The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-01-13

~SfftOt ~ ts
and Is Independent an its uie,cs on all local
questions.
Studiestn Municipal Corruption. No.2
Before resuming our necessarily very
much condensed summary of the reve-
lations of official r~otrenness in the Re-
publican government or Pennsylvania. we
annot refrain from giving some scream
ingly funny extracts from an interview
with Mayor Warwick. which appeared in
the Philadelphia Press" of Friday last,
the 10th. The Mayor now trots out all
the old appeals which were made on be-
half of Tammany, when Golf was out
raging every principle of law and fair
play before the Lexow Committee. This
is where the humor comes in. Warwick
was, NO doubt. one of those who gloriied
Golf and Landed all his methods. Whether
he did or not, the Press certainly did.
Sc long as the brutal and subversive pro-
eeedings of that half crazy fanatic were
directed TO the destruction of Democrats,
they were the very methods of Heaven
Now, it is an altogether different mat
ter; but let Mr.. Warwick speak
Mayor Warwick was seen in his office
yesterday by a Press reporter and
asked if he had anything to say in rela-
ton to the testimony submitted before
the Senatorial Investigating Committee.
At first he refused to speak upon, the
matter at all, but upon being urged and
being told that it would be of interest to
tina nanaTnfrnifW RI Ahnnr from fhn Mo Uar
at this time. he at length consented.
He said that, in the first. place, in SO
far as the charges against the police offi-
GERS IN the Fifteenth ward are concern
ed, there has not been a single complaint
lodged with him nor witt the Director
OF the Department of Public Safety as to
in August last. and hat all of the
charges made in the testimony given be-
m.ttee upon this ranch Of the INQUIRY
had reached his ears now for the first
time.
The white robed innocence of this is
too beautiful for anything. The charges
alluded to have not yet come into our
of the investigation; but to
make the Mayors interview ineligible
we should explain that an enormous mass
of testimony has been adduced against
h Philadelphia police. covering every
evil brought out by the Lexow inquiry
and a dozen more besides. But let Mayor
Warwick continue his Indignant pro-
test" He says
The whole mode of procedure before
the Investigating Committee is unfair and
nnaA nlerican. and the purpose must be
The whole proceeding is SO unfair and
one-aided that it should receive the con
man in the community willing and
volunteer Witnesses. men who have been
nursing personal grievances for years;
discharged officials, from the public SER
vice, are called to the stand to give testi-
mony.
h accused officers are not represent
ed by counsel, are not informed of the
charges that are to be made, and are
given no opportunity to answer them.
The counsel for the Investigating Com
dence and who ought to appreciate the
fact that in a measure they hold q jul
dicial position under the circumstances
put leading questions TO the witnesses
ton is had or allowed.
No ounsel is permitted to be present
representing the accused. The antece-
dents Of the witnesses are not shown, nor
are their motives Drobed. They are given
every opportunity. without restriction or
old grudges. and evidently some of the
witnesses have nursed these for years. The
primary rules OF evidence are absolutely
disregarded and rurnorS and hearSay evil
dence are allowed to be given without in
~terruption or objection. Under such
condit ons the reputat'on OF ne man IN
nesses admit their own guilt in the trans
act ons about which they testify.
Men without reputation and thoroughly
irresponsible and d~isreputable women are
called to attack the characters of police
officers VINO are under the methods adopt
court of Justice. could not possibly secure
a conviction in any case. The purpose
seems not to be to investigate. but te
destroy.
Here's richness. Here we have a Repub-
lican Mayor of a Republican city, defend
ing a gang of Republican miscreants with
just the same arguments. couched in just
the same forms OF expression that Mayor
Gilroy and Sheehan II Dick Cracker and
the New York Sun used to cry out in
the days of the great excitement, and
which the Party of Moral ideas and tht
Democratic fools who helped it in tina
evil time, used to receive with cries Of
derision and shouts of condemnation.
on reading this whole Philadelphia ex
pose, on witnessing the agonized writhingl
Of the exposed villains. one does not know
whether to shout with laughter at such
precious turning of the tables or t,
grind ones teeth with rage at the disas
trous imposture that was inflicted. not OF
New York alone. but on the people of tn
United States in the great Parkhurstial
upheaval of 1894. When one sees the evi
consequences Of that movement gradual.
unfolding themselves as they are evel
this day in the Republican Congress 20
the United States. one is tempted to ours
the very name of the remote of tn
insanity as the worst misdirector of pub
lie opinion that the country has seen in
generation. .
WE q u given so much SPACE to thi
phase of the study Of Philadelphia's cor
ruption. that we must necessarily limi
todayss instalment of the results of tn
Investigation. We shall give what spac
remains available to a study of tn
electric Light contracts. q matter of partie
ular interest to Jersey City seeing that "
have just made some very extensive elee
+-;a ffohf ronfracfe fan 0f course /