Capone & the Red Menace
Capone was never at a loss for words. If there was anything he liked better than voicing his own opinions, it was seeing them in print. In 1930, just after his return from semi-voluntary imprisonment in Pennsylvania, the editors of Time Magazine not only gave him an opportunity to bombilate on the state of the world to correspondent Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., they gave him the cover. Here, then, are his views on the Depression, the upcoming Presidential election, unemployment, philanthropy, agronomy, and Communism, as Vanderbilt took them down:
“The Democrats will be swept in on a record vote. The masses will think they’ll get relief from the Depression that way. I know very little about world finance; but I don’t think the end of the Depression is going to come like that. I think it will take longer. A series of circumstances will bring about a relief, if we don’t let the Reds try to bring it about before. Roosevelt’s a good fellow, but I’m afraid his health is pretty shaky, and a leader needs health.
“This is going to be a terrible winter. Us fellas has gotta open our pocketbooks, and keep on keeping them open, if we want any of us to survive. We can’t wait for Congress or Hoover or anyone else. We must help keep tummies filled and bodies warm. If we don’t, it’s all up with the way we’ve learned to live. Why, do you know, sir, America is on the verge of its greatest social upheaval? Bolshevism is knocking at our gates. We can’t afford to let it in. We’ve got to organize ourselves against it, and put our shoulders together, and hold fast. We need funds to fight famine.
“We must keep America whole, and safe, and unspoiled. If machines are going to take jobs away from the worker, then he will need to find something else to do. Perhaps he’ll get back to the soil. But we must care for him during the period of change. We must keep him away from Red literature, Red ruses: we must see that his mind remains healthy. For, regardless of where he was born, he is now an American.”
Introduction copyright © 2017 by Andrew Ward. Quotations from Time Magazine, March, 1930. Because Time did not renew its copyright until 1934, this issue and all previous issues are in the Public Domain.
