Workmen's advocate., 1890-04-19

III lhe neinOTldl or Jne centfdl LaEnf
 Union as a specific charge against the incapacity of the Board itself, and as an evidence of the demoralizing effect of
 the debased and debasing standard of
 ethics which prevails among the superior
 officers of the police? Was it not stated
 in that memorial ttat "as many as 3, 900
 charges have been preferred against pos
 licemen in single year?' Can the Board
 claim any credit for this? Would the
 Board be entitled to ten times as much
 credit as it claims if the charges were
 ten times as numerous as they areI Would 1t not rather deserve to be in.
 diced and punished for it's criminal
 failure to do it's first and plainest duty?
 Is not, in fact, the number of charges
 annually preferred against policemen
 (not to speak of those that for many
 reasons are not preferred) sufficient to
 warrant, here and now, the indictment
 and punishment of the commissioners,
 inspectors, and captains, whose ma
 nagement and example are so destruc-
 tive of discipline and morality
 Again, observe that the Police Board,
 like the Fassett Committee wants
 Specific charges Neither of them can
 investigate anything or nybody unless
 a full investigation has previously been
 made for them by the Central Labor
 Union. In the words of the memorial,
 cit is q matter of common notoliety
 that police officials levy tribute on every
 immoral den in this city; that the out
 casts who walk the streets pay toll for
 the privilege of plying their degrading ayocaton; that saloon keepers are con-
 pelled to pay for police protection, and
 that every gambling den in this city
 pays for the privilege of existing" But this is not "speciiic" enough. The C. l..
 U. must send walking delegates to the dens and ascertain in each case the rela. tions of prostitutes and gamblers with the walking delegates of the police, for it is not the business of the Board or of the Fassett Committee, to investigate "maters of common notoriety."
 It is also a notorious fact that 'men pay large bonus for position on the force. How much Mir. Voorhis and his colleagues paid to their respective politi- cal machines for their commissioner. ships we shall not venture to ask. If we did they might answer that it was none of our business. and if Fassett did they might reply by telling him exactly how much senatorship costs But If one hundred policemen, taken at random by n committee of the c. L. U. from among the 4,OOO of "the finest, were compelled 5o state under oath whether they paid anything or nothing for their position on he force, we might begin to know for certain whether the notorious fact" in ! ueston is or is not tigment of the public imagination. Such proce eding, l owever, might lead to information laore specific than desired, and for bvious reasons will not be resorted to.
 By the way, is not this Commissioner oorhis, who drafted and offered the resolution at the head of | his article, the same Commissioner oorhis who stood on the Union Square Iatform when the police force under he command of Captain Riley commit ed the mistake" of clubbing merci- sssly and dmurderously lawful meeting f the Progressive Labor party in 1SS72 here are men to-day in this city who re malmed for life in consequence of he clubbing they received on that me norabe occasion. The facts, duly tn ho,-., fAt ,..,,,,t,~ L,.,,,