A CHALLENGE TO
EVERY AMERICAN

^ John A. O’Brien.Ph.D.

A Qi/een’s'Work
Pamphlet



Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2016

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Are You a Good Citizen?

A Challenge to

Every American

by

JOHN A. O’BRIEN, PH.D.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

“ There is but one rule of conduct: Always

do the right thing. The cost may be high in

money
,
friends, sacrifice . The cost of

doing wrong however is infinitely higher.

For a temporal gain we barter the infinities



Nihil ohstat:

Rev. T. E. Dillon

Censor Librorum

Imprimatur:

John Francis Noll

Bishop of Fort Wayne

January 12, 1945

Sixth printing, March 1952

Any financial profit made by

the Central Office of the Sodality

will be used for the advancement

of the Sodality Movement and the

cause of Catholic Action.

Copyright 1945

John A. O'Brien

DeacWffied



Stop!

Are You a Good Citizen?

“An honest man’s the noblest work of God.”

—Alexander Pope, “Essay on Man”

S
TOP! Are you a good citizen? Do you

take an intelligent interest in your gov-

ernment—city, county, state, national

—

and strive to elect honest and capable offi-

cials? Do you make an effort to curb the

graft which honeycombs so much of the

politics of our country and disgraces many

of our cities?

Or are you one of that vast number who

say: “Politics is dirty; I wouldn’t soil

my hands by getting close to it; I leave

that to the professional politicians”?

Suppose a judge were to address the

above questions to you, what would you,

dear reader, be obliged to say?

Such an examination of conscience

should be made by every citizen. It has

been too long delayed. With clamorous

urgency it challenges the smug indiffer-

ence of most of us. As long as we allow

our Christianity to be a hothouse affair

and make no serious effort to apply it in

the blustery, storm-swept fields of civic and

political life, we are only half-baked Chris-

tians, fissured ethical personalities desper-

ately wanting in balance and integration.

— 3 —



Because there are so many who have

this attitude of indifference, public funds

are being squandered, rackets are mush-

rooming everywhere, gambling syndicates

take their millions from poor and rich

alike, night clubs and theaters stage vul-

gar exhibitions, and commercialized vice

injects its malign infections into the souls

and bodies of untold thousands. In many

of the fields of commercialized vice doc-

tors struggle frantically to stem the tide,

while corrupt officials conveniently look the

other way, refusing to close the spigot that

is the source of this cesspool of social

disease.

Millions of so-called good citizens, pro-

fessing Christians, and churchgoers kneel

before altars banked with Easter lilies, or

sit before white-robed choirs singing long-

drawn-out hallelujahs; but they would not

soil their white-kid gloves by touching any

of these rackets, even if the touch were

only to strangle it. Those dirty matters are

left to the politicians and the crooks. Thus

there grows up in many of our cities the

unholy alliance between crime and poli-

tics. Instead of being the government

of the people, by the people, and for the

people, democracy becomes all too often

the government of the indifferent by the

unscrupulous.

An Urgent Need

There is then a widespread and urgent

need to apply the ideals of uncompromising

honesty that were laid down by the divine

— 4 —



founder of the Christian religion to the

fields of civic and political life. Christ is

not satisfied with mere lip service. He

demands the keeping of the commandments,

the putting of faith into practice. “Not

every one,” warns Christ, “that saith to me,

Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of

heaven; but he that doth the will of my

Father who is in heaven, he shall enter

into the kingdom of heaven.”

What a caricature of the true Christian

is the individual who goes to church on

Sunday and on the other days of the week

fattens on the fruits of political graft and

corruption! What a stumbling block and

a scandal to unbelievers who see this dis-

parity between his professed faith and his

actual practice!

There are those however who declare

that graft is the unwritten law in politics,

the “palm grease” that is taken for granted.

“They are all doing it,” remarked a

politician to me, “and why shouldn’t I?”

“The fact that others steal,” I pointed

out, “is no justification for you to steal.

If your line of reasoning were valid, every

commandment of God would have been

relegated to the scrap heap centuries ago.

No matter how many thieves practice their

trade, stealing will remain forever steal-

ing."

We call old notions “fudge”
And bend our conscience to our dealing.

The Ten Commandments will not budge
,

And stealing will continue stealing.

— 5—



Writing to the ancient Romans, St.

Paul formulated the law for all the fol-

lowers of Christ when he said: “Be not

overcome by evil, but overcome evil by

good.”

America is still at heart a Christian na-

tion. Its national life rotates on the axis

of the altruistic idealism inspired by the

teachings of Christ. It reaches out its

hands with offerings of healings to the af-

flicted peoples of every land. It is there-

fore high time for the American people

to harness their religious idealism to their

civic and political life and clean with the

acids of uncompromising honesty the

Augean stables of corruption that are so

prevalent throughout our land.

Courage to the Fore

Courage is the virtue that is now so

much in the public eye. The deeds of our

men and women in the services have pro-

voked the admiration of the world. We
propose to show that such courage is as

much needed on the home front as on the

battle front.

We purpose to show that the citizen who
battles for justice and decency on the

home front is, not a goody-goody sissy

poking his nose into other people’s busi-

ness, but a lionhearted soldier aflame with

the highest courage.

True, the courage of the citizen at home

is more of the moral than of the physical

— 6—



kind—though the latter is by no means ab-
sent. But the highest form of courage is

moral courage. It is the most difficult kind

of courage. Moral courage implies the

capacity to go against the social pressure

of a group, to withstand the clamorous

tyranny of the mob out of loyalty to one’s

convictions. This form of courage moves in

the realm of ideas. It runs the gamut of

the scorn, ridicule, and abuse of the crowd.

That which men crave most deeply is

the applause and admiration of the public.

Most people would face physical danger

and even death before they would face

the shame and scorn of public opinion.

Warden Lawes, of long experience at Sing

Sing, has said that this fear is true even of

hardened criminals, who cringe and smart

before the scorn of their fellow inmates.

The force of public opinion is there-

fore most powerful in the fashioning of

social conduct. It will whip into line vir-

tually every citizen of a nation. When

aroused and articulate, it is immensely

more powerful than any law on a statute

book. In fact any law which is not an-

chored in public opinion will not long sur-

vive.

There are times however when an in-

dividual sincerely believes that public opin-

ion is wrong. Here he must choose either

to follow the verdict of the crowd or

the dictate of his conscience. To follow

the latter requires that he run the gamut

of public condemnation and obloquy—

a

— 7—



form of punishment from which many a

person who has abundant physical courage

will shrink and flee. Because this punish-

ment bites into the very marrow of the

ego as it is reflected in the public eye, most

people find it the most bitter and the most

intolerable of all punishments.

How often have you heard a person say:

“I would rather take a beating than do

that”? Why? Because the doing of “that”

would bring him, not a physical beating,

but the scourging of social disapproval

—

and therefore greater pain than any physi-

cal pain.

Tunney's Bravest Fight

The core of this booklet is the consider-

ation of courage in politics. With a view

to make the difference between physical

and moral courage crystal-clear however, I

should like to give an illustration from a

nonpolitical field.

Gene Tunney has given many an ex-

hibition of physical gameness. Twice he

faced the murderous blows of the Manassa

Mauler in the squared ring and lifted the

heavyweight crown from one of the great-

est fighters that the game has ever known.

But one night in a midwestern city Tunney

faced a still more formidable foe. He was

the guest of honor at a stag banquet. The

entertainment committee had arranged for

a floor show after the dinner. To Tunney’s

surprise the show featured a couple of vir-

tually nude female dancers.

— 8—



Such an exhibition was offensive to Tun-

ney's moral code. But what was he to do ?

To get up and leave would be to fly in the

face of the social pressure. Here was a

case calling, not for physical gameness,

but for moral courage. Tunney proved

equal to it. Arising from his seat at the

speaker's table, he said, “Gentlemen, I

don't care for this type of exhibition. I

find it indecent and offensive. You'll have

to excuse me."

And he walked quickly from the room.

Others followed his example. Soon the

room was almost empty.

In our opinion this was the bravest fight

that Gene Tunney ever fought and won

—

a victory of moral courage over the tyran-

ny of a crowd.

A Senate Scene

Early in the spring of 1917, I listened to

the debates which raged in the Senate over

America's entrance or nonentrance into

World War I. By that time the country

had been inundated by tidal waves of prop-

aganda for war. Throughout the country

the press had worked up the war spirit to

such a pitch that it had become fashion-

able and patriotic to shout for war and to

assail all speakers who pleaded with the

people to keep out of the raging volcanoes

of European hatreds. The eastern news-

papers had been particularly bellicose and

extremely successful in that section of the

country.

— 9 —



I remember listening one afternoon to a

four-hour address by Senator Stone of Mis-

souri. He pleaded for America to use her

good offices to bring the warring leaders

to the peace table and to abstain irom

throwing her young men into the fires of

European enmities and never dying hat-

reds. Whether you agree or disagree with

the stand the senator took, we think that

all of you must admit that it was a stand

which at that time required a great moral

courage. As chairman of the foreign-

relations committee Senator Stone was

under terrific pressure to reflect the policy

of the Wilson administration, which was

then pressing vigorously for war.

The great majority of the Senate had

by that time been won over to the war

policy. Contrary to all the rules the crowds

in the galleries, inflamed with the passions

of war, broke out repeatedly in hisses

when the senator pleaded for abstinence

from European quarrels and for some

regard for the lives of our own young men.

Newspapers called him a
<fHun sympathiz-

er” and applied to him other labels which

were chiefly libels. The atrocity stories

which had been manufactured in offices set

up for that purpose had swept the country

and instilled the war spirit in a people who

normally wish only to live in peace and

good will with all nations.

I have never been able to forget the pic-

ture of Senator Stone’s facing the hostility

of the galleries, the displeasure of the ma-

— 10 —



jority of his colleagues, and the wrath of

the administration leaders in order to fol-

low the voice of his conscience and plead

for abstinence from the interminable

squabbles of the Old World. With him

stood La Follette, O’Gorman, Norris, Reed,

and a few others, all whom President Wil-

son branded as the “twelve willful men”

because they dared to defy his demand for

war.

"Country Above Party"

Some twenty years later I had occasion

to confer upon Senator George Norris the

Cardinal Newman Award for distinguished

public service. Then we learned at first-

hand what he had to face in the way of

public criticism because of his vote. When

he went back to Nebraska to give an ac-

count of his vote to his constituents, he

found it impossible to get a single promi-

nent citizen to preside at the meeting

scheduled for that purpose. No one wished

to be tarred with the stigma of association

with a man who had voted to keep out of

the blood baths of Europe.

Such a vote was regarded not only as

unpatriotic but closely akin to treason.

Nevertheless George Norris faced that

crowd with a clear conscience, the true

source of moral courage.

There is something infectious about cour-

age. Before Norris left that crowded hall,

he had won the crowd over from hostility

to applause for his fearless obedience to

the deepest convictions of his conscience.

— 11 —



We can think of few men in public life
who have shown in season and out of sea-

son moral courage such as Senator Nor-

ris^. Realizing early in his public career

that blind obedience to the behests of the

bosses within a political party was incon-

sistent with the best interests of the coun-

try, Norris declared his intention to fol-

low his own conscience.

“I was elected,” he once said, “to serve

my country, not the interests of any po-

litical party.”

Though elected originally on the Repub-

lican ticket, Norris did not hesitate to sup-

port a measure introduced by a Democrat

if he thought it was really a good measure.

Neither did he hesitate to campaign for a

Democratic candidate if he was convinced

that the man would be a better public

servant than the man brought out by his

own party. He afforded the country the

first spectacle of a United States senator

elected originally on the Republican ticket

and campaigning— not only in his own
state but in other states as well—for the
Democratic Presidential candidate.

He had come to look upon party labels

as virtually meaningless. He demanded to

know what was beneath these tags, to in-

spect the real goods. At Washington he

had been disgusted with innumerable in-

stances of alleged public servants’ placing

the interests of their party before the in-

terests of their country.

— 12 —



"Young Man, If..."

Early in Norris's career in the House of

Representatives an incident had occured

which showed him the folly of traipsing

along blindly with his party. A Demo-
cratic leader had introduced a resolution

to adjourn Congress on the morrow out

of respect for Washington's birthday.

Whereupon a Republican leader had as-

sailed him and his party as loafers and

urged that the best way to pay tribute to

the father of our country was to hold the

usual session. Norris thought the resolu-

tion introduced by the Democratic leader

entirely reasonable, and he voted for it.

That evening in the cloakroom a Repub-

lican leader took Norris to task because he

didn't vote with his party.

“Young man," he said to Norris, “if you

want to stay long in this House, you'll have

to vote as your party leader tells you. The

cemetery is full of political corpses who

failed to obey orders."

A slow anger began to kindle in Norris's
breast. Later that evening he found that

exactly the reverse of the action in the

House had taken place in the Senate. A
Republican had moved to adjourn for the

morrow, and a Democrat had opposed the

motion. The vote had been along the

usual party lines.

“If blind obedience to party orders leads

to such contradiction in small matters,"

Norris reflected, “why will it not produce

— 13 —



the same glaring inconsistency and folly in

important matters ?” From then on for

forty years of public service Norris fol-

lowed through thick and thin the voice of

his own conscience.

It was of no consequence to him whether

the measure bore the Democratic label or

that of the G.O.P. What alone concerned

him were the merits of the measure. Was

the measure for the best interests of the

country as a whole ? This became the

touchstone by which he was able to recog-

nize the difference between the chaff and

the wheat.

His party leaders raged and stormed.

They sought to knife him and throw his

carcass to the political wolves. They even

resorted to the dishonest trick of placing

on the ballot the name of an obscure Ne-

braska groceryman whose name was also

George W. Norris, thinking they would

thereby confuse voters and by this form of

subtle fraud have the senator counted out.

But the citizens of Nebraska, like those of

any other state, admire courage and place

a high premium on unflinching honesty.

For some forty years they returned Norris

to Washington, honoring him with one of

the longest tenures of high office in our

nation's history.

Norris's example infected others. Con-

sequently we have today a growing number

of members of Congress who are not

afraid to put the welfare of the nation

above that of the party. In the continued

— 14—



growth of this body lies the hope for the

advancement of the well-being and pros-

perity of the American people. Along with

the elder Robert La Follette, who pioneered

in this field, stands George W. Norris,

whose name has become a symbol of cour-

age in the field of politics.

The Way of the Politician

Moral courage is particularly needed in

political life. Here the traditional policy

has been to do the expedient, the oppor-

tune thing. Politicians are concerned chief-

ly with the immediate consequences of their

actions—how the voters react—not with
the long-term consequences of a measure.

The gods of the politicians are Expediency

and Opportunism. Before these idols they

worship, and for them they are willing to

sell their souls. The consequence is that

politics has become the breeding ground

of moral timidity, if not of cowardice.

The prevailing custom is to straddle is-

sues, to agree with everyone and to differ

with no one, even though constituents dif-

fer on the policies they want pursued. The

past master in politics has learned the art

of blowing hot and cold at the same time.

The yardstick of all measures is “a count

of noses.
,,

“It is well to know the truth

and speak it,” runs an Oriental proverb,

“but it is better to know the truth and

speak about the palm trees.” While this

might be a prudent policy to follow in a

country ruled by a Turkish Sultan or a

ruthless despot, it should have no place

— 15 —



in a democracy, whose essence is free dis-

cussion and the voicing of honest convic-

tions.

Here the straddling propensity, the fawn-

ing spirit, the noncommittal attitude, the

time-serving disposition render difficult

—

if not impossible—the development of hon-
est and courageous leadership in public life.

By lulling the voters into somnolence about

public issues, unscrupulous leaders under-

mine good citizenship. Thus does democ-

racy, so glorious in theory, tend to become

in practice a government of the indifferent

by the unscrupulous.

The tendency among typical politicians

who seldom if ever want “to stand and be

counted” is to shelve controversial ques-

tions as speedily as possible or to cloak

them with shirking reticence. When a live

issue comes to the fore, the dominant

policy is to

. . . shut the door

With mystery before

And reticence behind.

"Addition, Division, Silence"

Political diplomacy has become the art

of using words to say as little as possible.

One of the typical representatives of this

kind of diplomacy, Talleyrand, went so far

as to say that language was made to con-

ceal thought. This attitude doesn’t make

for honesty. Nor does it make for courage.

It makes for a postponement of the issue,

a shying away from facts, an ostrich habit

— 16 —



of burying one’s head in the sand and, as

a wag has impishly added, inviting by one’s

posture the treatment one deserves.

A person of wide experience in city ad-

ministration tells us that it is this conspir-

acy of silence, this hush-up policy, this let-

matters-well-enough-alone procedure, which

makes possible the widesprea
'

graft and

corruption existing today. “There are

hundreds and even thousands of towns and

cities,” he said, “where slot machines and

other gambling devices are operating wide

open. The rake-off runs each year into

the millions. It is often split four ways,

to each of the leading public officials—the
mayor, the state’s attorney, the sheriff, the

chief of the police—who are charged with
the enforcement of the laws against such

gambling. Sometimes the newspaper pub-

lisher who is silent on the subject is also

given a slice. These persons never collect

in person. They have their agents pick up

for them each month their share of the

slush fund.”

Hundreds of thousands of citizens know

that this kind of corruption is going on.

Yet rare indeed is the individual who so

much as says, “boo !” about the great

American game of “addition, division, and

silence.” A little bit of moral courage would
sever with the promptness of a razor’s

stroke the widespread tie-up of politics

with organized gambling and with that still

more malignant enemy—commercialized
vice. Legislators can legislate, aldermen

— 17—



can pass ordinances, and clergymen can

exhort till the cows come home. But the

tie-up of politics with crime will continue

until men who have moral courage will

arise to blast the conspiracy of silence and

to turn the light full on these corruptions

by the fearless proclamation of the facts.

Fighting Al Capone

We listened to the story told to our stu-
dents by George E. Q. Johnson. When he

was Federal district attorney of Chicago,

he was seeking to secure the conviction of

the notorious gangster Al Capone. Ca-

pone and his fellow thugs had gained the

bootlegging ascendancy in Chicago, and the

business had mushroomed into a fifty-mil-

lion-dollar racket overnight. Capone had

already “muscled” into the control of a

number of labor unions. His syndicate

was levying a tax upon merchants, a tax

called “protection.” Scarcely a week

passed without someone's being murdered,

frequently under particularly ghastly cir-

cumstances, as a result of the racketeer's

widespread operations.

Persons who were shot but did not die

were almost invariably too afraid to reveal

the names of the would-be murderers. Wit-

nesses were called in, only to experience

sudden attacks of forgetfulness. Other wit-

nesses disappeared before the cases came

to court. When word got out that a witness

intended to talk, he would be killed sud-

denly and mysteriously. Even hospitals

— 18—



were invaded, and injured victims were

finished off to keep them from talking.

The citizens seemed cowed. Vice, crime,

and murder were rampant. Gangsters were

becoming millionaires. They had winter

homes in Florida. Oriental rugs graced

their palaces. Gold knobs adorned their

doors. Capone & Company appeared to

have law and order by the throat and were

laughing in unholy glee.

“The greatest difficulty/’ said Johnson,

“that I experienced in prosecuting that

case was in trying to get witnesses to testi-

fy. Time after time we would bring wit-

nesses to my office, only to find them

lacking the courage to testify or to give us

the slightest help. We would promise them
police protection. But even then we rarely

found a man who had courage enough to

put in his appearance on the witness

stand. They wanted protection as citizens,

but they were unwilling to give the testi-

mony which would have removed the boss

of the criminals from circulation and en-

abled us to smash his ring.

"We Needed .

.

“If ever there was a need for courage,

it was in that lawless period when we were

fighting an uphill fight against the most

formidable organization of criminals and

gangsters that ever spewed horror and

death upon the citizens of Chicago. We
needed men and women who had the cour-

age to talk out in the court in order to

— 19 —



enable us to put this desperate criminal

under lock and key.”

Johnson and his associates finally se-

cured a conviction on grounds of income-

tax-law violation ( !) and had Capone sen-

tenced to Alcatraz. Before achieving that

however, they found it necessary to place

prospective witnesses in a vessel out on

Lake Michigan in order to keep them from

fleeing on the wings of fear.

The simple fact is that the enormous

toll—which each year runs into the bil-
lions and comes out of the pockets of tax-

payers— through racketeering and crime
is traceable chiefly to the lack of moral

courage on the part of those who are

charged with the enforcement of law.

Sharing in that culpability is the vast

legion of citizens who know of crookedness

in high places and in low but who do not

say a word or lift a finger to end the dis-

grace. This is the malady which is mak-

ing the administration of our cities reel

and stagger like a drunken man. It is the

carcinoma of American democracy, a can-

cer which clamors for the wielding of the

scalpel of moral courage.

Opportunism and expediency beget the

politician. Courage begets the statesman.

Between the two there is a world of dif-

ference. The former’s avocation is to hold

his ear to the ground. The latter holds

his head erect, his eyes forward. He

comes to grips with a problem and seeks

a solution in the light of reason and ex-

— 20—



perience. Public officials would do well

to heed the truth which Lincoln made the

guiding principle of his life. “I am not

bound to win,” he said, “but I am bound

to be true. I am not bound to succeed,

but I am bound to live up to the light I

have. I must stand with anybody that

stands right, stand with him while he is

right, and part with him when he goes

wrong.”

Senator Johnson Replies

Senator Hiram Johnson has won the

admiration of friend and foe by the cour-

age he has displayed in standing by his

convictions. A delegation once called upon
the senator and informed him that they

represented seventy newspaper editors in

California who would actively oppose his

reelection unless he changed his views on

a certain measure. In the face of such

formidable and articulate opposition most

candidates would have flopped over, or at

least they would have sought to conciliate

the opposition with honeyed words.

Not Hiram Johnson. “Go and tell those

editors,” replied the senator, “that if sev-

enty times seventy editors oppose me I

will stand by my convictions.” The elec-
torate perceived his courage, flocked to his

standard, and reelected him by an over-

whelming majority. He enjoys the unique

distinction of having been nominated for

the Senate by both the Republican and the

Democratic parties. As in the case of

Senator Norris, the electorate has shown

— 21 —



its admiration for courage and honesty by

rewarding Senator Johnson with an unusu-

ally long tenure of high public office.

While it is true that courage may exist

without practical wisdom, there is a strong

presumption that courage and wisdom go

together. “The possession of habitual cour-

age, observes Coventry Patmore, “implies

that a man understands what he is doing

and whither he is going.” Moreover the

collapse of courage is not infrequently

followed by the failure of insight and the

breakdown of judgment. People lose the

power to perceive the truth when they lose

the habit of obeying it. Nature rebels

against the dichotomy that results when

the truth is seen but not obeyed. If this

practice is long indulged, nature achieves

a unity, even though a pathological one, by

dulling the vision or desensitizing the inner

ear of conscience. Here is the psychologi-

cal genesis of the process of rationaliza-

tion, wherein one uses one’s reason to

fabricate arguments to justify one’s moral

delinquency. Herein is perceived likewise

the inner deformation which results from

the habitual failure of moral courage

—

the taint of nature’s punishment.

When John Stuart Mill was running for

parliament, his opponent appeared on the

platform and taunted him with a quotation

from one of his books. Therein Mill had

expressed his conviction that the judgment

of the masses could not be trusted in com-

plex and involved questions demanding

— 22—



training in the weighing of evidence pro

and con. Thinking that he had Mill in a tight

spot, where an admission would incur the

disfavor of the crowd, the opponent asked:

“Mr. Mill, did you or did you not make

that statement reflecting on the judgment

of the people ?”

“I did,” replied Mr. Mill, “and I stand

by it now.”

Whereupon the crowd broke out with

thunderous applause. Even though the

statement was not complimentary to them,

they admired the fearless honesty of the

man who had made it and now acknowl-

edged it, and they were not slow to show

their admiration.

Dewey Declares War

During the twenty-two years when I was

in charge of the Newman Foundation at

the University of Illinois, I was privileged

to bring to the university many eminent

persons who were chosen to receive at a

public convocation the Cardinal Newman

Award for distinguished contributions to

science, literature, art, or public service.

I think that of all those illustrious person-

ages the general student body showed per-

haps the greatest enthusiasm for and gave

the most rapturous acclaim to Thomas E.

Dewey, then district attorney of New York.

Perhaps his youthfulness had something to

do with the students’ reaction, for youth

appeals to youth and captures their imagi-

nation most readily. But probably the fac-

— 23—



tor which more than any other one

accounted for the spontaneous and tumul-

tuous acclaim accorded Dewey wherever

he appeared on the campus was that in the

eyes of the students he was a symbol of

youthful courage.

Like a youthful Sir Galahad he had

thrown himself into a life-and-death strug-

gle with gangsters and gorillas who under

“Lucky” Luciano and other such leaders

had the nation’s metropolis by the throat.

Repeated attempts to place these gangsters,

who were fattening on the enormous

rake-off from organized gambling and com-

mercialized vice, had fizzled out ignomini-

ously. As in Chicago under “Scarface”

A1 Capone, witnesses were intimidated or

killed. A few minor thugs took the rap,

while the overlords grew more arrogant

and insolent every day.

Throwing the gauntlet down to these

murderous gorillas, the youthful district

attorney asked no quarter and gave none.

He brought a marvelous efficiency into

the methods for the collecting of evidence

and thereby not only gained the confidence

of witnesses but succeeded in' protecting

them. Then he proceeded to bear down

with merciless precision and strangling

evidence upon the gangster overlords who

had grown fat and sleek in the purchased

immunity which they had so long enjoyed.

With the whole nation watching him,

this youthful gladiator hurled the thunder-

bolts of public indignation into the inner

— 24 —



circles and threw the noose of long delayed

justice around the necks of the vice moguls.

Syndicates whose grasping fingers pene-

trated thousands of dens in order to collect

the lion’s share of the loot—dens of pros-
titutes, panderers, gamblers, and racketeers

—began to crumble. The luck of “Lucky”
Luciano began to wane. Shyster lawyers

whose practice it was to split the spoils

with the vice overlords found New York

too hot for comfort. The Augean stables

of the metropolis, reeking with the filth

of corruption, graft, commercialized vice,

and crime, a stench which had assailed the

nostrils of the nation, got such a cleansing

as they had never received in their history.

The Need Today

The overlords were either executed or

put behind bars. The syndicates were

broken up, their captains jailed. The citi-

zens breathed freely again. The city was

able once more to call its soul its own

—

without the need to pay tribute to “Lucky”

Luciano or his mobsters. So deep was the

admiration of the people of the nation for

the solution of this difficult problem, a job

done with courage, ability, and honesty,

that soon the name of Thomas E. Dewey,

despite the man’s exceeding youthfulness,

began to lead in the Presidential straw

votes throughout the country.

It was shortly after he had won his

fight against the vice moguls of New York
that Dewey came to the campus of Illinois

— 25 —



University. No dignitary of state or

Church, however eminent he might be,

could have evoked from the student body

the spontaneous outpouring of admiration,

enthusiasm, and affection that was show-

ered upon this brave and modest young

man. In the long history of the university

no other visitor, I am certain, ever re-

ceived an acclaim that came so close to

idolatry as that which was accorded

Thomas E. Dewey. He established a pat-

tern of efficiency for every office of dis-

trict attorney in the country. More than

that: He endued that office with the spirit

of uncompromising courage.

Why should not every incumbent in such

an office, I have often wondered, follow

the pattern and emulate the spirit which

brought such shining victory in a locale

where defeat had long been traditional?

Such a spirit brings rich returns in the

administration of justice, in the protection

of the community from gangsters, and in

the gratitude of the people. With crime

growing by leaps and bounds, the crying

need in America today is for officials who

have the courage to carry the war to the

gangsters, the grafters, the racketeers, and

the criminals and to pursue them without

ceasing till the last one is securely behind

bars. To officials with such a spirit will

be the victory of moral courage over slink-

ing cowardice—the invariable mark of the
criminal.

— 26—



A Task for All

This is not however the job of public

officials alone. It is the task of all the

people—the electorate and the officials
working shoulder to shoulder. Public serv-

ants need the backing of public opinion.

They need the wholehearted cooperation of

every man, woman, and child to secure the

observance of all the laws of a community.

Too often in the past, citizens in sufficient

numbers have failed to go to the polls to

elect capable and conscientious candidates.

Too often they have regarded their work

as done when they cast their ballot. That

attitude of laissez-faire
,
of crass indiffer-

ence, must be replaced by one of ceaseless

vigilance for the public good.

How many so-called good people regard

politics as a dirty business with which they

disdain to soil their white-kid gloves. They

have time for auction bridge and other so-

cial pastimes. But for the important busi-

ness of electing capable public servants

they have no time. Theirs is a form of

civic cowardice that approaches treason.

Such careless and indifferent citizens are

not only slackers; they are criminals. For

to their apathy is traceable in the last

analysis the election of unqualified officials

and the consequent failures in the enforce-

ment of law.

American boys have shed and are shed-

ding their blood in foreign lands for the

preservation of the ideals of democracy,

for the safeguarding of the American way

— 27—



of life. Have we on the home front kept

faith with them? Have we fought with

courage and determination to safeguard

the right of the ballot for all? What

about the ten million Negro citizens whom

we ask to go abroad to fight for freedom

in distant lands, while suffrage is denied

to the majority of them in the southern

states? “Go out and fight,” we tell them,

“for the freedom of people in Africa ... in

Europe ... in the Philippines ... in

China.” And all the while we keep mil-

lions of our own in political servitude at

home. Such a contradition is the breeding

ground of hatred, injustices, and crime.

“Go out into foreign lands,” we tell our

soldier boys, “and fight for freedom from

want for the Europeans . . . the Africans

. . . the Asiatics. . . .” And here at home

millions of our people are living in squalid

poverty. No less an authority than the

President of the United States has de-

clared that a third of our people are liv-

ing below the standard of American life.

In 1929 the richest tenth of one per cent

of American families had a total income

equal to the total of forty-two per cent at

the other end of the scales. This means that

36,000 wealthy families together received

as much as 11,653,000 poor families did.

And all the while we prate of “democracy

. . . liberty . . . and equality.” The stark

facts make these words look like ghosts

in the night.

Here on the home front the fight for so-

cial justice, for civic decency, and for the

— 28—



realization of the ideals of democracy chal-

lenge the courage and the fortitude of all

our citizens. Here is a battle that must be

fought, not with bombing planes and sub-

marines, but with intelligence, patience,

and perseverance. For the winning of that

battle to make the ideals of democracy liv-

ing realities throughout the length and

breadth of America, we shall need a cour-

age that is unsurpassed by the fearless

warriors in the bombing plane, the tank,

and the submarine.

An individual proves that he is a good

citizen by his willingness to fight—in sea-
son and out of season, whether the odds be

great or small, at great personal inconven-

ience and, if need be, at danger to life and

limb— for the realization of the noble
Christian ideals of social justice and civic

decency throughout the whole of American

life. For him there is but one rule of con-

duct: Always do the right thing. The cost

may be high in money, in friends, in sacri-

fice. The cost of doing wrong however is

infinitely higher. For a temporal gain we

barter the infinities.

Observe that rule of conduct. And when

you are confronted with the challenge,

“Stop! Are You a Good Citizen ?” you can

call upon your deeds to make answer for

you. With an eloquence that surpasses the

language of words they will thunder forth

an answer that will be your safe-conduct

among men and your passport into the

kingdom of God.

— 29 —



Other Pamphlets

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Alcoholics Anonymous

Can We Kill Them Mercifully?

The Catholic Church and the Negro

Graft Is Your Business

“Life” and “Look” Show Us

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Race Riddles

There’s Money in Gambling

This Virtue Called Tolerance

Why People Go Communist

Whose Country Is This?

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Examination of Conscience for

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Are You Heeding Fatima?

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What to Do on a Date

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Of Special Interest

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Are You a Well-Balanced Person?

Don’t Say It!

Fashionable Sin

Let Me Lead My Own Life!

Let Us Live

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Why Be Decent?

You’ve a Right to Be Happy

You Can’t Live That Way

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