October 17, 1931

The Nation
480
[Vol. 126,No. 3277
Pineapple Politics
By FREDERIC BABCOCK
April 16
EET Big Bill. Blatant, muddle-headed, obnoxious,
incoherent. A big noise in a bighulk. Some say
he is theSpirit of Chicago. Thatcharge held
good until Tuesday, April 10. On that memorable day something came upandhit
him. Now hehasthat
touch of
melancholy so essential to the artof a clown.
Meet Abie Arends. In the mauve decade he was the
masculinemadame of ahouse of prostitution. More recently he has moved up a notch and has been engaged by
Bill to teach the populace the plaintive song-poem of Packingtown :
Scanning histrys pages,
find names welove
well,
of all
Of their deeds we love
is the one,
son?
Its Big Bill, the Builder90 on, foqfourteen verses.

Meet AI Gapone, called Scarface. Ruler of the realm
of racketeering. Overlord of the underworld. The man t o
whom 3,000,000 people pay tribute-$76,000,000annually.
The man in charge of the procurers and the killers who
manage the elections.
Meet Harry Gusick. He
his
were once convicted 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 stretch in prison. Now Harry
is. one of the main cogs in the machine of Al Capone.
Four of the principals in our offering or this evening:
amelodrama of intrigueandadventure,
of suspenseand
conflict, of thrills and super-thrills, of passion and plunder
-and pineapples.
The plot has its beginnings in the making
a machine that is t o become the most formidable, the most menacing, in all Chicagos history. The plot ends in the smashing of that machineon
the rocks of its 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 the
world, but which today,
we all admit, is still the callow youth of the plains. A city
dominatedby a stockyardsaristocracy.
A citysuffering
from growing pains. A city with a bad-boy complex, smoking its first cigar. Give it time; it will come out all right.
I: THE RISEOF
The lifting 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
returnedto power. The votes hadscarcely been counted
before Al set out to join the citys gambling, prostitution,
brewing, moonshining, and bootlegging into one vast ring of
vice.
succeeded-in such
spectacular
fashion
as t o
arousethe envy of manyacaptain

of morelegitimate
industry.
He alone supplies beer to downtown Chicago. He alone
exacts tribute onnearly every barrelof beer tapped between
Madison Street and the Indiana State line. And thousands
of stills percolating in Little Italy and throughout theWest
andSouthSidesrenderhimtributeincashor
a.lky.
Commercialized vice, too, recognizes his thraldom. He has
an interest in every section of city and county. The gambling trustbearsthe
sameimprint.
A1 controls at least
fifteen of the larger establishments, and from members of
the Thompson administration he has bought
the citywide gaming privilege a t a flat rate. Besides setting up his
own little Monte Carlos-some of them palaces and some of
them just joints-he takm 25 per cent of the gross profit
in every place that aspires torun without fear of the police.
Attimeshisdictatorship
is disputed. Especially 011
theNorth Side,where the pickings are rich.Polack
Joe
Saltis, Frank McErlane, and others from time t o time have
set up independent duchies. Some of them are still among
the living. ,Others have been taken f o r a ride, have fallen
afoul of a machine-gun bullet, or have stepped in the path
of a pineapple-Chicago parlance
bomb.
In building up hisorganization Capone has gathered
around him a s choice a group of racketeers, gunmen, hoodlums, and what-not as ever saw the inside of a rogues
lery. He never ventures out without a bodyguard of ten
more of thesecreatures, well-dressed, tight-lipped, shiftyeyed. But the duties of theseminutemenconsist
of far
more than guarding their precious package. When rivals
dare enter the Capone kingdom, or distillers dare question
the Capone levy o r the price of -sugar, or barkeeps seek a
source of supply other than theCapone brewery, the Capone
armytakescare of them.Lawandorder
of the Capone
varietymustbeand
is maintained. An obdurate moonshiner may see the light with the crash
of a gun butt on
his head. A saloonkeeper may decide, while spitting out
a half-dozen teeth, that Capones beer is what his customers
cry for. O r almost any morning acounty-highway policeman or a small-town constable may find a bullet-torn body
in a roadside ditch. Whereupon another casualty is marked
up in the gang-war column, o r there is a n addition to the
lmist of sixty-eight bombings in six months time.
Thus Chicago lives by gang law, Thusthe worlds
sausage metropolis, which used to limit its slaughtering to
the stockyards, takes on new airs. But Scarface Al, accused as he has been of participating in a score of such
murders, is no wanton killer. He knows that money often
is as powerful as death or the threat of death.
When thethunder of political oratory sounds, A1 is
summoned into council for the goodof theparty.
Campaigns cost money; there are halls to be hired, bands must
be paid for braying,speakersmust
have their honoraria,
printersmust have their cash, and thereare incidental
expenses. And, when properly shown the need for money,
the impulsive, warm-blooded Sicilian Scarface is not one
toletthecountry
go tothe dogs. Hecontributesgener-
ously to the coffers of both factions and both parties. His

usual practice in this regard is to align himself with the
party
faction picked to win, letting a trusted lieutenant
do what is necessary for the other side. No matter who
loses the Capone interests win.
On election day Al is no laggard sitting at home and
waiting for -a precinct captain or a civic organization
interest him in the voting. All day long he is a t his headquarters, dispatching his hoodlums hither and thitherwhere
the fight is hottest, where an unfavorable ballot-box is to
be hoisted, or where a judge or a clerk of election is to be
inspired with the fear of King Capone.
Thus, from the evolution of bullets to ballots we now
have the devolution of ballotsto bullets. AndScarface
and his satellites are persons of exceeding importance to the
politiciansand theirparties. When thosepoliticianshave
control of the pardons, the police, and the prosecution, the
alliance becomes mutually magnificent. Bothsides are no
longer afraid of the law; they adjust the law to suit their
needs. Oply one thing keeps A1 from beingsupreme: he
has t o split the millions i n profits with his compatriots, the
politicians.
THE MACHINEGOESFOR
RIDE
Meanwhile another election isapproaching.Big
Sill,
still riding on the crest with his cheap circus, his AmericaFirst, Draft-Coolidge, Out-With-King-George nonsense,
needs the cooperation of county and State in order that the
gang may maintain its hold on pardons, police, and prosecutionand that Bill may reach out for the
Presidency.He
joins Bob Crowe, the shifty, wiry States attorney,ar_d Len
Small, the Governor who says he did not steal two-thirds of
a million dollars from the State but put it back anyway.
With the help of Samuel Insull-who, by a freak of
fate, finds that his attorney, SamuelEttelson, is also the
attorney for the city-the three set out to keep Crowe and
Small in office, send Frank Smith back to the Senate, t u r n
cityand State over to Insulls public-utilitycorporations,
and continue the high purpose of combining privileged corporate wealth and privileged vice and crime in a concerted
r,aping of public rights, public morals, and public security.
Opposed to this combination is one headed by Senator
Deneen, including in its ranks Frank Lowden and Ed Litsinger, of whom more later. The strength of this group is
scattered, its force demoralized by years of tough sledding
and impotent leadership. It may have public opinion on its
side, but such opinion is worthlessunless it votes.
Crowe-Thompson outfit has the organization and the jobs;
and that is what counts in direct primaries.
Big.Bil1 wraps the old flag about his barrel-like form
and proclaims that it (the flag) shall never touch the dust.
All the old hokum is polished up and hurled into the fray.
Everything is going beautifully, and Bill
is clamoring for
all the pie in sight, and about to get it,
when there is a
slight slip. The bombs begin bursting in air with a trifle
too much regularity, evep for Chicago.
The homes of Senator Deneen andJudge
Swanson,
Crowes opponent for States
attorney,
are pineappled.
Swanson escapes by seconds. Crowe rushes into print with
the announcement that the Deneen-Swanson forces planted
the bombs to arouse public sympathy. The callous, cynica!
note of suchapronouncement
is notlostonthe
public.
Before this the public has been indignant, exasperated.
Now its smoldering wrath bursts forth in fire.
&!l?
h:
As if that were not enough, Bill makes another stupid

move. Herefersslightinglytothe
dead mother of Ed
Litsinger, a man whom he defeated for the mayoralty nomination year ago and who now is running for the board
of review on the Deneen slate. Eds sister leapsup from
her seat in the loop theater audienceand shouts: Mayor
Thompson, youre a liar! Ed, heretofore regarded
as comparatively harmless, takes up the gage of battle. He doffs
his coat and plunges into Big Bill in a barroom fight of invectiveandvituperation.
He meets the Mayor onthe
Mayors own ground. He calls him this man, with the carcass of a rhinoceros and the brain of a baboon.
Big Bill, dumfounded, confounded, fsightened for once
in his life, caves in. His audiences, which once laughed a t
his gags, now laugh at his gagging.
ACT
UPSETTING THE PINEAPPLE-CART
And that brings us to the climax.

When election-day rolls around, the gangsters are still
laughing at the public. They have the machineandthey
know it. Theysendtheir
gunmen outintothe
tougher
regions,getreadyfortheusualterrorism,and
dispatch
bombing threats by the score. But the hoodlums discover,
too late, that the public will take a joke just so long.
In this instance the 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 rights
of the people, have gone to bat for the gangsters and the
despoilers, butotherpapers,
led by the Tribune and the
have told the truth. The public is fully advised and
determined. It refused to be terrorized. It squares off to do
battle with the men who have made money their god.
Thousands of citizens, recruited from the ranks 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 out or
stolen. Big Bills machine goes slitheringintothe
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 after thatunless 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 the Presidency. Back of him looms
the heretofore futile Deneen, dark-horse candidate for the
Republicannomination foreitherthe
head of the tickst.
or second place.
The result is gratifying to all men who have kept their
faith in the American democracy in the face of recent history. It furnishes ample evidence of the soundness of mind
and heart of the men and women of Chicago. It is an encouraging sign of the power of democracy-even in a vast
and heterogeneous community-to purge itself of its sins.
Some have hailed the revolt as a clear-cut victory for
civic righteousness.
Reluctantly,
I disagree. I should .
qualify this by saying the voters arose en masse
because
they wene disgusted with the kind
of rule they 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 the old
one, it can hardly be as bad as its predecessor.

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The Nation

[Vol. 126,No. 3277

Its Big Bill, the Builder90 on, foqfourteen verses.

arousethe envy of manyacaptain

ously to the coffers of both factions and both parties. His

As if that were not enough, Bill makes another stupid

UPSETTING THE PINEAPPLE-CART

And that brings us to the climax.

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