The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-04-24

1t is a remarkably strange thing to me
that the police are always dependent upon
the papers or private citizens for their in
formation. 1t Is not until these "cfty skele-
tons are dragged into the open by the
newspapers that the police begin to show
any signs Of life or interest. Why should
the police-from patrolman to chief-compel
the citizen TO make the initiative? Are not
the evils of Chinatown to-day about what
they were six months ago2 And yet it was
not until the Examiner took up the fight
recently that any concern was manifest.
Were not the picture parlors'' on Market
street as vile and the monographs as foul
three months ago as they were last week?
And yet II was not until The Call had rung
up the central office" and exposed the
nastiness OF these ''animal-scopes' that any
arrests were made and punishment inflicted,
while officers were passing these peep
holes a dozen times day. What right
have the police to wait for complaints to be
made through the press? What right have
the police to compel either firms or
individuals to do police duty without pay?
And when a newspaper or a private citizen
does go warfaring at his own expense, and
does work for which the police are being
paid, the greatest obstacles he runs up
against are official know nothings in blue
cloth and brass buttons. That men and
women Will do wrong nobody doubts. That
they will do so in spite of law, police,
preacher, punishment and God-nobody de-
MES But that dens and brothels-such as
exist in Bacon place and the Chinese quar-
ters-Where the vicious and the criminal
congregate, that nesting places and breed
ing grounds should be allowed to flourish
right under the very nose of the police, is
preposterous The law is already on the
statute books-all the officer has to do is
to enforce It. This he does not do because
upon his own authority he decides that the
law is a dead letter. II 1t is he has muir
dered IL by neglect. An officer has no right
TO play the part of a coroner and declare
law dead" and then hide his official ras-
cality behind its carcass. Governor Roese-
Welt of New York has said that "a dead
letter law is worse than hypocrisy in the
church" Look at the accursed traffic in
Chinese girls being carried on here in one
Of the leading, cities of the United States:
On next Fourth of July we will spout and
do the "spread-eagle'' act about being born
free and equal We will sing about the
land of the free and the home of the brave"
and vet the slave trade as carried on right
here in San Francisco this very hour is more
disgraceful more destructive and damnable
than Southern slavery ever dared be-
Tell me that these things cannot be SUP
dressed Tell me that there is not power
enough in our city and State to wipe out
this hIdeous business that puts our Govern
ment and nation on a par with that of the
Sultan of Turkey or some Arab slave
hunter in equatorial Africa. Such a con-
fession is a humiliating confession of weak
ness Think of TIA handful of exports from
monwealth Of California. My advice to our
servant, the Chief of Police is that If he is
too old or too incompetent to grapple with
these heather law breakers, then let him
get out mad make room for one who can
and there are plenty of them. 1 stand here
to declare publicly that for Chief of Po-
lice determined to do his sworn duty, seek
ing no mans favor and fearing no mans
frown, for such man thirty days would
be long enough to shut every ''rathole"
within the limits of California and jack
son. Powell and Kearny streets-to say
nothing of those on the outside.
hope Sergeant Donovan will prove his
right to the title of Honest jim" and that
in him we will have an officer ''above
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