Missouri Windows

As a matter of simple economics, it became essential that the North Side gangsters of Kansas City, Mo., find some outlet for talents that were lying idle because of a drive on slot machines and gambling. Labor unions, often the victims of unemployed racketeers, provided the solution. Last year, Clark Pendar, head of the Retail Clerks' International Protective Association of Kansas City, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, found it wise to leave town in a hurry. Promptly and without formality, Walter A. Mahan, well known to the police but up to that moment undistinguished as a labor leader, became Business Agent for the retail clerks.

Vandalism had not been unknown in Kansas City but, with "Wally" Mahan's rise to power, it became a "wave." Its most frequent form was window-breaking with an occasional bombing for emphasis. Victims were owners of a wide variety of stores, from statuary shops to hamburger stands, who spurned the suggestions of North Side thugs masquerading as union organizers.

The Kansas City shakedown was not notably different from the small-time racketeering in many U. S. cities. Typical, too, was the comparative apathy of the victims --employers and employes--and the police. But in the office of the Kansas City Journal-Post, a body of evidence was accumulating. The Journal-Post has the doleful distinction of having been the first U. S. paper to mention the availability of Alfred Mossman Landon as a Presidential candidate. Six weeks ago, the Journal-Post finally completed its pipeline into the racketeering sewer, gushed forth the story. It gave evidence of unpunished vandalism; it revealed that some business associations had paid for protection against union organization as well as vandalism; it showed that racketeering unionists were offering to enforce price-fixing arrangements for employers in return for their compelling workers to join the union and pay dues. Police claimed they were powerless because businessmen refused to sign complaints. Last month, after threats of a shakeup, the police started making arrests. A few days later, Business Agent Mahan was ousted by his international union.

Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, finding that the vandals had shuttled between Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kans., issued a warrant for Mahan on the basis of a Federal statute against interstate felonies. A few hours later, a taxi drew up at a street intersection in the Plaza district of Kansas City, Mahan stepped out and gave himself up to waiting police. At week's end, former Labor Leader Mahan was arraigned on ten charges, held in $8,500 bail. The Journal-Post, satisfied that window-smashing was over, prepared to expose other rackets. One thing it wanted explained was why Kansas City gambling joints scrupulously served no liquor, while liquor joints scrupulously allowed no gambling.

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