Morning journal and courier., 1894-03-14
REV. DIR. sMYTH,s REPLY
To the Police Commissionerss Lettel
 to the Law and order League.

Il
 REV. DIR. SMYTH,s REPLY To the Police Uonmissioners, Letter
 to the Law and order League.
 The following Is the reply of Rev. Dr. Newman Smyth to the letter of the police eommissioners to the Law and Order league, of which he is the president:
 NEW HAVEN, March IS, 1894.
 Board of Police Commissioners:
 Dear Sir: have the honor of scknowl. edging the receipt from you on the even ing of the 9th inst. of communication signed by you on behalf of the board of police commissioners, which was given to the press at your last meeting on the 9th inst. In behalf of the Law and Order league beg leave to submit the following reply, with enclosed afhdavits. for you to lay before the board, if you see fit, at its meeting which I learn from the papers is to be held this evening. Agreeing with you that such communications should be ''made without unnecessary publicity" l shall not allow copies of this communica. to those local newspapers only through which your letter first reached me.
 observe that in your present commu- nicstion you join issue and ask for further proof with regard to none of the allegs- | tious of fact which in your hearing l offer ed to prove, but that you now ask me to prove what then asked you to investi- gave you detailed account of the ineffect- | ual service of fourteen warrants, and upon | the facts stated of known and admitted | failures in the service of said warrants, | asked you to make inquiry and to locate, If l possible, the responsibility.
 Furthermore, at the hearing I stood ! ready to produce afidavits and other evi- | dence as to the existencein the central DOT | ton of the city of at least thirty-fv dis tinot and separate moral stenches, many | of them open and all of them reeking | pollution of which was sufficient reason | for our complaint before you. Moreover, I stated that at one time eleven of these breeding places of poverty and crime, and | nine of them @ second time, through our effort and at your cost, had been judioially inspected and condemned; and you will | permit me to express my unadulterated surprise when in your recent polite re- quest of me for "sny evidence of specific | neglect of duty" read that these twenty l judgments of the court, specific both as to by you as ''wbolesale charges unsupported | by any evidence" If, as would appear | from your present plea in abatement of our complaint, even the judgments of the court | are, in the opinion of your board, but gilt tering gsnerslities, allow me respectfully to inquire whether you would regard a' specific information facts as much in evi. dencs as the name of police surety ou a | liquor sellers license or 8 soda water man. ufacturer's delivery wagon on Saturday or ! Monday morning before the door of a sa- 1 loon where ''little quiet business" in | selling liquor illegally is done on Sunday ! afternoon. We have complained to you | in substance that while the people are l willing to furnish your department all the | moral disinfectants 1t may need, you have l not had them used effsctually in numerous | plague spots which we offered to point out to you, provided the policemen could not show you the way to them. You now sn- | swer our complaint, not by ordering at once a thorough use of the disinfsctants, but by telling us that you do not like "wholesale charges" Allow me to remind you that in my original letter asking | for a hearing, I stated explicitly that our complaint and information lay against the admi illustration of the department for lack of due vigilance and efficiency in the enforcement of certain specified laws, and that we did not propose to make personal charges directly against any individual officers. We refrsined ac. cordingly from all personalities at the I hearing; and, however particular as to persons some of our information is, we dc not now propose to allow ourselves to be diverted into making petty charges against subaltern officers which would accomplish but little, even if sustained, when oul original and our persistent complaint is l against the "whole sale" adulteration of the police service by illegitimste and hurtful interests. Inasmuch as in your reply you do not now ask us for any further proof o1 our allegations concerning the thriving ex istence of from thirty-five to fifty gambling places and malodorous resorts in the hear, of the city, I am glad to be relieved from the dissgreeable necessity of uncoverine further before the public these noisomt particulars, and need no longer keep ir attendance several witnesses whom hat held in readiness to testify, If necessary
 concerning these places. Allow me, how
 ever, in resting this part of our case, tt express the regrets of the gentlemen asso. ciated with me, that you have not seen fl
 to break your silent acknowledgment oi
 the truth of this cause of complaint by
 issuing orders so instant, and 50 much tt
 the point, that no officer in the whole fore,
 can mistake for one moment longer you
 determination not to tolerate any illici
 and immoral money-making from human
 passions, 50 far as your power and juris
 diction may extend. Your painful silence
 however, Ia at present relieved somewha
 by the ringing orders which Captain
 Wrinn, in the independent exercise of hi
 authority, has issued to that portion O.
 che force for which he holds himself per
 sonally responsible. The results alread
 accomplished by such orders sustain ou
 original avsrments as to what the police
 when given @ fair chance, can do.
 One single point in your communication
 to me requires further definition in orde that the issue which you now make witl
 ment before "the sober common sense O.
 the community,"-to which jury we alss
 are glad to join you in appealing.
 You now ask me for proof of any col
 lusion of the police in "timely notice O
 intended raids" The fact that such time
 ly notice in several instances has been glv ! en is not denied. As proof of 1t we hay, already laid before you che partial or tota failure of the officers to serve certain spec
 flied warrants. You now wish me tt
 prove to you how the leakages occurred Were I invested with the powers and tn,
 responsibilities of police commissioner put in your hands, and seek to discover, i
 possible, just how it happens that police
 snares have been laid in vain in sight o
 certain old and wary New Haven birds
 With regard to the two intellectual war
 rants, allow me briefly to recapitulate the
 facts. Last May upon my personal in
 formation 8 warrant was issued and Q rai6
 ordered against "Ike's" historical gam
 bling room. The raid was evidently anti
 cipsted, for everything was found suitably
 arranged for the reception of the officers
 when they appeared. The iron door wal
 readily opened, no game was interrupted
 the roulette wheel was quietly reposinc elsewhere, and two men were found
 at an innocent game of cards
 Besides these known facts, I also gave tc you considerable private information as tc
 what occurred that night, and asked you to inquire further within the department for yourselves. But as you now ask me to prove that the police were responsible for the gsmblers' timely notice, I submit the following proof that no one outside the department gave that raid away. 1. The New Haven Law and Order league did not, for 1t was not then in existence. 9. No agent or detective of ours gave il away, for there was at that time no de- tective here. 3. The information must have come therefore either from the prose- cutting attorney, who issued the warrant, or from myself, or from some one who in come way got . tip from the police office. In exclusion of the first two suppesitions I beg leave to present the two inclosed l sfhdavits. the one from the assistant city attorney, Mir. Matthewman, and the other from myself.