On the first page of the Tribune of February 11, 1921, under the caption "Crow Raid Opens Inquiry into Bombs," were seventeen inches of space reporting cases of "odor bombs" and emphasizing the determination of the state's attorney to make investigation. At the bottom of the adjoining column were four inches devoted to a dynamite race bomb which damaged a three-story apartment and involved menace to life. No reference was made to any effort by the state's attorney or the police to investigate. Similar prominence was given to the "odor bomb" in the Herald-Examiner.
An editorial in the Tribune, February 14, 1921, condemning bombing made no reference to the fifty-six race bombings of recent record, but did refer to other bombing aimed at white citizens. The editorial reads:
The Business of Bombing
Anthony D'Andrea, whose aldermanic campaign meeting Friday night was broken up by a bomb which injured seventeen persons, speaks with some indignation on the matter as indicating a bad moral slump in political methods. If it had been a union labor bomb, apparently, it would have been of no great importance.
"I'm a union man myself," he explains. "I wouldn't care if they threw a bomb at my house. That's all in the game."
On the latter point D'Andrea is right. It is "all in the game," but the game is one which gets out of control of the players. It is because bomb throwing has come to be accepted as "all in the game" of union labor warfare that it is now being extended to political warfare. The man, the gang, or the organization which sanctions or adopts bombing as a method of obtaining results in ordinary activities cannot expect to be able to restrict the use of such methods to one line of business.
Originally the bomb was a political weapon, as in the hands of the Russian nihilists. In late years it has grown popular with labor leaders of a certain class. Such bombings as the recent one at the Tyson apartments, ascribed by the police to labor troubles, and the repeated odor bomb outrages at movie theaters, are sufficient illustrations of its use by labor. The post-office bombing in 1918 and the numerous so-called race-bombs exploded on the South Side are illustrative of the widening use of bombs. In such progress D'Andrea should not be surprised that the bomb is being adopted by ward politicians. Properly applied, a good bomb can be expected to neutralize half a dozen or so precinct captains. Bomb throwing is becoming a business.
Friday night's bombing is a perfectly logical development. As a result several men may be cripples for life, if they do not die. It is time such logical developments are stopped. Among the scores of bomb outrages of the last few years, so far as we recall, there has not been a single case of punishment of the perpetrators. They are justified in believing that they are safe. As long as they retain that belief they will continue to extend the business of bombing. One thing will stop it. That is drastic punishment. Any person who throws a bomb is a potential murderer. Life in prison is none too severe a penalty. Good detectives can trap some of these men and good prosecution can send them to prison. It should be done and done now.
The Abyssinian affair.—The "Abyssinian affair" referred to earlier in this part of the report, was treated with remarkably good judgment by the press. It is to be believed that further clashes were avoided by the effective way in which the newspapers pointed out that the demonstration was the work of fanatics rather than a race riot. Two days later, however, the Chicago Tribune published an article ascribing the Abyssinian murders to "racial reds." The article ran:
"Abyssinian" Murders Bare Racial "Reds"
Leaders Lay Unrest to Du Bois Creed