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Title: The Average American Author: Alexander Berkman Date: c. 1935? Language: en Topics: United States, crime, organized crime Source: Online source http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=1243, retrieved on November 17, 2020.
The general conception of the “type” American is in Europe picturesque
and niave at the same time. In France as in Germany, in the Northern as
in the Southern countries, in fact throughout the European Continent,
with the exception of England perhaps, the opinion of the man in the
street about America and Americans is primitive and inadequate. First of
all, the name “an American” immediately suggests riches, wealth. It is
almost as if American and rich man are synonyms, at least in the view of
the average European who has never been in the United States and who
seldom comes in direct contact with Americans in Europe.
In the mind of most people the American is pictured as something very
much different from the general run of men. He is very efficient, of
course, does things on a large scale, throws away his money and gains it
as easily, is generous and yet a good bargainer and sharp in business
affairs. On the whole he is a daring individual, even reckless, in short
a man from whom unexpected things should always be expected, a person
even somewhat irresponsible, especially in his behavior outside of his
own country.
Naturally, the American films, which are so popular in Europe, have to a
great extent helped to develop and cultivate the exaggerated and
picturesque notions of “the American”. The younger European generation
immediately visualizes the Western cowboy, with guns in both hands,
riding wildly and shooting up the nearest town after the round-up of his
cattle. American Prohibition developments, with its rum-running
adventures, sinking of ships carrying the forbidden liquor, and
particularly the racketeering “business” and the wholesale killings and
murders by official and unofficial “shooters” have greatly strengthened
the traditional European conception of “the American”. Mention the
subject of America to the average European and he immediately thinks of
Al Capone and similar chieftains of open crime and killings en gros.
It is of course true that there is more crime, proportionately and
absolutely, in the United States than anywhere else. Yet it is equally
true that the average American is very far from the European conception
about him. As a matter of fact, the notorious murders and racketeering
in America have very little relation to the average American and to the
great masses of the population. Moreover, there is really no such a type
as the average American.
The increase of open crime in America, directly traceable to
Prohibition, is by no means due to any special and strange
characteristics of the genus American. It is, on the contrary, due
entirely to certain special conditions created by country-wide
Prohibition in a land that at heart does not believe in Prohibition as a
moral issue and does not want it. Under similar conditions — when an
entire country is forced by an unpopular law to change its habitual mode
of life, to deprive itself of the things and pleasures it is used to
have — every country would show the same results that we see in America
today. In the past this has happened in various parts of the world,
among people of the most diverse character and nature. Past history
gives enough proof of it, and in recent history there are also enough
manifestations of this general, universal human trait. A most natural
trait, of course, and socially considered a very justifiable and
admirable evidence of moral strength and worth. There is neither reason
nor purpose in forcing people by law to change their mode of life. If
the desired change is for the better, only enlightenment and education
can bring about a real and permanent change. Forcing a change by the
threat of the law and punishment only results in the greatest harm. It
fails to convince or persuade the people, it only compels them. Being
compelled, they seek to avoid the consequences of open defiance: they do
in secret what they are prohibited from doing openly. They become
hypocrites, they lie and cheat; this often involves worse consequences
than the original disobedience, and the result is more crime and of a
more serious character. That is why the number of killings and murders
have so alarmingly increased in the United States since the Prohibition
law went into effect.
To the European it may seem as if the rampant crime in America is
characteristic of the American make-up and nature. As a matter of fact
it is characteristic only of the special condition resulting from
country-wide Prohibition. Nor is it the American people as a whole that
are involved in the so-called “crime wave”, as strikingly illustrtated
by such cities as Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and similar big
centers. The people as a whole, the “average” American, is in no way
directly concerned in those crimes, and he is interested in the matter
only so far as any average person in Europe would be interested in it;
namely, to the extent that it threatens his person or his property. It
is again special social groups that are directly concerned in the whole
Prohibition and crime situation in America.
I have said that there is no “average” American. That is due to the
circumstance that the people of the United States differ from each as
widely as the parts they live in. The New Yorker is a different specimen
of man from the Westerner; the latter is entirely different again from
the people of Texas. The Middle West, such States for instance as
Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska or Iowa, have an entirely different
psychology from that of Florida or Lower California. Their habits of
life, their modes of thought, even their language is different. Still
further, it must also be considered that millions of foreigners and
descendants of foreign born people live in the United States and are
part of the entire population that is known as “American”. Add to this
more than 10 million negroes, not to mention the score of different
Indian (red-skin) tribes, who are the real, indigenous Americans. In
this conglomeration of races it is impossible to speak of the “average”
American, nor can any adequate estimate of American psychology be made
on such a basis.
In the over 100 millions of the population in the United States there is
indeed a certain “type” that is directly involved in all the evils,
vises and crimes, including wholesale murder, that have come as a result
of Prohibition. This type is neither a social class with its particular
and antagonistic interests, nor even any social group. The type is
composed of members of different social strata, even of different
intellectual and moral character and attitude. But they all have one
particular interest in common: to make money, often great fortunes, by
helping the people to break the Prohibition laws. This type has become a
great powerful trust that rules the country with a power that defies the
power of the United Stated Government. It can easily and quite safely
defy it, for the simple reason that in that trust belong some of the
powerful and influential officials of the Government itself, of the
State Governments as well as of the Federal Government.
I am often asked how it happens that such men as Al Capone and his
well-known lieutenants, whose crimes are committed in the open and
almost daily, remain safe from arrest. Even racketeers of lesser
prominence are seldom arrested and never sent to prison. An ordinary
murderer is quickly electrocuted in America — my questioners remark, and
even innocent men, like Sacco and Vanzetti, when once arrested and
convicted, cannot be saved from the hangman in America. How does it
happen, then — my European friends ask — that such undisguised murderers
as Al Capone are not touched?
They are right in asking such a question. To the outsider, unfamiliar
with the American Prohibition situation, the present conditions in the
United States seem indeed incredible and impossible to explain or
understand. But the answer is: the all-powerful racketeer TRUST. Al
Capone has not only his army of helpers, who are from the professional
criminal ranks, but his chief aids are judges, high police officials,
prosecuting attorneys and members of the highest State courts. The
police will not arrest him or any of his important “gun-men”, because Al
Capone pays them tribute with sums that run into the thousands of
dollars. At his service are judges who will liberate the Trust gangsters
if they happen to be arrested, and if the popular outcry is too strong
and the gangster must be tried, he will in most cases be acquitted by
the “influence” of his chief Capone. It may be said now without
exaggeration that for the last decade especially the United States is
ruled, officially and unofficially, by men who are the staunchest
upholders of Prohibition in public, but who “in their private” capacity
are the mainstay of the racketeer Trust for the millions of money that
is “in it”. General business may suffer as a result of the worst
depression America has experienced in the past 50 years, but the
Racketeer Trust is prospering. Indeed, it is growing larger and entering
new fields, for today the Trust is not satisfied to draw profits from
liquor only. It has branched out and is now beginning to control various
other industries. But that is another story of which I may write some
other time.