The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-18
LEX0W REPORT NOW MADE
SENATOR C.4NT0RIS THE ONLY ONE
 WHO DISSENTED.

Department and RecomIn nends Many
 Changes-Should be Under One Head.
 Albany, Jan. 1.-The report of the Lexow committee which investigated the police department of New York city was made public tonight. The report contains 1S,OOO words and it states that the record shows a total of 1O,576 pages of proceedings, not including mass of documentary exhibits which were read and considered in evidence for the pur- pose of information. With reference to that branch of the investigation which dealt with police interference at the polls, the report says:
 It has been conclusively shown that in a very large number of election dis tricts of the city almost every conceiv- able crime against the elective fran chise was either committed or permit ted by the police, invariably in the in- terests of Tammany Hall. The crimes thus committed or permitted by the po- lice may be classified as follows: Arrest and brutal treatment of republican vot- CTS, watchers, and workers; open vio- lations of the election laws; canvass ing for Tammany Hall candidates; fore ing of Tammany Hall pastors upon re- publican voters; general intimidation of the voters by the police directly and by Tammany Hall election district cap- tains in the presence and with the con- currence of the police; colonization of voters; illegal registration and repeat ing, aided and knowingly permitted by the police; denial to republican voters and election district officers of their le- gal rights and privileges; cooperation by Tammany Hall election district cap tains and watchers of alleged rights and privileges, in violation of law
 It was shown by cloud of witnesses that the police conducted themselves at the several polling places upon the principles that they were there for the purpose of acting as agents of Tammany Hall, in securing to the candidates of that organization by fair means or foul the largest possible ma jorities. It was conclusively shown that during each of the years 1891, 1892 and 1893 very many thousands of unlawful ballots were cast and counted by the active cooperation and connivance of the police. The vote in 1894 in one assembly district was smaller by more than 4,000 or by more than 25 per cent. of the total vote cast than that cast in 1893, while in view of the greater importance of the issues involved there should normally have been large increase in the num- Der of votes boiled. Owing to the practices above referred to during the years coved by the investigation honest elections had no existence in the city of New York and huge conspiracy against the purity of the elective fran chise was connived and participated in by the municipal police.
 It is significant fact that police captains whose precincts were specially considered in this connection were ap- pointed by the president of the board of police, one of the most conspicuous leaders of Tammany Hall, at the in stance of that organization and that one of them, when informed that watchers had been sent to the polls at the instance of the reform associa- tions, instructed the officers of his command that if these silk stockings interfered they should stand them on their heads The evidence shows, moreover, that in 1892 the president of the board of police himself, just prior to the presidential election in defiance of the superintendent of police gave directions to the assembled captains which, if carried into effect, would have caused riot and bloodshed at the polls and would have precipitated en- counters between the police and the United States marshals. The evidence indicates that the department was per- meated by the influence of Tammany Hall; that district leaders influenced not only the appointment, but assign ment of officers; that forced contribu- tions were levied upon the members for the benefit of district organizations, and that a situation has been reached under fours of partisan police board where the officer has been brought to un- derstand that the only hope for promo tion was in joining and contributing to Tammany associations.
 Thus we find captains and inferior officers of so-called republican proclivi- ties enrolling themselves as members in democratic clubs, notably the Pequod club, of which a police commissioner was the president. Thus we find the wholesale joining of political associa- tions so demoralizing to the force that Commissioner Martin, president of the department, asked the intervention of Richard Croker, a private citizen, lead CT of Tammany, to secure a cessation of this abuse.
 The additional fact appears that in 1892 by species of compact the liquor interests of the city received relief from police oppression by joining the power full organization referred to. The same private citizen was able by g. word of command at once to shut up all the pool rooms, which neither the whole force of police, of detectives, of superintendent or of the commissioners themselves could effectively close.
 Taken as whole, the record discloses the fact that the suppression and re- pression of crime depended not so much | upon the ability of the police to enforce the law, but rather upon the will of 1 Tammany Hall to have the law enforc- l ed The conclusion seems irresistible | that it becomes the paramount duty of | the legislature to remove as far as prac- ticable the possibility of political influ- |