The Day the Governor Closed Atlantic City

THE DAY THE GOVERNOR CLOSED ATLANTIC CITY

By William Kelly (billkelly3@gmail.com)

When Governor Chris Christie signed legislation that gives the State of New Jersey unprecedented powers in Atlantic City, virtually taking over parts of the town, it wasn’t the first time a governor was at odds with the way the city operated.

In 1908 Governor Franklin Fort sent the Attorney General to town to see that the Sunday blue laws were enforced, and when he couldn’t do it, Fort threatened to in send the state militia to straighten things out.

Atlantic City was always known as a wide open town, not only for free enterprise to anyone who wanted to do business, but for anyone who wanted a drink, to gamble or get a call girl, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It was a barrier island unto itself, ruled by the political bosses who lived there.

In his book Boardwalk Empire, Judge Nelson Johnson writes, “The prevalence of gambling, prostitution, and unlawful sales of liquor were admitted to openly by local officials. Hundreds of local families relied on illegal sources of income and as long as the visitors were happy, no one interfered. This brazen violation of the law created a furor in the newspapers nearly every summer. In time, resort businessmen and politicians built up immunity to the newspaper criticisms. They learned that being so remote geographically had its advantages. Resort politicians knew best how to deal with such complaints – ignore them.”

Atlantic City even carried on business as usual on Sundays, in contrivance of New Jersey State law, and much to the chagrin of the governor John Franklin Fort, who won election in 1807 based in part on a platform promising to clean up Atlantic City. As Nelson Johnson writes, “Governor Fort declared war on Atlantic City. In July, 1908 he vowed to clean up the town, appointed a special commission to investigate the resort’s illegal activities and demanded to know why the prosecutor refused to file complaints against the saloon keepers, gambling room operators, and madams.”

Fort read the newspaper reports of the debauchery in Atlantic City, and promised to put an end to it, but once he got into office found that he could do little about it. When the Attorney General got to Atlantic City to enforce the laws, he found that when violators were brought before a grand jury, the juries refused to indict.

The grand juries, it turned out, were handpicked by the county sheriff, Smith Johnson, Enoch “Nucky” Johnson’s father. “Sheriff Johnson understood the legal system and knew how to protect Atlantic City’s businessmen,” explains Nelson Johnson. “He controlled the selection of the grand jury and saw to it that everyone chosen to serve was ‘safe.’ He even chose jurors who were tavern owners themselves or local businessmen who benefited from vice.”

When asked why he made no arrests, Sheriff Johnson told Governor Fort that he had enough to do already and wasn’t going to “go looking for trouble.”

While Fort couldn’t change the morals and manners of the city, he could enforce state law, and was hell bent on enforcing the law that forbade the sale of liquor on Sunday. It was quite clear that the hotels, bars and restaurants in Atlantic City flagrantly ignored the state law that banned the sale of alcohol on Sunday, and Fort was determined to see that the law was enforced. After he issued an official proclamation that was ignored, Fort threatened to call out the National Guard, invade Atlantic City and shut down the illegal operations.

“Threat of Militia for Atlantic City” read the headline in the New York Times on Aug. 28, 1908, “ Gov. Fort makes Sensational Attack on Sunday Law Violators at That Resort. Officials Are Traitors.” The Times ran sensational stories written without a byline, apparently to protect the reporters from retribution. One such article explained, “Gov. Fort of New Jersey issued a proclamation to the people of the State on the non-enforcement in Atlantic City of the Bishops’ law for-bidding the sale of liquor on Sunday. In it he declares that if the resort is open on Sunday next he will authorize the courts to remove all officials who willfully refuse to do their duty.”

Simultaneously with “this sensational declaration of the Governor, the Grand Jury was discharged after reporting that they had found no indictments for violations of the excise law.”

While he was on vacation at Sea Girt, Fort issued a statement that built up suspense, saying, “No one questioned the fact that street walking, gambling, houses of ill-fame, people of ill-repute, obscene pictures, and open violations of the excise laws exist in Atlantic City. The Police know it or could find out if they wanted to, but they refused to do anything to better conditions. In fact, in respect to the Sunday law enforcement, they not only refused, but have admitted that they were aiding the nullification of these laws.”

“The conditions amount to a combination of officials and influential citizens to subvert the State laws – in a word, treason against the State,” said Fort, who wrote a letter to the Sheriff Smith E. Johnson to say: “Your ideas of the duties of the Sheriff of a county are most surprising. The Sheriff not only has the power to detect and suppress vice, but it is his duty to do so. He should not wait until some one tells of a criminal act and of a violation of the law, but he should seek out offenders and suppress their practices. You seem to think that all you need to do is to hide behind the fact that no one makes a complaint. If this satisfies your conscience it does not satisfy the law. You are entitled to the support of the State giving you its entire citizen soldiery to assist you.”

To Mayor F. P. Story, Fort wrote: “It is quiet apparent you know all about conditions in your city, not only with regard to Sunday violations, but the much worse violations of the law in the form of gambling and vice and crimes of an unmentionable character. If you do not know, then you do not care to know. You admit that the police are under your control; that they would, if you gave the order, close these places, and yet you do not give that order. It cannot be that you are not interested in Atlantic City. It is the great ocean resort of our state, attractive in every way. Its future is promising in a remarkable degree, and if present conditions are allowed to continue and the character of vice and crime that are exists is permitted to flourish, people of repute will refuse to go there.”

“If you cannot enforce all laws in Atlantic City, I will enforce the laws in Atlantic City as the Governor of the State. There will be no difficulty to do it. The criminal will run away from the law every time when he understands that the law is to be enforced. You have occupied the office of Mayor for many years. You owe the people of that city something, and I appeal to you to enforce the law or request that the State shall do it.”

Somers Point was also found to be open. This was the home of Judge Enoch Higbee, the Judge of the County Court, who said he stood ready to enforce the law.

The Governor said, “Two methods suggest themselves as a remedy when the officials refuse and the courts of law are powerless to punish the wrongdoers. First – Call out the militia and police the city with soldiers and close up the illegal places by the military arm of the State. This amounts to declaring martial law. Second – call the Legislature to enact legislation to place the drawing of all juries in the hands of an independent commission, that fair men may be selected for this duty; and to authorize the courts to remove officials who willfully and perversely refuse to do their duty.”

The local officials were under the direction of “Commodore” Louis Kuehnle, Atlantic City’s first political boss, and Kuehnle, Sheriff Johnson and Judge Higbee decided to give in and enforce the State Sunday blue law.

The Times reported, “Gov. Fort has won his fight for Sunday closings in Atlantic City without resorting to the troops. Atlantic City will be closed as tight as a drum on Sunday next. Instead of State guardsmen behind the bars of every licensed establishment, policemen, who for years have winked at open side doors, will arrest every license holder who dares to defy the Bishops’ law. The decision was reached late this afternoon when County Judge Enoch A. Higbee, long reported as a component part of the country political machine, issued a friendly warning to his friends – the hotel men of Atlantic City.”

Unlike today, where Republican Governor Christie is seen as a foreign interloper by the Democrats in the mayor’s office, they were all Republicans then. Both Governor Forte and the local political machine were Republicans, and the issue was seen as possibly hurting the image of the party. As they speculated in the newspapers, “That the effect of Gov. Fort’s threat to call out the militia to subdue the defiant saloonkeepers of Atlantic County will probably be to make some thousands of indifferent men of New Jersey vote the Democratic ticket in November. The experience of many years has shown that when the liquor issue came before the people at election the liquor men have won.”

The day finally arrived, and Atlantic City survived. A bulletin posted to-day in Police Headquarters read: “Bulletin – Saloons all closed. No troops in town.” The Chief of Police was quoted as saying, “I don’t believe any town ever was or ever will be more completely closed so far as the enforcement of the Sunday selling law is concerned.”

Bartenders had a complete holiday. As the Times reported, it was, “the first Sunday off for many a moon, and some of them said it was the first time they had been able to see what the Boardwalk crowds really looked like on the day of rest.” Some thought the closings would keep many persons away form the resort, but they were mistaken, as the crowds were unusually large. But with Atlantic City closed, some were thirsty enough to jump on the trolley to Ocean City and got off in Somers Point, where they expected the bars to be open, as they always were in Judge Higbee’s hometown.

Two years earlier when Atlantic City closed Somers Point did a big business. Trolleys carried thousands there for a dime, and the taverns in the town took in profits enough in twelve hours to pay rent and other expenses for a year. This time however, as Times noted, “Hundreds of thirsty tourist, who, failing to obtain the refreshments, hastened to Somers Point by trolley with the assurance that there would be no difficulty in getting anything a dry palate might crave in the bay resort, fourteen miles from the city. They returned in dejection with the tidings that Somers Point was also dry.”

At the end of the day, they tabulated up the money not earned and it was reported, “A spokesman for the affected liquor interests, and one of the local political leaders, declared that the loss of to-day’s closings would amount approximately to $150,000.”

The closing of the city on Sundays brought many citizens up at arms, and they called for an emergency meeting to determine who was going to lead the city. One report said, “Citizens of all parties and all factions will meet to voice a demand for a new rule for the city. The saloon and hotel interests believe the policy of the Kuehnle administration is to blame for the emergency.”

Despite all the rhetoric and mass meetings demanding change and new leadership, Commodore Kuehnle maintained his power until 1911 when justice finally caught up with him, and his mentor, Enoch “Nucky’ Johnson, the son of Sheriff Sam Johnson took over. Nucky would maintain his reign for thirty years, until he too went to jail in August, 1941. The day before he surrendered to serve his sentence, Nucky threw a party and married his long time girlfriend, showgirl Florence “Flossie” Osbeck.

When he got out of jail four years later, Nucky Johnson became just an ordinary citizen of Atlantic City, the guy who once owned the town, was just another guy walking down the boardwalk. The new boss, Francis Sherman “Hap” Farley inherited the political machine that Commodore Kuehnle and Nucky Johnson had assembled and he enhanced it further, maintaining his rule until 1971 when he finally lost an election.

So for the better part of a century, Atlantic City was run by three men – Commodore K, Nucky Johnson and Hap Farley, and in some ways, they were more powerful than the governor, as the city remained open for business on Sundays.