Evening Star Newspaper, March 22, 1931, Page 73

" EIGHTEEN BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR Investigator Says America Leads Magasine WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH 22, “ the World in Crime. U Fifth of Our Income Is Tribute to the Lazwless. OMEHOW I could sense in the very air at police headquarters, on Cen- ter street, an unwonted tension one forenocon about a year ago as as I approached the office of the commissioner at the north end of the second floor. The commis- sioner’s secretary dashed past. “What's on the fire, John?” I inquired, grasping his arm. “Oh—hello, Arthur.® He lowered his voice. “The ‘Artichoke King’ has just walked in off the street and surrendered!” I turned on my heel and did not even enter Commissioner Whalen’s office. I knew it was no use, now, Ciro Terranova had long been wanted by the police. Here was another of those situations that lately have become characteristic—where, after a lapse of time during which many things might have hap< pened, important witnesses “rubbed out,” or what not, then a much wanted racketeer would walk into either precinct station or even into headquarters with the nonchalant naivete: *“I hear you've been looking for me. Well, what is it all about?” This one was too gocod to miss. I already knew one thing 1 was going to do. That was why, at 9 o'clock the next morning, I was mounting fthe stairs to the top floor, which had once been the police gymnasium. AT one end of the huge room was a plat- form raised about three feet. On a sort of back drop at a height of-some five or six feet were p-lx'\ted a series of parallel lines one inch apart. They were for the, purpose, I knew, of judging the height of the crim- inal as he stood in front of them. On the platform stood a microphone and overhead was an amplifier. Ten or twelve feet in front of this piat- form was another little one, with a reading desk and another “mike.” This was for the deéputy chief inspector, Edward P, Mulrooney, now himself commissioner. Ranged in gows back of that were chairs for a couple of hundred or more detectives in plainclothes—no longer, as in the old days, wearing masks as the prisoners were paraded before them. This was the “line-up.” Sometimes singly, at other tilmes in pairs or in whole groups, criminals—anywhere from a score to two-score or more each morning— the previous day's catch, so to speak—are paraded before the keen eyes of the detectives. Assistant Chief Mulrooney would read a hasty summary of their pedigrees, ask a few questions and then they would be taken down- stairs to the Identification Bureau for “mugging,” measuring and fingerprinting, and thence to court for pleading. “No. 24!” announced a-stocky master of ceremonies who stood on ‘the floor below the long platform. There mounted the few steps to the platfdrm such a sartorial symphony in brown that I longed to be a newsreel man with a color film, s0 I could show the public just what the well dressed racketeer was wearing this season. ‘Tan shoes and socks, with spats of tan, brown suit, brown overcoat over his arm, brown shirt with collar to match, brown tie, brown soft hat in his hand. Even his eyes were brown, and his skin. The hair was dark brown and a bit sparse over the temples. He was of me- dium height and muscular. “Your name?” demanded the tall assistant chief. » “Ciro Terranova,” “Address?” “Pelham Manor.” There was a suppressed laugh from the detectives. They knew what the neighbors out there thought of the new- comer in their midst. “Occupation?” No answer. “Speak up!” The master of ceremonies on the floor in front of the platform growled at him, impatiently moving the microphone nearer Terranova. Still no answer, “Aren’t you the ‘Artichoke King?’'” rapped out Muirooney's sharp staccato. “Aren’t you in the Harlem market?” There was a shocked annoyance on the smooth, well groomed face. “Oh, no!” he scorned. “I haven't been there for over a year.” “What are you, then?” boomed the assistant chief, “A contractor.” There was another ripple among the plain- clothes men. “Contractor, eh? When did you have your last contract?” 1931. i . Bg_cfl(s' | Features 24 PAGES. «Only 10 per cent of those who com- mit crimes are ever punished.” —By— ~/ Arthur B, Reeve, Author of Many Books on This Subject. “Oh—I haven't had a contract for several months.” Slowly, but with no real hesitation. It was all studiously correct. Mulrooney leaned forward. “Well”—he shot out sharply—“how do you make your money, then? How do you live?” “In the stock market!” Tl-thl was another laugh Trom the sedted detectives and a faint flicker of a smile crossed Mulrooney’s almost ascetic face. It was all so perfectly coached by a “mouthpiece.” There was no answer to that—“in the stock market!” Now trump that one! “How many times have you been arrested?” Terranova started to give a list, Assistant Chief Mulrooney interrupted, cor- recting and amplifying it. But I could see that on the very face of it there was likely to be nothing upon which even to hold the Artichoke King—long. (Arrests—no convictions; or, rath- er, few.) Suspicions, even moral certainties, are not evidence, That is why, if racketeers are not out on bail by noon in the Magistrates Courts, they are probably out before nightfall on a habeas corpus. Here in this case, as In countless others, I realized we were up against the racketeer’s wall of silence once more. That is why I have used this incident, out of hundreds of similar ones, to point up the startling fact that America leads the world in crime. . It has been estimated by competent author- ities that the cost of rackets in this country is from $3,000,000,000 to $5,000,000,000 a year, depending upon whether or not you include the liquor racket. More than half the cost grows directly or indirectly out of prohibition. Buf more about rackets later. For the figures above do not represent the total price we pay in dollars and cents for crime. The startling fact, as I see it, is that Amer- ica’s next great war will be a war for sheer morality! One in every ten of the persons you meet on Broadway or Main street was arrested last year for some law infraction. And if the in- crease in arrests keeps up during the next decade with the same rate of increase as dur- ing the last decade, by 1940 one in every three persons will be arrested each year. About one in every hundred persons one meets in the course of the average peregrinfm tions of an average day is an ex-jailbird, There passes through our penal institutions an army} of more than 500,000 every year if we include them all. Only 10 per cent of those who come= mit crimes are ever punished, yet in spite of the small fraction of criminals punished there today are 175,000 men and women in prison and 200,000 more in reformatories and othes correctional institutions. ¢ Let not the law-abiding citizen imagine thag it does not affect him, just because he is law abiding! - Nor do I mean merely that he might be “bumped off” or “stuck up” or anything of the sort. I mean that it affects him very closely and in a sensitive spot—his He would squeal very loudly if a sales tag were imposed on him. Yet that would amou to only a few cents a day to most of us. forget (for the simple reason that most of never have known) that our annual it well over 30 cents out of along to us, the ultimate consumers, fact is that in 1913 the crime cost paid in actual taxes by each average American family was $40. Today it is over three times that. Our average family is paying $135 « year as its own special crifhe tax, But that is by no means the total price we pay for the luxury of crime. In facs, it is only a beginning. Including our crime tax, our national crime bill is more than $18,000,« 000,000 a year. Some authorities have placed it at $12,000,« 000,000. Others at more than $20,000,000,000, But I shall set forth why I arrive at the inter- mediate figure after study of reports of the National Crime Commission, the insurance company statistics and Government and police reports, although it would take up more space than this whole article if I attempted to iteme ize and analyze the figures. s For instance, large surety companies tell us’ that crimes against property alone total about $7,000,000,000 a year in this country. Three ' billions more are spent for protection of life and property by local, State and Federal gov- ernments on police, courts, prisons, houses of detention and so on. Other crimes and phascs of crime, private detectives, guards, adminis- tration of private crime protection, & vast extra governmental system, the every considerable expenditure of commissions for research sud the like, all go to make up the balance betweesi the $18,000,000,000 above mentioned emd thé