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Two: Post–World War II Portland
- University of Washington Press
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46 Two E Post worlD war ii PortlanD On the evening of January 14, 1947, Frank Tatum, captain of the merchant ship Edwin Abbey, went ashore for a night of drinking and gambling. Wearing a cameo ring and platinum watch, and carrying almost $700 in cash, he entered the Cecil Club on Southwest Sixth Avenue—a small, unlicensed bootlegging joint with gambling in the back room and prostitutes for those willing to pay a little extra. Although the Oregon Liquor Control Commission raided the club many times, the vice squad stationed a short distance away at police headquarters ignored it. The following morning, Tatum failed to report to his ship before its scheduled departure. After a weeklong search by the Maritime Commission and Portland police, the skipper was found dead, with a broken neck, at the bottom of a 50-foot cliff on Santa Anita Terrace in northwest Portland. His murderers, it turned out, were three Cecil Club employees, including the club’s manager, Patrick O’Day. The three thugs beat Tatum, took his money and the watch, and then threw him off the cliff, not realizing that the fall killed the captain. One report claimed that their employer, James Elkins—dubbed Portland’s “vice czar”—had turned the men in to the police, hoping to distance himself from the murder.1 Post worlD war ii PortlanD 47 The Tatum murder is one of many examples revealing that reform efforts in Portland had failed. Instead, Portland’s post– World War II city hall and police bureau machinations resembled those of previous administrations, such as James Chapman (1882– 1885) and Joseph Simon (1909–1911). Many other American cities benefited from successful reformist mayors, such as Raymond Tucker in St. Louis, Bertha Landes in Seattle, Frank Zeidler in Milwaukee, David Lawrence in Pittsburgh, and “Little Flower” Fiorello LaGuardia in New York, whose leadership and experience lifted these cities.2 Portland, however, did not experience successful long-term reforms. Rather, during the 1930s and 1940s, vice crime became exceptionally well-organized as Mayors Joseph Carson Jr. and Earl Riley tolerated and profited from the vice industry. Even the aggressive reform efforts of Mayor Dorothy McCullough Lee and Portland’s City Club did not ultimately hinder a flourishing Portland underworld. By the spring of 1930, approximately three million Americans were unemployed as a consequence of the Great Depression; by 1932, fifteen million were out of work. Because of its depressed timber market, Portland’s slump preceded the national one.3 There are reports, however, that Portland’s vice industry grew during this otherwise bleak period, and while the city lost $375,000 annually in liquor license fees during Prohibition, law enforcement officials and city hall continued to collect fees from bootleggers, gamblers, and madams, illegally supplementing their Depression-Era incomes in exchange for lax law enforcement policies.4 Some historians assert that municipal corruption declined in America’s cities during the years 1934 to 1945. The repeal of Prohibition, economic scarcity during the Depression, the bureaucratization of welfare services instituted under the New Deal, and the mobilization of the nation’s war economy reduced the dominance of political machines and municipal corruption.5 This conclusion, however, overlooks quite a different reality. Portland’s vice industry, in fact, became exceptionally well-organized and consolidated by dedicated criminal figures [3.80.173.25] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 14:14 GMT) 48 ChaPter t wo that were unchallenged or even aided by corrupt law enforcement officers and city officials during the 1930s. During the administrations of Mayors Joseph Carson Jr. (1933– 1941) and Earl Riley (1941–1948), important municipal officers were chosen by political patronage, lucrative city contracts were awarded to friends of the administration, and the vice industry remained untouched. Both Carson and Riley were mainly concerned that municipal finances should maintain the appearance of law and order. Carson’s tenure in city hall was easily characterized as “business as usual.” His corporate connections, especially in the private electric utilities, contributed to a city hall record of little reform in the area of politico-business relationships. For example, he advocated that local industries have priority to the power generated by the Bonneville Dam and authorized police violence against dock workers during the Longshoremen’s Strike in 1934.6 Earl Riley, more than Carson, chose government by crony. “Give the people—usually one’s friends—what they want,” historian E. Kimbark MacColl later wrote of Riley’s 1940 campaign.7 Riley’s opponent in 1940, attorney...