Roaring Life

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

5

7

6 4

2

3

3

Boston bounces back 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 De-partment 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 Curtis prohibited the offi-cers from forming a police union among them-selves. About the strike, Curtis said, “The fact that the officers would strike over such a minor cause is absolutely ridiculous. We need to be worried about keeping the streets of Boston safe, not un-ionizing for our own gain and jeopardizing law and order.” But in response, an angered police officer involved 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 – unfor-tunately 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 rampaged through the town, pressurizing leaders into intervening with a solution. But as both of these were carried out, more problems for BPD arose. The first, more superficial plan to stop the violence was that of

Mayor of Bos- ton Andrew J. Peters. He called units of local militia to step in for the police depart-ment. While this held off riots, it did not satisfy Bos-ton’s problem of the majority of a missing 75% of their 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 depart-ment was still crying out for help and answers. Coo-lidge 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 re-turning 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 gaining

national attention for his “heroic” deeds (for the peo-

ple), jumping into action after Boston fell into a state of

pandemonium. The frayed public appreciated Coo-

lidge’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 De-mocratic 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. Roo-sevelt. Introduced as an official presidential candi-date in June 1920, Harding would have just six months along his campaign trail to win the vote of the American people over Cox. During the cam-paign, he became 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 intervention. After putting himself in consideration for the running in 1919, he made an add- ress that would turn out to be his most famous and in which concerned this “normalcy” idea. In the speech, Harding said, “War wasted hundreds of billions, and depleted world store houses, and cultivated new demands, and it hard- ened selfishness and gave interven- tion of other countries, awakening

HOPE

HYPE? OR

touch to elemental greed. Humanity needs renewed consecrations to what we call 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 heal-ing; not nostrums, 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 campaign 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 com- fortable status of “normalcy,” some Ameri- cans 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 presi-

dency while attempting to snap

America back into its framework of

pre-war normalcy. As for the rest of

us, we’ll be sure to hold our breath.

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 encouraging the use of bootleg-ging. 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 U. S. and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes.” But this nation-wide Prohibi-tion 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

organizations were created, giving people easy access to

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

thirst of Americans, 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 under-

ground 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 cur-

rent President Herbert Hoover a shot at the challenge.

And just this week, a new light has been shined on it as

President Hoover, supporter of the Prohibition, has of-

fially turned over the enforcement of the Prohibition

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 en-

force [the Prohibition] to its

maximum caliber,” said

Mitchell, now in preparation

of becoming the said Prohi-

bition’s Enforcer-in-Chief.

“I have much confidence in

myself and in our depart-

ment. About his decision to

switch the enforcement re-

sponsibility to the Depart-

ment of Justice, President

Hoover stated, “I believe

that under the proper or-

ganization of one leader, the Prohibition will now be

properly handled and far more closely investigated, ena-

bling 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 Jus-

tice building. 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 en-

forcement 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 through-

out the country,” said Mitchell.

5

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 activity headed by one man: Al “Scarface” Capone. 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 evasion. Found guilty on five of those 23 counts, the gangster has been sen-tenced 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 con-tempt-of-court charge. Being out of the police’s reach for so long, many Chicago natives are re-lieved 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 un-der 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 unforgetta-ble in the roaring decade of the 1920s. Upon his arrest, Capone had no official comments. 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 bootleg-ging business. Though after Torrio left Chicago, Capone assumed the lead role as boss of the underground world. By 1925, Capone had essentially run all of Chicago single-handedly, including establishments like The Four Deuces, a bootlegging and gambling house, and brothel all in one. Strolling around in his bullet-proof

Cadillac, the way he kept on top of Chi-

cago 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 re-membered 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 mem-bers 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 po-lice 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. Time Magazine. Time Inc., 7 July 30. Web. 1 Mar. 10. http://

www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,846805-1,00.html (Despite Prohibition woes, Hoover hopes for future)

2. American Studies at the University of Virginia. University of

Virginia, 1 Sept. 09. Web. 1 Mar. 10. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/allen/ch10.html(Despite

Prohibition woes, Hoover hopes for future)

3. Travel and History: Al Capone. Online Highways, LLC, 1 Jan.

10. Web. 1 Mar. 10. (Capone captured!)

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1616.html

4. Microsoft Encarta: Al Capone. Microsoft Encarta, 1 Jan. 09.

Web. 1 Mar. 10. <"Al Capone." Microsoft® Student 2009

[DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008. Micro-

soft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.

All rights reserved.> (Capone Captured!)

Works Cited, con’t

5. Mass Moments. Mass. Foundation for the Humanities, 15 Aug.

06. Web. 4 Mar. 10. http://massmoments.org/moment.cfm?

mid=237 (Boston bounces back after strike!)

6. Wikipedia: First Red Scare. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 5

Mar. 10. Web. 7 Mar. 10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

First_Red_Scare#Boston_Police_Strike (Boston bounces

back after strike!)

7. Library of Congress: American Memory. Library of Congress,

6 Oct. 09. Web. 7 Mar. 10. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/

nfhtml/nfexpe.html (Return to normalcy: hope or hype?)

8. Live From the Campaign Trail. Michael A. Cohen, 1 Jan. 08.

Web. 2 Mar. 10 http://livefromthetrail.com/about-the-book/

speeches/chapter-3/senator-warren-g-harding (Return to nor-

malcy: hope or hype?)