The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-08-29
BENNETT MISSED.
SO Say the Suppression of
Vice People.
There Is No Money, No Spirit, and No
Secretary Like the One Who
Was Fired.


sion of Vice as announced in the CALL
yesterday is a thing of the past. The
directors give nonsuppOrt as one main
cause of lis demise, coupled with another
which is their Inability to secure a secre-
tary in the place of Bennett.
When Asa r. Wells was asked to give
his reasons for the death of the institution,
which in New York and other mptropoli-
tan cities has such an important function
to perform. he replied: People who are
engaged in this kind of work are abused
and sneered at, and they are not scoffed at
by the dTegs of society but by those who
claim to stand high in the social world.
They seem TO favor the perpetuation of
vice and degradation of every kind. Any
how when we made any attempt to blot it
out we were ridiculed by people whom 1
thought would stand ready TO give US any
ass stance at their command. ANY man
who takes up this kind of work has got 10
be prepared for this abuse. Why, l sup
pose one OF the worst rallied at and jeered
at men in New York City is Anthony
Comstock and be is doing more good for
that city with the exception of DR.. Park
hurst than any other hundred men put
together.
when that Bennett and GRAY case ap-
peared over in Oakland we lost our seere-
tary, Bennett. and we have been unable to
get man to take his place. AS you well
know in a society like this the main part
OF the work must be done by the secre-
tary. He was salaried, and was expected
to carry out the plans of the executive
committee. Without good secretary we
could do nothing. and after Bennett left
us we failed to find any one who was
qualified to take his place.
las to whether Bennett is innocent or
guilty, / feel, after looking over the evil
dence which / have upon the case, that he
Is innocent. He assured me to my salts
faction. and as well as the executive COM
mittee of the society, that he had in no
way connected himself with the ruin of
Miss Gray. l think, however, that he has
acted very fOolishIy and indiscreetly.
Eyes, we at last concluded to disband
and let the Pacific society assume our
functions. They were very anxious to
begin where we left off and to 90 on with
the work. We had plenty of business on
hand when we closed up our books. There
WAS any amount of room for the organiza-
ton. Why, the vice and wickedness of all
kinds which exists in this city to-day is
something appalling. l thought ! had
pretty tair idea of it before l undertook 20
suppress it, but when l was put on The ex-
ecutive committee cases were cotinn-
ually being brought to my notice whieh
simply dumfounded me. l was thunder
struck. | could not believe that such
things took place in San Francisco. But
they were facts. and had to acce pt them.
L think that San Francisco allows and
sanctions certain vices which no other city
on the face of the earth would tolerate.
Another reason why the business men
were so averse to fighting these dens was
that when we would attack them they
would strike back and make it unpleasant
for the business men. 1t would bring
them before the public in connection with
this class and consequently tend to hurt
their trade. Hence you can plainly see
that it is very difficult to engage men Of
means in any such enterprise. They are
| looking out for their pocketbooks first and
the good of the city next.
''Still another reason why the society
went to pieces is attributed to an ineffi-
cient president. Some say that Mr.. Rankin
was not qualined for the office, and that he
was failure. and many other things have
been said concerning his management
| which, If true, were not detrimental to
him. But l will say that, although Mr..
Rankin was little slow in the perform
ance of his duties. he made a good leader.
Surely little laxity in the president did
not justify disarmament.
"The great reason why we resolved to
| give up the ghost was that we did not re-
ceive any support. True, we received a
| little from our old subscribers, bur not
enough to warrant our continuance of the
| society.
Now about the police force. 1t Is we'll
! known that when a bad state of affairs ex-
ist in city. it is always laid to the police
man. He is made the ScaDegoat. Evils OF
every kind are piled upon the poor I'm.
| fortunate policeman. He is responsible
| for them all. This is not the case with
! the policemen Of this city. We have n
good force, and they would do their work
but for the fact that if they made an at
tempt to carry out the law they would be
bounced from the force. l know of one
case IN particular where an officer was re.
! leased from duty because he did nothing
except to do his duty. These dive-keepers
have great influence in the department,
| ana they can cause the removal of any
officer who NEEDLES with their business"
George G. Gibbs had little time 10 give to
the Anti-Vice Society when seen at his
Office yesterday afternoon. He remarked
that the cause of its dissolution was due
to lack OF financial aid. He alone con-
tributed over $500 last year for its main
tenance.
Then Mr.. Buell. added: "Our secretary
has been getting himself into all sorts of
troubles, and that made things very bad.