Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN
Newspaper Page Text
Four Unprosecuted Violations Of Law Contributing Cause Of Depression Public Officials Lacking Courage to Enforce Law Violations Against Racketeers and Gangsters, Responsible to Great Extent For Pres ent Depression. Cost of Criminal Activities Staggers Imagination. Business at Mercy of Communist Agitators and Labor Racketeers. By Nomad The failure of public officials sworn to the duty of law enforce ment, to fulfill their oaths has contributed to the present deplor abe conditions, to the depression, in a measure which few of seem to realize. It has been fix ed that the cost of the gangster type of crime alone has been about ten billions of dollars to the United States annually since the World War. And that does not take into account the activi ties of the legion of artistic and crude promotors who fradulent ly preyed on the public with the apparent sanction of prosecutors and other public officials. In only the one year, 1928, billions upon billions of dollars were mulcted from wage earners and business men by practices that shrink from the spotlight, while the many ap plicable preventative laws were kept dormant. Prosecutors in one section of the country did not know to what extent prosecutors in other sec tions were winking at law trans gressions, both refined and vuU gar . Each, perhaps, thought the Iteld was his own. Recklessness begot more recklessness. Each was blind to the impending na tional danger. Accumulations of unprosecut ed transgressions over the coun try has a major casual connection with the crash following in 1929 and the depression miseries suf fered since. John Jones had ob served his neighbor get by with the law and prosper in shady practices so he jumped in, etc., ad infinitum. The snowball roll ed up an avalanche! Then, when the damage was done, members of the silver tong ued profession of prosecutors just went on dodging duty, evad ing taking exemplary and puni tive action against known offend ers. Many prosecutors were real- SUBSCRIPTION &LANK fhe Saturday Press, 2212 Howard St. N. E. Minneapolis, Mina. Dear Star: Enclosed find SI.OO for 6 Months Subscription. Enclosed find $2.00 for 1 Tear’s Subscription. My Subscription to begin with current issue. Date , 1086 Name - • Street or R. F. D. ----- OKy State - - ly partner offenders and their neglect of duty was necessary to hide their own guilt. IVinking, alone, while civilian offenders were busy with their robberies, made prosecutors quasi partners in guilt with civilian offenders. The public was victimized to the tune of billions and the most responsible culprits (the winking public prosecutors) have mainly escaped blame. Many of these culprits have been promoted in the service of those they have so greatly helped to victimize. Focusing on Minnesota —it’s present governor was county at torney of the most populous county in the state during the pe riod of the great depredations. As the self styled champion of the wage earners and modest em ployers he sat idly and content edly by while shysters and gang sters plied their nefarious busi ness of expoiting those for whom he pretents to champion, for whom he pretends to have so much human sympathy. There were some rare times when the pressure of public sentiment forced him into action and in those times just what did he do? He selected the }ninor offenders, who represented the wage earn er class, as those to be made ex amples of, prosecuted them and provided escape from punishment for the major offenders! This refers pointedly to the so-called Minneapolis city council graft cases, the disposition of which Floyd B. Olson glorifies himself in. It is interesting to note that the grand jury which returned the council graft indictments did not spare the big-shot offenders. Indictments were returned against all of those concerning whom there was sufficient evi dence. These grand jurymen were largely Minneapolis busr- THE SATURDAY PRESS. nessmen and they expected coun ty attorney Olson to do his duty in prosecuting outlaw business men as they had done their duty in indicting them. These repre sentative Minneapolis business men demonstrated themselves as the real champions of Mr. Aver age Citizen. These businessmen, whom Olson so often attempts to blacken, furnished Olson an op portunity on a silver platter to clean out of the ranks of busi nessmen the conscienceless and criminal element, the parasites of society, and it was Olson, not the grand jurymen, that laid down on the job. It was the grand jurymen, and not Olson, that inspired the re turning of those indictments. It was Olson, and not the grand jurymen, that prosecuted the representative wage earners, had them imprisoned, and let the outlaw businessmen have their freedom practically unmolested. Yet with such stuff on his rec ord, Olson has the effrontery to hold himself up as the workers’ friend while picturing Minneapo lis business men as conscience less ! That record of Olson’s as county attorney fairly reeks with favoritisms shown by him to se rious law violators. He set him self up as an emperor in that office and assumed that it was a matter for his discretion wheth er or not statutory law should be enforced. The state spent untold thou sands of dollars for grand juries. Members of these bodies sought out the ills of society, sought out the law transgressors and the transgressors of . human rights, sought out the evidence necessary for indictments and remedial prosecutions. But when their efforts were spent, when immense sums of state money had been spent on the endeavors of these bodies toward return-* ing indictments, Floyd B. Olson made himself arbiter, and the sole arbiter, deciding which in dictments he would prosecute and which he would shelve. He shelved literally thousands of indictments during his ten year span in that office—shelved indictments running the whole gamut of the category of crimes against the public. How much did those crimes cost us? How much did those grand juries cost us? How much did we pay for wasted time by county attorney Olson and his immense staff of employees in that office? How many more crimes have we paid for which were the out growth of Olson’s failure to pros ecute the culprits? The bill is no small one. But answering those questions will not suppy all the items of cost to the public. The state of Minnesota spends immense sums of money on its legislatures. The legislatures comprise the state’s law making machinery. They have turned out no law or authority to the effect that county attorneys or attorney generals may follow their own inclinations as to whether or not any particular laws or all laws shall be enforced! On the contrary, the legisla tures have provided that the will ful neglect of any public official to do his duty is punishable as a gross misdemeanor! However, the trouble is, who is to enforce that law? And if the laws are not enforced why have them and why go on making more laws ? The prevailing extent of the failure of prosecutors to our laws means that the enor mous sums of money spent for legislatures, courts, grand juries, prosecutors, police, maintenance of most public buildings, was largely thrown away. Wholesale failure of prosecu tors to enforce laws caused good business on a vast scale to be the prey of foul parasites preying on producers. Direct and indirect results of wholesale failures of procecutors to enforce laws eventually either broke down the morale of or broke all business. The immense contributions to the depression and the present widespread sufferings and unsup plied human wants attributable to this failure to enforce laws is incalculable. They have stripped the high gears on the old machine. They ran it without oil. It is running in low now! Floyd Olson wants a new type vehicle made to his own specifications. His record disqualifies him as an engineer and disqualifies him and his as sociate engineers for drafting plans for our ship of state. “Right now I'm writing a book for the church” says the rever end. Humbly I ask, is it a scrip book? And who’s going to read it? What ever became of the ru mor of the “destroyed by fire in Gull lake” of a Lake Calhoun put-put boat belonging to the hazel-brush naval squadron ? And who squared the deal ? Typewriters. Adding Machines,Mimeographs Mister Mecklenburg dramati cally informed his churchly audi ence that on his midnight romp through the night life of our vil lage, he saw “tables piled high with money” (used in tweeking the nose of the Goddess of Chance). I am wondering if those stacks of “money” were not some of the large heaps of Meck lenburg scrip the boys had been stuck with? EBIGACTf ■ OF STANDARD VAUDEVILLE and FIRST RUN FEATURE PICTURE I ""mEDNITE I SATURDAY IIS* II Ain-1301 L u,BoP,t ?iit lAn-fepm ■XiALfcHiiDKnior^ BUDAPEST GARDENS 729-31 3rd Ave. S. Mia. 9842 SERVING- HY-TEST BEER LEGAL LIQUOR We Specialize in Hungarian Dishes DINE —DANCE NEW ELABORATE BAR Restaurant - Baseball Return* DAKOTA RECREATION PARLOR Make This Place Your Headquarters 112 Washington Ave. South Phone: Main 0684 J.O.Pctersuu&Sons Drug Co. PRSSORimOIII Washington Av. S. and Cedar Chicago Av. and Lake St. 27th Av. S. and Lake St. 86th Av. 8. and Lake St. SPUD’S NITE CLUB 618 Hennepin Ave. Gome and See Onr Girl Show No Cover Charge No Minimum We Buy, Sell, Rent and Repair 210 South Fourth St. MAin 0904 C. V. Oliver, Mgr. MINNEAPOLIS TYPEWRITER EXCHANGE Established 18 Years This ad will be accepted as $2.00 eaah payment on any typewriter purchased from us during the month of March March 16, 1935