

GOES

OR A RIDE

Meanwhile another election isapproaching.Big

Sill,

on the cre st with his cheap circus, his America-

Draft-Coolidge, Out-With-King-George nonsense,

ds the cooperation of county and State in order tha t the

its

hold on pardons, police, and prosecu-

and th at Bill may reach out for he Presidency.He

ar_d Len

of

million dollars from the Sta te but put it back anyway.

With he help of Samuel Insull-who, by a freak of

that his attorney, SamuelEttelson,

is

also the

for

the city-the three se t out to keep Crowe and

in office, send Frank Smith back to th e Senate, tu rn

and State over to Insulls public-utilitycorporations,

ontinue the high purpose

of

combining privileged cor-

wealth and privileged vice and crime in a concerted

of public rights, public morals, and public security.

Opposed to this combination is one headed by Senator

its ranks Frank Lowden and Ed Lit-

f whom more later. The st rengt h of this group is

its

force demoralized by years of tough sledding

It

may have public opinion on

its

but such opinion is worthlessunless it votes.

e-Thompson outfit ha s the organization and the

jobs;

is

what counts in direct primaries.

Big.Bil1 wraps the old flag about his barrel-like form

proclaims th at it (the flag) shall never touch the dust.

the

old hokum is polished up and hurled into the fray.

is going beautifully, and Bill is clamoring for

the pie in sight, and about o get t, when there

is

a

. The bombs begin burst ing in air with a rifle

much regularity, evep fo r Chicago.

The homes of Senator Deneen and udge Swanson,

ttorney, ar e pineappled.

escapes by seconds. Crowe rushes into prin t with

e announcement tha t the Deneen-Swanson forces planted

e bombs to arouse public sympathy. The callous, cynica

of

suchapronouncement

is

not oston he public.

this the public has been indignant, exasperated.

its

smoldering wrath burst s forth in fire.

As

if that were not enough, Bill makes another stupid

move. He efe rs lightingly o he dead mother of Ed

Litsinger, a

man

whom he defeated for themayoralty

nomi-

nation year ago and who now is runnin g for the board

of review on th e Deneen slate. Eds sister leapsup from

her seat in the loop theater audienceand shouts: Mayor

Thompson, youre a liar Ed, heretofore regarded

as

com-

paratively harmless, akes up the

gage of

battle. He doffs

his coat and plunges into Big Bill in a barroom fight

of

in-

vectivend ituperation. He meets the Mayor onhe

Mayors own ground. He calls him this man, with the car-

cass of a rhinoceros and the brain of

a

baboon.

Big Bill, dumfounded, confounded, f sightened for once

in his life, caves in. His audiences, which once laughed a t

his gags, now laugh

at

his gagging.

ACT UPSETTING

TH PINEAPPLE-CART

And t hat brin gs

us

to the climax.

When election-day rolls around, the gangsters are

still

laughing at the public. They have the machineand hey

know it. They end heir gunmen out nto he tougher

regions,get eady or heusual errorism,and dispatch

bombing threats by the score. But the hoodlums discover,

too late, th at the public will take

a

joke just

so

long.

In thi s instance t he press has thoroughly exposed the

alliance of the utility corporations, the criminal elements,

and the Crowe-Thompson outfit. TheHearst papers, even

while emitting their customary clarion calls for the right s

of the people, have gone to ba t f o r the gangsters and the

despoilers, butotherpapers, led by the ribune and the

have told the truth. The public is fully advised and

determined.

It

refused to be terrorized.

It

squares

off

to do

bat tle with the men who have made money the ir god.

Thousands of citizens, recruited fr om the ran ks

of

the

civic organizations, act as voluntary watchers

at

the polls.

The

corruptionists try everything, but the majority rolled

up against them

is

too overwhelming to be counted ou t

or

stolen. Big Bills machine goes slithering nto he ditch.

Big

Bills

day-dream

of

grandeur

is

over.

If

he has

not

yet awakened, if he does not yet realize the extent of his

broken-down pomposity, he will. New York

had

its

Hylan,

Boston had its Honey-Boy Fitz, Chicago has its Big Bill.

He still has three years to go as Mayor, but aft er that-

unless the public goes

t o

sleep again-he will fade from the

scene and.be among our souvenirs. Lowden,

not

Thompson,

emerges from the battle

as

the factor to reckoned with

in Illinoiss choice for th e Presidency. Back of him looms

the heretofore futile Deneen, dark-horse candidate

f o r

the

Republicannomination foreither he head

of

the tickst.

or second place.

The result is gratify ing to all men who have kept their

faith in the American democracy in the face

of

recent his-

tory. It furnishes ample evidence of the soundness of mind

and heart of the men and women of Chicago. It is an en-

couraging sign of t he power of democracy-ev en in a vast

and heterogeneous community-to pu rge itself of

its

sins.

Some have hailed the revolt as

a

clear-cut victory for

civic righteousness.eluctantly,

I

disagree.

I

should

qualify th is by say ing the voters arose en masse because

they wene disgusted with he kind

of

rule hey had been

getting and there was nowhere

f o r

them to go but to thc

opposition.

A

new gang will doubtless spring up.

whatever organization comes out of the shambles of th e old

one,

it

can hardly be as bad a s its predecessor.

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