Image provided by: Cape Blanco Heritage Society; Port Orford, OR
About Port Orford post. (Port Orford, Oregon) 1937-19?? | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1937)
PORT ORFORD, OREGON, POST DEWEY, THE “RACKET SMASHER” Scenes and Persons in the Current News what New York’s Aggressive State’s Attorney May Be G. O. P, Presidential Timber If He Doesn’t “Stumble.” thinks about: How to Be Fair. ANTA MONICA, CALIF.— Every time the heirs to an undivided estate start litigat ing, I think of a decision which had in it more wisdom, more common sense and more fairness than even King Solomon’s inspired justice. S American Airlines Photo. among those few colleagues in By JOSEPH W. LaBINE crime who knew his identity. The EW YORK’S racket-bust rest of the huge mob reported to ing Messiah may be'the subordinate henchmen, and no ques tions asked Republican party’s Messiah Must Start at the Bottom. as well. A 35-year-old politi Dewey had decided to overlook cal “youngster” from Owos N so, Mich., who stalked both the Tammany tiger and or ganized crime down Manhat tan’s jungle, now looms in many minds as the logical G. O. P. choice for White House honors in 1940. His name is Thomas E. Dewey, His rocket-like career as a special prosecutor for New York city has been in the limelight only two years, but he is almost certain to be of fered the Republican nomination for governor next year. If he accepts, if he wins, and if he does not “stum ble” in the meantime, Tom Dewey’s praises may be sung and re-sung from many a Republican campaign platform in 1940. Dewey is himself a singer. He graduated from the University of Michigan with every intention of fol lowing an operatic career. A Chi cago vocal teacher encouraged him to study in New York, While carry- ing out this advice he took law as a side line, graduating from Colum- bia university in 1925. Now he man- ages what is facetiously called a "singing school" for Mar hoodlums, an institution w the great* and smaU_fry of gangdom xie" Gordon. a Nemesis of, began wh-p widely known the prostitution racket, temporarily at least. Prostitution had been the chief interest of unsuccessful “clean-up” campaigns in the past; to strike against it now might cost what little public confidence he had obtained. But in the end he fol lowed tradition. When you can’t get information about those at the top. you must start at the bottom and work up. Prostitution was at the bottom, the most commonplace of the rackets. Dewey did not know Luciano was the kingpin. He may have had a hunch, even though Luciano was “Mr. Ross” at the Waldorf-Astoria and was a most inconspicuous char acter. Just as he ensnared "Wax ie” Gordon by making raids on the strength of evidence which might turn up later, so did he "put the finger” on Luciano. In the early morning of February 1, 1936, twenty higher-ups were seized in a raid so secret that it gave the underworld a bad case of jitters. Next day came another swift, se cret raid that brought 125 shriek ing, kicking women to th« Wool- ■ rth building "singing school " The first r< I break enme/hrough Dave Miller, small-time racketeer ie his fltart was j bad an to be. ¡orne with , th Th er mi , e thw-i ( ; iorney for lower New York, en couraged the young barrister to en- ter his olllcc. Dewey’s efforts brought the notorious "Waxie” Gordon to justice in 1933 It was in this case that the Michigan school boy first displayed his talent for unorthodox legal procedure. He ar rested Gordon and the other princi pal defendants before his office had sufficient evidence to hold them; he pinned his hopes on witnesses to be secured through secret raids. "Waxie,” a beer baron whose pow er rivaled that of Al Capone in Chi cago. had an income of $1,616.690 in 1930 and 1931, according to internal revenue officials. Like his col leagues in the racket, he kept few records. Dewey's investigations probably taught Gordon more about his financial standing than he ever knew before. For a short period late in 1933 Dewey was United States district attorney for lower New York, Meda- lie having resigned. A successor was appointed by President Roose velt and the Owosso lad went back to private practice, a field which was netting him about $50,000 a year when he accepted the Hercu lean task of cleaning Manhattan's Augean stables in 1935. That job paid $16,695. Grand Jury on Rampage. Fiorella LaGuardia, New York's reformist mayor, another man whose Messianic qualities have not been overlooked. women, whose vocal chords warmed up under the promise of protection. The evidence gradually took shape; the phantom Luciano came to light as a flesh-and-blood character. He was secretly indicted in March. Big House for "Lucky.” "Lucky" fled to Hot Springs, Ark., where he was nobly indignant when arrested. Returned to New York, he was slapped in The Tombs un It started with a non-conformist der $350.000 bail. When the trial grand jury, an independent bunch arrived. Dewey made it clear that of rascals who defied the Tammany he was not after prostitutes and district attorney and set out to get other underlings. “I want the big shots. Luciano, at the bottom of a crime business that was mulcting New Yorkers out sitting away up at the top in his apartment at the Waldorf as the of millions of dollars each year They got plain mad when witness czar of organized crime in this after witness refused to testify, fear C'ty, and his assistants who, like ful of punishment at the hands of him. lived on the earnings of these gangdom's gunmen. Several delib women’s bodies.” erate tests convinced the jurors that Luciano drew 30 to 50 years and there were underworld spies In the his assistants were given equally district attorney's office. strong terms. If what remained of While press and public chafed at the gang planned revenge on state's their inaction, the jury asked for a witnesses, they were dissuaded by special prosecutor. District Attor the judge. He threatened to de ney Dodge rejected all their nomi mand the maximum penalty if any nees, including Dewey, whose in of Dewey’s “singers” were harmed. hospitable treatment of "Waxie" A climax to the campaign against Gordon had not been forgotten. It organized crime arrived November was Governor Lehman's interven- 2, this year, when Dewey was swept tion that caused Dev eventual into the district attorney's office appointment on June over his Tammany opponent. It war had started. was a triumph over the spoils poli When Charles aicky" Luciano tics which has gagged New York heard about Dewi he dubbed him justice for years. To vanquished a b o -. out * | did "Tom the Tammany. Dewey Bull” Pennochio sting almost as ! Mayor Betillo, who were smong Luciano's Fiorv'.lo LaGuardia's re-election on henchmen. From his sp the Reform platform, Whether the ment atop the Waldorf Astoria Lu- tattered tiger will recover its ciano ruled New York's strength by the time but he was a man of mystery wh gubernatorial election rolls around. name must be whispered remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the nat'on’s Republican eyes are looking to the Empire state, from whence cometh their strength. G. O. P. Gives Blessing. Meeting in Chicago immediately after the New York city election, members of the Republican national committee unofficially placed their blessing on Dewey as a young man likely to go places. Among his supporters are Representative Mar tin of Massachusetts, Col. R. B. Creager of Texas, Daniel E. Pom eroy of New Jersey and Mrs. Ralph A. Harris of Kansas. Chairman John Hamilton and Senator Borah have been equally enthusiastic. Others, quite logically, look upon Mayor LaGuardia as good G. O. P. presidential timber. But the “little flower” would not gather rural votes like he gathers them in New York. He is short, pudgy, outspok en. He has an Italian name, which falsely connects him with the Fas cism he so roundly denounced in his recent battle with Hitler. That a man of Fiorella LaGuardia’s strength and ability should suffer because of these personal matters, is indeed unfortunate. His Reform administration has been just as Messianic as Tom Dewey’s racket busting. But whether it be Dewey or La Guardia, the Republican party sees its victory in New York’s election as noteworthy. Next year's Guber natorial election looks fav ible. they say. th Tammany licked and New Deal ’miojrnts either sullen or indiffi > it wjt Uv* undeniable ’ ■ ‘»tat I ble victory is du.> in ^.irge part to his alliance ’ with the new Labor party, an alliance which may or may not function in the state elec tion. He's Typically American. Dewey's typical Americanism should preclude the necessity of such strange bedfellows as Labor and the Republican party bunking together in a wholly unnatural brotherhood. For Dewey is a man who—say his supporters—has the background, family connections and unsullied political record to insure popularity. He came from a family of editors, his grandfather, George Martin, having founded the Owosso Times in 1887. Grandfather Dewey was a Vermont product, a third cousin of tha admiral who "took" Manila harbor. Tom Dewey's boyhood was that of any other midwestern child, part of it spent in his dad’s news paper office. At the University of Michigan he didn't join a fraternity but was telegraph editor of the Michigan Daily and made a name for himself in vocal work. While studying music and law at New York he met attractive Fran ces Eileen Hutt of Sherman, Texas, a grandniece of the Confederacy’s Jefferson Davis. Miss Hutt was a mezzo contralto, and a good one. She climaxed a stage career by car rying the prima donna role with George White's Scandals in 1927. Next year she married Dewey, who by this time had permanently tabled his operatic ambitions in favor of the law. Just as Mr. and Mrs. Dewey are typical Americans, so are their chil dren, John Martin, two, and Thom as Edmund, Jr . five. They’re the kind of youngsters you’d like to be lieve represent a cross-s-ction of America’s coming generation. Whether he becomes a candidate for governor or President, Tom Dewey is probably destined to live the rest of his days on the public payroll. Right now. following a post election rest in Bermuda with Mrs. Dewey, he's planning big things for the state’s attorney's office. The famous “singing school" will be continued and in all probability many more New Y^rk hoodlums will receive vocal instruction from its capable instructors. The prose cutor's office will be open 24 hours a day. every day in the year. Dew ey’s men will be "riding the tail of the police wagon.” in his own words, gathei’ng evidence before the criminal’s trail can cool. Perhaps, by such tactics, the Owosso "boy scout" can continue the record he established as special prosecutor-conviction of 71 cf the 73 racketeers he brought to trial! c Western Newspaper Umms. I can’t remember whether ’twas a ruler upon the throne or a judge upon the bench who handed down this ruling, But two brothers fell out over a proper divi sion of theit father's possessions. Accord ingly, they carried the dispute to a higher court of the land. So his majesty, or his worship, or his honor, as the case Irvin b. Cobb may have been, said: "Let the olde'r brother apportion the property into what he regards as two equal shares—and then let the younger brother have first choice of the shares.” But, of course, the lawyers couldn’t have favored the plan. It was too beautifully simple to suit any lawyer in any age. The Ameri can Bar association would just nat urally despise it. I 1—Nathan Straus, administrator of the United States housing authority, shown conferring with Mayor Fio rella LaGuardia about plans to spur home building. 2—Mahatma Gandhi, sixty-eight-year-old Indian nationalist leader, is greeted by followers as he arrives in Calcutta. 3—Capt. George Eyston of London shown after he set a new world’s speed record of 331.42 miles per hour in an automobile on the Bonneville Salt Flats near Salt Lake City, Utah. WINS RECOGNITION His Honor Weighed in the Balance Cemetery Salesmen. a letter from one of { RECEIVED our plushiest cemeteries. We have some of the plushiest ceme teries on earth; it’s a positive pleas ure to be dead out here. I was urged to invest in a highly desirable lot, for only a few thou sand smackers; or buy a perfectly lovely crypt—slightly more expen sive, but most luxurious. Through some private whim or pique, I failed to answer this tempt ing communication. Today I re ceived an appealing follow-up let ter. I gather that, if I neglect this splendid opportunity. I'll live to re gret it. Or maybe I won’t. Such thoughtful attention merits response. I’m replying as follows: “Dear gents: Space in a grave yard is the last thing I shall require. When that time comes, somebody else will do the shopping, Trusting these few lines may find you the same, yours gratefully.” But if a representative calls in person—as he will—I'm a gone gos- Thi» " slick talkers always ‘Aust ought to see, my do g . tion etocks. NoW, therew thi» that does need burying. John Holmes, w Swift & Company as a messenger boy 31 years ago and became presi dent of the company recently. He succeeded G. F. Swift, a son of the founder of the business, as execu tive head of an organization of 60.000 employees engaged in the dressing of live stock and nationwide distri bution of meat, poultry, eggs, but ter, cheese and by-products. Mr. Swift continue active participa Zt f il**>tnwn crier stands by to announce the result, a police sergeant tion in tffe business as vice chair is shown* weighing the new mayor'of High Wycombe, England, A. J. man of the board of directors. Gibbs, in accordance with an ancient custom of the town. Making Juleps. COME disputatious soul seeks to reopen the ancient debate over the proper recipe for mint julep. I decline the invitation. Since the Dred Scot decision nothing has stirred up as much bitter contro versy south of the Ohio river. North of the Ohio river doesn’t count. The Yankee conception of a julep is calculated to make a host of sleeping Kentucky brigadiers rise up from their respective Bourbon casks and start giving the rebel hiss. Naturally, the only perfect julep is the Paducah julep. Just drop in next summer and sample the real product on its native heath—not at a saloon, where the bartender is likely to have heretical ideas, such as using preserved fruits and even putting the sugar syrup in first, which amounts to downright crime ■but in the private home. 2-Week-Old Baby Boasts 2 Teeth Mercedes Angeli of San Francisco had two teeth when she was born and now that she's two weeks old J Western Superiority. IN BORNEO, tige-s slay such an * incredible host of natives that the yearly mortality is proportionately almost one-tenth as great as the average number of persons who will be wiped out in traffic fatalities on American highways during any giv en 12 months. In India, owing to the refusal of those benighted Hindus to destroy any living creature, 20,000 inhabi tants annually are killed by venom ous serpents, whereas, in this coun try, in 1936. we spent only 15 billions for crime, or 18 times as much as we spent on national defense, yet managed to let many poisonous hu man snakes go free to build up mur der statistics. An early morning scene at the Newhaven fish market in Edinburgh, Scotland, showing fish wives with their baskets of fresh fish, boarding a tram car to take them to the city. Meanwhile the passengers on the car sit unconcerned while the motorman aids his fares in loading the car. they’ve grown to quite some husky molars, as this picture shows. And she takes the dentists’ suggestions, too, with that big toothbrush. Police Give John Barleycorn a Bad Day In Japan, geisha girls are govern mentally licensed and protected, which is indeed an affront to the principles of an enlightened people who patronize so-called world's fairs that are dependent on unabashed nudity for popular favor, and shows dependent on foul lines and nasty situations. IRVIN 8. COBB. Marriage Customs in Japan The Japanese live more as mem bers of families than individuals. That is to My, every Japanese is under the moral obligation to per petuate the family line inherited from his ancestors. The only son must take a wife; he cannot “be come a husband”, in other words, he takes his w ife to his home and she shares with him the name of his an- ccstors. only daughter, on the other hand, must take a husband to the home of her father» and share with him her family name. New Yor!. police had a Roman holiday when they engaged in me wholesale destruction of bottles. Jars, kegs and cans of liquor at the police department warehouse recently. The liquor was scired in ra'is over a long period. Here you see the fiesta at its height.
