The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-10-09
PUBLIC MORALS; WHO CARES
SOME POINTED sTATEME,yTs MADE
 BY REY, JOHN IT. MAsOS.

Ths Need of . Clean City Moraiiy-Las
 Enforcement of Law-Judge whoeier's
 Judgment About the Annual haids' oi
 the PoIice-The Duty of Christian Men'
 Rev. John H. Mason, of the flrst Baptist church, preached a timely ana Interesting sermon Sunday evening en-
 titled New Haven's Morals; Who Cares?"
 His text was "They made light Of 1t and went their ways."-Matthew 22:b; and he spoke as follows: The time seems ripe for another word on New Hayen's morals. In the eyes of the state of Connecticut her first city pre- sents a pitlful spectacle. We are first in population, first in commercial im- portance, first in letters. first in saloons. and probably first in apathy when 1t comes to questions of public morals.
 With two thousand young men from all parts of the country. the very flower of the land, in attendance upon our great university. we. even more than other cities, ought to see to 1t that we are clean. We owe 1t to ourselves and to the state and to the whole United States.
 Now what are the facts? Lawless- ness Is allowed to go on night and day; and nobody seems to care very much about 1t.
 The laws of a state are supposed to express public sentiment. Society must enact laws for its own welfare and for the protection of its members, especial ly the weak and helpless members. Penalties are prescribed for the viola tion of law. Officers are elected to see to 1t that the laws are maintained and to see to it that violations of the law are brought before the courts for trial. That Is the business of the ofti- cers of the law. They are placed in of- flee for that purpose. Their whole time is supposed to be given to that business. They are paid for that one thing.
 Of course this is made the business Of certain men because 1t cannot in the na- ture of things be the business of every body. You have your work to do; you cannot spend your time in ferreting out violations of the law and gathering evil dence. Moreover 1t is all important that somebody should have special au- thority which must be recognized by the law breaker.
 Therefore the state gives us laws which aid to check the vicious tenden- cies of humanity and to thwart the villainous projects of men. To some ex- tent they succeed. In some communi- ties they succeed marvelously well. How far they shall succeed depends of course upon the character and purpose and high mindedness of the men whose business it is to secure the observance of law.
 Success is not very marked in the modern American city of large bopula- tion. There are many reasons for this. We are accustomed to say on one side that the criminal classes flock to the cities, and on the other that the cities produce criminal classes. Both are true Crime naturally expects to find large prizes in the cities, 9for'nthere wealth abounds. Moreover there is no such seclusion as that which a great city affords. Only few days ago a man was arrested in his little second hand book store in Fourth avenue; New York, who thirteen years ago had de- frauded the United States government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars During all these years the officers have been looking for that man. All up and down the Pacific slope they have been wandering, searching for the man who was quietly selling second hand books and walking the streets of New York city every day in the year.
 The foreign element in the cities is often referred to as another explana- tion of the prevalence of crime. But one thing that is not often referred to is the supremacy of politics. I mean now that brand of politics which Is it. self lawless and goddess. It is because of this influence, invisible yet definite and calculating, and resourceful, and interruptions and supreme and omni- present in the great American cities that the heavens are thick with DOT tent. What incredible and appalling depths of depravity are being uncov- cred every day in the investigations of the Lexow committee in New York! And where is that depravity found, in the slums amid the lawless classes? No, it is found in the great police de- partment of New York city, which has been called, not in derision, but in sin cerity, "the finest in the world" What has long been suspected by few is now being turned out to the light so that the world may know that the po- lice department of the city of New York has been blackmailing the citi- zens of that city for a generation. The statement made in a. southern paper that New York has paid in blackmail within thirty years one hundred mil lions of dollars is declared by the New York Tribune to be within bounds and very likely far within bounds. Think of 1t! One hundred millions of dollars within thirty years means more than three millions year or in round num- bers about ten thousand dollars a day. Ten thousand dollars a day for thirty years to the police sworn to enforce law and arrest lawbreakers! Ten thousand dollars a day for thirty years for the protection of crime. That is why New York city is one of the great cess pools of the nation. Politics in it and money; and money for politics; and politics for money. The police department of New York has become the great sluiceway through which money flows in floods with the taint of mans dishonesty and dishonor upon 1t, and the stain of wo- rnan's shame! money for the support of