"Almost an Angel"

One afternoon last week a message sped from Manhattan to Albany, telling an alert, round-faced little Justice of New York's Supreme Court, Philip James McCook, that he was needed urgently that evening by the district attorney of New York County. Pleading illness in his family, Justice McCook slipped away from the State constitutional convention which he was attending, reached Manhattan at 1 a. m., sat down at home to inspect a complaint against one James J. Hines, alleged conspirator and partner in the operation of the sprawling city's $100,000,000-per-year "policy" or "numbers" racket. Justice McCook signed a warrant for Hines's arrest.

In due course, James J. Hines, a bulky, taciturn man of 61 who started life as a blacksmith and now lives in quiet, sporting affluence, with a country cottage at Long Beach and a town apartment near the northwest corner of Central Park, appeared with his lawyer at the D. A.'s office to submit to arrest. It was the crowning sensation of a three-year campaign to roust racketeers out of Manhattan. It was also the biggest act yet in the career of Thomas Edmund Dewey, now 36, who three years ago, when Governor Lehman appointed him special rackets prosecutor in New York City, was an obscure Republican lawyer, who seven months ago, on the strength of his record, was elected district attorney.

The arrest of Jimmy Hines was more a political than criminal sensation. For Jimmy Hines is one of the most potent district leaders of Tammany. When most of Tammany turned against Franklin Roosevelt, Hines remained faithful, enormously enhancing his stand-in with the New Deal. He now distributes much Federal patronage in Manhattan for Democratic National Chairman Jim Farley. Prosecutor Dewey charged that the same hand which distributes this patronage received from $500 to $1,000 per week from the policy racketeers--headed first by the late "Dutch" Schultz, since his death by that gangster's slick lawyer, "Dixie" Davis--as the price for providing political influence (with police, judges, etc.) to keep the racketeers out of jail.

"Nonsense!" snapped Jimmy Hines, whose neighbors know him as a sober, honest family man whose only vices are golf, betting on horses and prize fights, giving lavish political parties. "That's ridiculous! Dewey knows better than anyone that that's not so!"

"Bail of $1,000,000 would not be too much!" boasted his lawyer, as Jimmy Hines produced $15,000 in cash from his pocket and promised to get another $5,000 promptly. "Thousands of decent citizens would come forward to add their share. . . . Why, a few years ago the President of the United States praised Mr. Hines for his humanitarian activities. . . . He's almost an angel!"

So far, Dewey has convicted all but one of his racket indictees. Should he jail elusive Jimmy Hines, it may be hard to keep New York Republicans from drafting Dewey for Governor this autumn.* His chances of being elected to that office would be comparable to those of famed Charles Seymour Whitman, who in 1915, after convicting Police Lieutenant Charles Becker of murdering Gambler Herman Rosenthal, ascended from D. A. to Governor in one swift vault. Should Tom Dewey perform that feat in this day of dearth in Republican manpower, by 1940 the Party which used to be called Grand as well as Old may be glad to consider him for President.

*"You should know," wrote careful Mr. Dewey to some enthusiastic friends lately, "that I am devoting all my time to my duties as district attorney ... and am not a candidate for any other office. . . . Any attempt to inject my name into politics prejudices my work."

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