The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-02-02

much you are willing to sacrifice. You
VIII have to pay for everything you get .
and 1t Is not money that | am think
ing of either. / wonder how many
there are in this great city that are
willing to take their coats off and keep
them off until they die, or till Chicago
Is redeemed? That Is what will do 1t,
and 1t is the only thing that will do
lt You will have to take your life in
your hands and your comfort and your
ease in your hands and conquer a VIC
tory step by step. There Is no call for
the dlllettante or the dude. Reform
clubs are numerous and they have
large enroIlments, but some how they
do not succeed in saving their city.
There is no short cut to municipal sal
walton. You cannot win 1t by the pres
tige or the wealth or reform organiza-
tions, municipal leagues. civic clubs or
by whatever other name the institution
may be distinguished. You will avail
nothing except to the degree that you
fling your personality and all that it
stands for directly against the oncom-
Ing tide of evil. even at the risk of be-
Ing inundated and Swamped Wy 1t.
If this language is more strenuous than
fits into your predictions you have
only yourself to blame for 1t, for
came here at your bidding, not my own.
lf you have any object In life that
means more to you than the redemption
of Chicago l would counsel you to keep
| out OF the municipal regeneration bust
ness. 1t Is to be gone at IN the same
way as that in which the Dutch saved
Holland and our revolutionary fathers
| enfranchised America.
Reform Is an Expensive Luxury.
You have got to pay for the thing
all 1t Is worth, and you have got to pay
for 1t In the expensive coin of your own
personal tissue. There Is nothing
funny about It. You will not live any
longer for 1t. You will not rest better
nights nor eat with better appetite
daytmes. 1t Is feasible, but the cir
cumstances are good deal what they
were in the old days when the children
| OF Israel wanted to reach the promised
land. There were the Anakims, and
they would have to be met and beaten
down, and there was no fancy device
for doing that except to club them
down: and that they had no grit for,
and so they wasted thirty-eight years
zig-Zagging through the wilderness.
But postpone it as they might, the
| pinch came and the Anakims had to be
met. You may zig-zag as they did, and
| feed on mama till you are worn into
| your graves as they were, but you or
| your children cannot escape the inevit-
able. 1t Is a long, bitter, square fight
| that Will be the means of giving into
your hands a city that you can gener-
ously be proud of. and If you do not
| do 1t, somebody will have to, or your
| city will go utterly to the bad and sway
the whole country along with 1t.
1.-The movement with you will not be
a question of numbers though. The in
| fiuences that shape national or munic-
| ipal destiny are not arithmetical. 1t
! has always been the case that the lar
| gest results have been achieved in the
| first instance by small minorities. one
man shall chase thousand Is just as
| true here as 1t was in the days of Israel
| If i knew that there were ten men in
all this city with good heads. honest
hearts, indomitable pluck and thor
| oughly appreciative Of the situation,
that were prepared to lay themselves
upon the municipal altar, with the same
steady eyed unreserve with which
Savonarola gave himself to the world,
| there Is nothing on earth or in hell that
| could defeat you. That Is the principle
upon which history has always been
administered, and in all likelihood al
ways will be.
| Side Issues Must BE Avoided.
| at is quite closely akin to that to say
that If you are going to do thorough
| work you will have to be most punctil-
ious in avoiding all side issues. What
| ever the movement with which l have
been associated in New York has been
able TO accomplish has been due to the
fact that we have kept to a straight
line and have refused to be side
| tracked. The one object we had in
| view was the breaking down of Tam
many hall by showing the collusion be-
tween Tammany's police department
and the criminals. We simply wanted
good city government administered
on business principles and conducted
according to the requirements of the
ten commandments, and every other
! consideration had to go by the board.
"The personal investigation of dis
orderly houses with which, In February
of '92, the movement was initiated, was
not crusade against disorderly houses,
but against Tammany's vicious
method of protecting and encouraging
disorderly houses. 1t was Tammany
| we were after, and not the disreputable
| women with which Tammany had cap
italized itself; and all the hypocritical
curses heaped upon us by the police
commissioners and Tammany chiefs for
prosecuting the poor frail unfortu-
mates, was unmitigated rot and known
by the police officials to be such. We
had no interest in the social evil no
more did we have interest in the gam
bling evil or in the violation of excise.
Those were simply three points at
| which we tried to jab our dagger into
! Tammany's vitals, and we jabbed it, we
did. We tried to show not that crimes
existed and ought to be broken up, but
that Tammany was working In with
the criminals and that therefore Tam
many ought to be broken up. And we
| did show it, at least we began to and
| the Lexow committee finished 1t up
i And l want to tell you that all the
| prominence THAT was given by Tam
many officials and their friends TO the
work done by our society in connection
with disorderly houses was done for the
purpose of confusing the issue, shift
ing the attention from themselves to
us, and working our activity as kind
of moral umbrella to ward off the drop
ping storm from their own unprotected
4 heads. Tammany journals obfuscated
lthe air with such religious consecutive
ness THAT 1t was a good while before
the issue became clear; but when 1t
became clear. the people were with us
and are there today. So that when re-
porters came to me to ask my opinion
as to the proper method OF dealing with