The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-07-04
THE NEW YORK SCANDALS.

GeTHdpS the DnOSL surprising InlIB de-
veloped by the Lexow committee is that
the knowledge of the police scandals in
New York has been almost universal for
years, and yet the people have not re-
belled. Reputabls business men go be-
fore that committee and acknowledge
without a blush that they have long been
paying the tribute of blackmail to the
police and have made no protest Indeed,
most of them seem to have been rather
pleased at the opportunity, for by sub
hitting to blackmail they have been per-
mitted to violate the laws themselves. At
a recent sitting of the committee there
were witnesses ranging from a leading
Broadway merchant to a Fulton-st. boot
black. all testifying that they paid
various sums annually for the privilege
of using portions of the sidewalk. Most
of them testified also to a general under
standing that their neighbors did the same
thing.
This indicates a very low stage of pub
lie morals in the metropolis Here were
business men, honest and upright in
other things, Jealous of their good names,
who thought nothing of committing
crime in order that they might be per-
mitted to commit a misdemeanor In
other words. they shamelessly corrupted
public officials for the privilege of VIC
lating the minor city ordinances. The
New York Evening Post, in commenting
on this phase of the developments, says:
The most disheartening aspect of the
revelations is the showing which they
make of reputable merchants. These
seem to have had no misgivings ABOUT
the propriety of bribing policemen TO OBJ
tain privileges which were either theirs
by right or to which they were not en-
titled. The common excuse has been
that everybody does it, and that it is the
easiest way to get along. 1t does not
seem 10 have occurred to these mer-
chants that by banding together and ex-
posing the police they could have rid
themselves of the eXtortiOn. In fact,
the moral sense of the whole community
has been so deadened by familiarity with
Tammany government that the great
majority of our citizens look upon the
pay ment of blaclkmail as one of the nee
essary cOncomitants of popular govern
ment. IT'S the only way to get along
quietly" they say, land, after all, why
shouldn't we tip the police if by so doing
we get privileges which might be re-
fused TO us if we had more honest and
intelligent set of rulers?" It all comes
back to the point that the people of this
city have Tammany rule because they do
not elect to have better rule. If they
felt half the burden of shame which that
rule places upon them it could not exist
for a day.
The great source of bad government In
this country is in the universal desire
to take things easy. The experience of
New York IS the experience of every
other city in the country, only in more
aggravated form. The good people,"
the better elements" calmly submit to
all manner of imposition rather than
take the trouble of putting an end to it.
Criminal practices become so familiar
that the people look upon them quite
a matter of course and accept them as
a necessary adjunct of government. In
any other country such disclosures as
those recently made at New York would
lead to a revolution. Here they will be
a nine days wonder, and then the loot
ing will be renewed by the same gang
of scoundrels or a new one which may
take its place.
But it is hardly probable that there is
another country on earth where such a
condition could arise. There is no other
city where the attempt of the police to
blackmail business men would not be met
with prompt resistance and exposure
from the intended victim. An English
man, for instance, would spend his last
farthing and even endure a clubbing by
a policeman and the annoyance Of an ap-
pearance in police court rather than sub
NIT to such extortion as the New York
merchant has come to regard with per-
feet equanimity. In some ways we are
a queer people. We boast of our free
dom, yet we are daily tyrannized in the
meanest and most contemplate manner
by the men whom we place in office.
The rulers chosen by the people make
abject slaves of those whose servants
they should be, and the public. like the
great ass it so often is, goes calmly on
its way Boosting that this is 'the land
of the free and the home of the brave"
There is just one way in which to pre-
vent such scandals as that now being un-
covered at New York. That is for the
decent people to determine to obey all
the laws themselves and insist that every
body else shall do the same. Tammany
is in a hopeless minority in New York
City. 1t IS even a minority in the demo-
cratic party If the so-called best citi-
zens' would unite it could be overthrown
at any moment But the trouble has
been in the past that every effort toward