Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-08
INSISTS UPON ACTION.
Mayor GOurley Is Determined His
Order Shall Be Carried Out.
HIS REPLY TO CHIEF J. 0. BROWN.
Asserts That Executive officers Are Sub
servient to. Law.
LEGISLATURE ALONE RESPONSIBLE

The conflict between Mayor Gourley and
| Chief Brown, of the Public Safety Depart
ment, oyer the proposition to suppress the
disorderly houses of the city is happily
nearing an end, and unless the evil is
promptly abated the law under which the
police of the city have operated for more
than 20 years will be judicially passed upon,
and the county courts will be re-
quired to determine whether or not the
Mayor has power to direct the head of the
police department in regulating or sup
pressing any crime or evil.
Mayor Gourley vest erday submitted an
answer to the letter sent him by Chief
Brown the day 7previous. The Mayors
letter is constructed substantially on what
is alleged to be the law and the ordinances
1t is pointed, interesting document
"There is nothing left for me to say"
Mayor Gourley remarked yesterday in an
swer to question regarding his course
should Chief Brown continue to disregard
his suggestions. '"There is no longer any
reason for shifting about in this matter.
There must be action" the Mayor went on.
VIII Take the Matter to Court.
His Honor refused to say what he
contemplated doing to guarantee action.
His advisers, owever, are confident that he
will invoke the power of the courts in the
matter within a reasonable time.
Chief Brown refused to talk. Heehad re-
ceived the Mayors letter, and he said he
had read it carefully, but he was not willing
to discuss it nor was he ready to even inti-
mate what course he would pursue in the
premises:
Mayor Gourley's letter is appended:
PITrsBURG, Dec. 7.
j. o. Brown, Esq, Chief Department Public
Safety:
DEAR s1R-In reply to your communication
of the 9th inst. have to say don't think 1t
is becoming in you or me, as executive off,
GERS, to discuss the le .ality of city ordi-
nance so long as It remains upon the statute
book of the CITY and has not been tudicially
condemned. Especially is this true in re-
spect to an ordinance that has been assumed
to be the law for almost quarter OF a CEN
tury, and has been acted upon by you and
your predecessors in hundreds, II not thou
sands of cases, and is the very law under
which you have suppressed, and are to-day
suppressing, unlicensed public dance
houses" and "houses and places where intoX-
icating liquors are sold without license"
The Wide Scope of the Law.
1t would seem that if you can suppress
these two classes of "disorderly houses un
der this ordinance, you might also, if you
tried, suppress the third class named, "all
houses of ill-fame." Under this ordinance
you claim to have suppressed, by my order,
the illegal sale of liquor in houses of ill-fame.
II this be so. then surely you can suppress
the houses themselves. l am not willing to
admit that, under the law, the police de-
fore the great evil in our midst. Your pre-
tense at regulation" is vain and utterly
without authority, II the ordinance to which
you refer is not valid law.
Neither can admit that a power con-
ferred upon public officer for the public
safety. with the means OF executing 1t clear
ly given, is a discretionary power. to be ex-
ercised or not, as the officer may think best
Public powers given for public ends must
and do, create an imperative duty. there
fore again direct you to discharge your plain
duty under the laws and ordinances OF the
city.
note that you ask me- "to clearly outline
what the said policy shall be, fix a date at
which you desire the same to be put in oper-
alton, and the manner in which you desire
to have the same carried out and assume
the responsibility for the success or failure
thereof" In answer TO this l say:
The Law Must Be Enforced.
First-The policy shall be the policy laid
down in the laws and ordinances of this city
and which you are sworn to enforce, namely:
That prostitution is a crime, and that the
keeping of house of prostitution is an Of
fense to be suppressed by the police and not
to be protected and encouraged under pre-
tense Of regulation"
Second-As to the date. the law gives
neither you nor me discretion as to when it
shall be put in operation. The sooner you
perceive that, as an executive officer, you
are not above the law but subject to it, and
begin to do your sworn duty in enforcing it,
the better.
Third-As to the manner or executing the
law, the law itself Is your sufficient guide,
as have already pointed out to you.
Fourth-As to the responsibility "for the
concern yourself. The legislature of this
city is alone responsible for the law; you
alone are responsible for its enforcement.
The results to flow from such en- nforcement
are not matters for you or me to consider.
Very truly yours,
IL j. GOnRIKY. MaYnr