ROARING

Volume 30 Issue 10 — August 1931

Boston back on

track

after

strike

Despite

Prohibition

woes,

Hoover hopeful

for future

“not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration” - Warren G. Harding

Capone captured! Chicagoans

hope for falling crime rates

“Return to

normalcy”:

hope or

hype?

Baseball in America

3 5

7

6 4

2

3

Boston back

on track after

Imagine sleeping in a small, filthy room filled with crawling bugs and smelling rodents more than once a week. Also imagine getting paid an average of 29 cents per hour to do this and other dangerous field work in Boston for a living. These are the conditions the Boston Police Department underwent for many years until now. On September 9, over 1,100 members of the oldest police department in the country went on strike, demanding better wages and working conditions, and due to the fact that the Police Commissioner Edwin U. Curtis prohibited the officers from forming a police un-ion among themselves. About the strike, Curtis said, “The fact that the officers would strike over such a minor cause is abso-lutely ridiculous to even think about. We need to be worried about keeping the streets of Boston safe, not unionizing for our own gain and jeopardizing law and order. It is just unnecessary.” But in response, an angered police officer in-volved in the strike stated, “The strike is not just about the unionizing us as police officers, but rather bringing to light the unfair realities of our jobs. We wanted our voices to be heard – unfortunately it came down to this to get the message across.” And as soon as the 75% of the department went on strike, things went immediately downhill in the organization of the city. It took nearly no time at all for gangs, thieves, vandals, and every other law-breaking citizen to take advantage of the situation. For two nights, this public display of chaos ram-paged through the town, pressurizing leaders into intervening with a solution. But as both of these were carried out, more problems for BPD quickly arose. The first, more superficial plan to stop the violence was that of Mayor of Boston Andrew J. Peters. He called on units of local militia to step in for the majority of the police department. While this held off riots, it did not satisfy Boston’s problem of a missing

75% of their day-to-day policemen that had been going on for years longer than in any other city. Governor of Massachusetts Calvin Coolidge then stepped in to solve the city’s problem permanently, (he hoped). However, the police de-partment was still crying out for help and answers. Coolidge then hired new officers to replace the old, to break the strike and regain control of Boston. He also denied the officers on strike their jobs back. Many of these new officers hired were World War I veterans returning home from war. This angered striking police officers, calling it “unfair and frustrating,” especially after learning the new officers had gained what the former ones had originally wished for – higher pay, additional holidays, and city-granted, free uniforms. As for Governor Coolidge, he is now gain-

ing national attention for his “heroic” deeds (for the

people), jumping into action after Boston fell into a

state of pandemonium. The frayed public appreci-

ated Coolidge’s doings in that last week after fearing

their safety during the strike.

4

After a two year involvement in the first World War, the dust hasn’t immediately settled in America just yet. With struggles over the fear of a Communist attack, peace treaty settlements, and the country’s entrance into the League of Nations, one thing the American people would quickly and easily feed off of is a “return to normalcy.” As all the big and familiar names began to disappear from the political spotlight, the election of 1920 would soon fall into the hands of the Democratic and Republican parties. Into the picture then came Democratic nominee Governor James M. Cox while the Republican nominee was Ohio newspaper editor and U.S. Senator Warren G. Harding. As their running mates, Harding had Calvin Coolidge while Cox had Franklin D. Roosevelt. Introduced as an official presidential candidate in June 1920, Harding would have just six months along his campaign trail to win the vote of the Ameri-can people over Cox. During the campaign, he be-came known for his slogan, “return to normalcy,” his rejection of the views of Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt with his “America First” attitude, and his opposition of American international inter-vention. After putting himself in consideration for the running in 1919, he made an address that would turn out to be his most famous and in which con-cerned this “normalcy” idea. In the speech, Harding said, “War wasted hundreds of billions, and depleted world store houses, and cultivated new demands, and it hardened selfishness and gave intervention of other countries, awakening touch to elemental greed. Hu-manity needs renewed consecrations to what we call

HOPE

HYPE? OR

fellow citizenship.” This gave Americans hope and reassurance in hearing Harding’s breakout plan. In his speech, he also said, “America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nos-trums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity.” This

gave the country a simplified answer on how to get back to their hoped-for status. With a plan like this plus his paralleled views (with America) on American intervention of other countries, it came as no surprise that Harding has won the presidential election by a very comfortable margin. Even though Cox’s efforts toward the cam-paign were noticeably higher, and Harding held more of a front porch campaign, Harding’s method came through as Cox’s views were often opposed by Americans. About his win, Harding said, “I’m very grateful for America’s support and my goal is to bring our country back to its pre-war status of normalcy.”

Though hopes seem high for the President-elect to bring America to a stable and comfortable status of “normalcy,” some Americans have their doubts he will be able to get the job done. On this thought, Vice President Calvin Coolidge said, “There is often doubt in any situation, but we are hoping our administration is strong enough (and we think it is) to fulfill our promises made to the citizens of the United States of America.” As of March

4, 1921, Harding

will begin his much

anticipated preside-

ncy while attempting to

snap America back into its

framework of pre-war norm-

alcy. As for the rest of us, we’ll

be sure to hold our breath.

“not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration” - Warren G. Harding

November 11, 1920

Warren G. Harding

Despite Prohibition woes, Hoover hopeful for future

Though being unanticipated by the U.S. government at its beginning, the only thing the Prohibition has been proven useful for is heightening organized crime rates, igniting gang activity, and encour-aging the use of bootlegging. Being ratified on January 20, 1919, and beginning its effect one year later, the 18th Amendment would prohibit “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes.” But this nation-wide Prohibition quickly turned from an enforced law in which police were given the right to prosecute violators to a small obstacle in which Americans knew their way around. Within months, thousands of speakeasies and other under-

ground organizations were created, giving Americans easy access to

these “intoxicating liquors.” Not only did this quench the thirst of the

American people, it brought and continues to bring in extra money to

rum-running boats off the coast of U.S. cities, gangsters, and small

business owners running underground operations on the side. And

Americans don’t have to rely on just these underground operations

alone, either. Home brewing has become very popular, also, though

some forms of this practice remains legal.

Stumbling into its fourth Presidency term, the Prohibition’s

enforcements have not changed, giving current President Herbert

Hoover a shot at the challenge . And just this week, a new light has

been shined on it as President Hoover, adamant supporter of the

Prohibition, has officially turned over the enforcement of the Pro-

hibition from the Treasury Department to the Department of Justice. From the start of his term in office, President Hoover

had looked for an Attorney General that would meet three

specific requirements: that he “would be a great lawyer, a

Protestant, and a Dry in whom Drys had confidence.” Thus,

he found William DeWitt Mitchell.

“My goal is to enforce [the Prohibition] to its maxi-

mum caliber,” said Mitchell, now in preparation of becoming

the said Prohibition’s Enforcer-in-Chief. “I have much confi-

dence in myself and in our department. About his decision to

switch the enforcement responsibility to the Department of

Justice, President Hoover stated, “I believe that under the

proper organization of one leader, the Prohibition will now be

properly handled and far more closely investigated, enabling

for the prosecution of more violators.”

President Hoover also expects his Administration to

fully implement the law as well. This week, 2,700 Dry

agents are set to move into the Department of Justice building

ready for the challenge.

Though this new plan seems to make sense and gives

hope to Dry supporters, citizens of New York and Baltimore

wonder how it will work in their wringing Wet towns, where

underground establishments have been going on for years.

“Though we will hopefully create a lasting enforce-

ment on Wet cities, the minor violations will be left to the

cities’ own implementations. For now, we are focusing on

the bigger illegal actions happening throughout the country,”

said Mitchell.

5

Warren G. Harding

In the days of the 20th century prior to

1920, baseball was not very popular among

Americans. The game was not played how it

was expected, having low batting averages, and

scandals rock the league.

In 1919, the Chicago White Sox brought a

scandal to the game after eight players were be-

ing accused of throwing the World Series

against the Cincinnati Reds. This is the most

famous scandal in baseball history, ending an

era of “Dead ball.”

However, in the 1920s, the second age of

American baseball came around: the second

golden age. The man that greatly helped this

come about was George “Babe” Ruth. He was

the most famous player of the 1920s and possi-

bly all of history. With the league cleaned up

from its former reputation, baseball was back

on top as an American trademark.

6

Capone

captured! In the recent years, Chicago has earned its reputation as a lawless city thanks to heightened overall illegal activ-ity headed by one man: Al “Scarface” Ca-pone. Though today, those days of the Chicago city streets ran by “Public Enemy Number One” are over as Capone was indicted on 23 counts of income tax eva-sion. Found guilty on five of those 23 counts, the gangster has been sentenced to ten years in a federal prison and charged fines amounting to over 50,000 dollars, with an additional year being sent to a county prison for a contempt-of-court charge. Being out of the police’s reach for so long, many Chicago natives are relieved after years of terrorism haunting their town. One anonymous resident said about Capone’s capture, “It’s good to know the police are finally doing their job. The city deserves a better reputation than the gangsters have let it retain. Hopefully the crime goes downhill from here.” And though Capone is finally under police control, he certainly did not go out

without a bang. His long streak of crimes ranging from illegal gambling to murder has and will continue to make him nearly unfor-gettable in the roaring decade of the 1920s. Upon his arrest, Capone had no official com-ments. Capone arrived in Chicago in 1919 from New York after sending an enemy gang member to the hospital. Leaving town seemed like the best option while waiting for the situation in cool down. His boss in New York, Frankie Yale, set him up to work with John Torrio, with whom he helped manage a bootlegging busi-ness. Though after Torrio left Chicago, Ca-pone assumed the lead role as boss of the underground world. By 1925, Capone had essentially run all of Chicago single-handedly, including estab-lishments like The Four Deuces, a bootleg-ging and gambling house, and brothel all in one. Strolling around in his bullet-proof

Cadillac, the way he kept on top of Chicago

was taking out prime competition. He did

this by either killing the victim himself, or

he would send out multiple gunmen to take

care of the job for him, of which he was often successful. These were done through a series of gang wars; Capone had plenty of rivalry in Chicago among other gangsters. One of the most known and remem-bered slaughter of Capone’s was the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. On this day, Capone had gunmen dress like policemen while they killed seven members of the Bugs Moran gang, a rival of Capone’s. Shortly after this event is when Capone’s decline began. “With the law quickly gaining ground to him and his operations each day, it was only a matter of time until his luck streak would end,” claimed a police officer who was involved in his arrest. About the verdict

reached and the sentence

of Capone, Federal Judge

James Wilkerson said,

“We knew he was guilty

of all the other crimes

as well, but it was a

matter of gathering the

evidence which just wasn’t

there. Now that we have the

proof, hopefully Capone

will be off the streets

for good.” Chicago CRIME

STATS

O f T H E

1920s

10,000 speakeasies were in full op-

eration in the city.

It is estimated that Al Capone accumulated over $60

million from illegal alcohol alone.

Other incomes included gambling ($25 million), vice

($10 million), and other rackets ($10 million).

It is estimated that Al Capone accumulated over $60

million from illegal alcohol alone.

7

Works Cited 1. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/allen/ch10.html

Sources: