Lien, Arnold J.

English

Washington University St. Louis: Open Scholarship

Washington University Law Review Volume 22 Issue 4 January 1937 Review of “Here's to Crime,” By Courtney Ryley Cooper Arnold J. Lien Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview  Part of the Criminal Law Commons Recommended Citation Arnold J. Lien, Review of “Here's to Crime,” By Courtney Ryley Cooper, 22 WASH. U. L. Q. 587 (1937). Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol22/iss4/4 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Law Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact digital@wumail.wustl.edu. BOOK REVIEWSBOOK REVIEWSHERE'S TO CRImE. By Courtney Ryley Cooper. Boston: Little, Brown andCompany, 1937. Pp. XI, 454.For the reader whose technic of reading involves the actual repeatingof the words as they occur on the page and not merely seeing them andgetting their meanings by sight, this book has horrifying embarrassmentsin store. Americans who are engaged in the businesses of crime and vicetalk in terms of the life of which they are a part. If they were gardenersthey would talk about spades and rakes and azaleas and plant lice andblights and droughts and blue ribbons without any attempt to call theseby other names. They are not gardeners and what they talk about is notgardening; but they talk just as plainly about their business as the garden-ers do about theirs. And Courtney Cooper lets them do a lot of talkingin their own natural way. The pity is not that these people talk about thebusiness they know best and in the manner which best fits that business.The tragic pity is rather that there should be in the United States ofAmerica the sort of business in which these Americans are engaged.The business of crime is the largest single business in the country. Onthe moral, "crime does not pay," the author makes the comment that "Itseems rather strange, if crime does not pay, that more than three million,five hundred thousand persons should be engaged in it." The chance whichthe average American has of entirely escaping any serious contact withthese "business" men is about one in four. The minor and indirect contactspractically no one escapes.To the author apparently the principles, the methods, the staples, andthe specialists of the practitioners of crime are intimately known as aresult of study and observation and far-flung direct contacts. He is in aposition, consequently, to reveal with telling effect the appalling magnitudeand the intricate permeations of the whole criminal traffic. An abundanceof illustrative material has been collected from the lives and records offamous criminals of recent years. The author makes clear that the com-mercialization, blackmail, racketeering, and other crimes which have beenbuilt upon the irrationally over-dominant sex factor in men and womenhave assumed such large proportions as to be seriously alarming. In spiteof the unsavory language of the chapters dealing with these phases ofcrime, a wide reading by legal, social, moral, educational, civic, and spiritualleaders is urgent. For the first essential to a solution of the problem is afuller knowledge of its existence and its seriousness.Unfortunately, among the officers most immediately charged with the solu-tion of the problem are found a considerable number who are themselvesdirect participants in the criminal business. The author cites instanceswhere the fingerprints required of all applicants for positions on police de-partments revealed that over sixteen percent of the applicants had recordsin the criminal files. Presumably where no fingerprints were required, someof those accepted were men in direct alliance with active criminals. Numer-19371Washington University Open Scholarship588 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW QUARTERLY [Vol. 22ous instances are reported of active criminals in legislative, executive, andpolice offices. Without these co-workets in public office, the crime-businesswould be doomed.The criminal is aided greatly also by ready sympathizers in private lifewho offer shelter and other forms of assistance. Indispensable to the thievesare the numerous "respectable" distributors who help in the marketing ofthe loot. Furthermore, "The legal profession, wittingly or unwittingly, hasdone more to clog the courts, to delay prosecution, to open prison doors, tosurround criminals with legal and statutory safeguards, and to stultifyjustice, than any other single medium in our criminal history." It mightbe commented here that if these results have come "unwittingly" there issomething wrong with our legal system which calls for constructive actionand if the results have come "wittingly" the purging of the legal professionwhich is now under way calls for a brisk acceleration in tempo.Courtney Cooper sees much that is admirable and promising in theagencies of the national government and their recent activities and achieve-ments. But for a solution of the problem of the business of crime lie re-gards it as indispensable that law enforcement be completely divorced frompolitics and from criminals. For this, a crystallized and vigorous publicopinion is needed. "There is no weapon on earth so powerful as the ballotwhen properly and consistently used as a means of reward or reprisal. Thisweapon has been unfailing over a period of many years. It is yours in theinterest of a crime-free America-If you will use it."A sensational volume? Rather a sober volume of sensational facts by aneminent journalist who has an effective way of mustering an amazingcollection of data; a good bit of ugly realism for both the active and theprospective lawyer to contemplate; scholarly in its own way-which is, ofcourse, not the academic way.St. Louis, Missouri. ARNOLn J. Lism.tLABoR TREATIES AND LABOR COmPACTS. By Abraham C. Weinfeld. Bloom-ington, Indiana: The Principia Press, Inc., 1937. Pp. VI, 136.In view of the entrance of the United States into the International LaborOrganization in 1935, the World Textile Conference in Washington in 1937,and the recent steps towards regional state compacts within the UnitedStates involving aspects of the labor problem, the appearance of this volumeseems peculiarly timely. In part the book consists of articles previouslypublished in the Law Reviews of the universities of California and Chicago,and of George Washington University. The author, a member of the NewYork Bar, writes with clarity and extensive documentation; but the studyis not an exhaustive one and the reasoning and conclusions on controversialand unadjudicated questions are not always convincing.The core of the volume is the treaty-making power; its extent and itslimitations. The author expounds at length his thesis that agreements andj Professor of Political Science, Washington University.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol22/iss4/4

Review of “Here\u27s to Crime,” By Courtney Ryley Cooper

https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4352&amp;context=law_lawreview

Review of “Here\u27s to Crime,” By Courtney Ryley Cooper

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Washington University St. Louis: Open Scholarship