J.I. Jung
Eddie Rum
New York. 1919. Eddie Rum has returned home from the Great War. Like any man, he is shaped by the times in which he lives, and Eddie's unique past is matched by the unique time he returns home. Here some of the issues facing America and Eddie.
An Eddie Rum Novel
by J.I. Jung
​​The Chinese Exclusion Act.
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In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act became law in the United States. It prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers, with the exception of travelers, diplomats, and clergy. While it is often called the Chinese Exclusion ACT. It was in fact several pieces of legislation and court rulings that built on the original law from 1882. For example, the Expatriation Act of 1907 added to the law that American women who marry a Chinese man would loose their American citizenship, subjecting the woman to possible deportation to China.
Eddie Rum is a Chinese American passing for white under the many laws of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Because of this, Eddie survives by keeping his down and his mouth shut.
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Documentarian Ric Burns directed a documentary on The Chinese Exclusion Act in 2018, learn more here,
Gambling
Illegal gambling in New York is commonplace. It is also the corner stone of a new corporate model that we now call organized crime. While gangsters of the previous century were mostly thugs and pimps who bullied the working class. Highly organize gamblers were able to sell the pleasure (and sin) of gambling to the middle and upper classes. This allowed people like Arnold Rothstein and Joe Masseria to generate thousands of dollars instead of the ‘pocket money’ of their predecessors. The gambling trade prepared these men for the next big money step in organized crime – Prohibition.
Prohibition
Prohibition turned illegal business into illegal industry. It is also one of those great blind spots in American history. Today, people tend believe that prohibition was forced upon the rest of America by the radical right (The Women’s Temperence Movement and The Anti-Saloon League). In fact, prohibition was supported by a large part of America including so-called Progressives like NAACP, the Socialist Party of America, and many others who supported prohibition because they believed that brewers and distillers had a grossly outsized influence on the American economy. Many women who were progressives supported prohibition because so many women feared assault (rape) around saloons.
The Saloon Is The Bank
Saloons were a focal point for working class men. In an era, when banks were not insured and the safest bank was the sort of bank that would not cater to working class people, the saloon became the safest place to cash your check. And if you cashed your check for a nickel’s worth of beer, then you were livin’ smart. But most men couldn’t leave the saloon after a nickel or a dollar. The result was a fear of the saloon, a hatred of whiskey, and a whole lot of rich saloon owners, who invested in things like real estate or public office.