Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-11-17
The BALL Is ST ROLLING
FOR BETTER CONDITIONS.
BISHOP POTTER, MAYOR VAN WICK
AND TAMMANY HALL ARE
UNITED
FOR PURIFICATIoN OF GOTHAM.
THE POLICE DEPARTMENT. FoRCI-
BLY, ORDERED TO DO ITS
FULL SHARE.

Pdllol uAOtccc VI view lOIA, AO-udy Seut
a letter to Mayor Van Wyck in refer
ence to vice in this city and especially
on the East Side.
This letter is the one promised some
weeks ago when the bishop publicly an
nounced that one OF his rectors had
been grossly insulted by the command
| ing officials of a certain police station
and that ne proposed to take up the
| matter in a manner which the heads of
! the police force should feel.
| The public has been awaiting with
Interest the bishops first move and in
| connection with Tammany Halls an
| nouncement that it proposed to look
| into vice and stop 1T, the bishops let
ter received to-day by the mayor is
| bound to from the principal subject or
! discussion for some time to come.
| Bishop Potter in his letter to Mayor
Van Wyck first calls attention 10 the
! work done at the Protestant
| Cathedral, $50 Stanton street, in en-
| deavoring 10 improve the condition OF
the poor of the East Side tenement dis
trict in which it is located and says 1t
| has been recognized as an important
| factor in promoting the virtue and good
order of the community in which 1t
ministers. He continues:
"In view of these facts, II would
seem that it has a valid claim upon
the sympathy, cooperation, and at
least courteous consideration of those
who officially represent our city gov
eminent and the guardianship OF de-
cency and good morals. ] urge here
no other claim for it. The personal
element, so far as he or | am con-
cerned, is of the very smallest conse-
quenc. But the thing that is or con-
sequence, sir, is that when a minister
of religion and resident in a partic-
ular neighborhood, whose calling and
character, experience and truthfulness
are all alike widely and abundantly
recognized, goes to the headquarters or
! the police in his district to appeal to
/ them for the protection of the young,
| the innocent and the defenseless against
I leprous harpies who are hired as rum
ners and touters for. the lowest and
most infamous dens of vice, he Is met
not only with contempt and derision,
| but with the coarsest contumely and
obloquy."
| Bishop Potter then goes on to tell
how. when two clergymen called at the
police station of the precinct TO COM
plain of the notorious condition of af-
fairs, one of them was told by the
police captain that he lied; and that
when. disheartened by such an expert
ence, the clergyman carried his COM
plant to a higher authority than the
police, he was met with insolent de-
rision.
The bishop goes on to say:
II am not, beg to say, unmindful
! of the fact that the existence OF vice in
a great city, Is. practically an newt
able condition of the life Of such com
munity. But | approach you, sir, to
protest with all my power against a
condition of things in which vice is not
only tolerated but shielded and eneour-
| aged by those whose sworn duty it Is
| to repress and discourage it, and, in
| the name of unsulied youth and limo
cence, OF young girls and their moth
| ers who, though living under conditions
| often of priYation, and the hard strug-
! gle for a livelihood, have in them every
! instinct of virtue and purity that are
the ornaments of any so-called gentle
| woman in tine land; and before God
| and in the face of the citizens Of New
| York. | protest as my people have
charged me to do, against the hibitual
! insult, the persistent menace, the UNI
utterably defiling contacts, to which
day by day because OF the base com
plicity Of the police OF New York with
| the lowest forms Of vice and crime, they
are subject
And, in the name of these little
ones. these weak and defeneeless ones.
the Christian and Hebrew alike, OK
many races and tongues, but of homes
| in which God Is feared ana His law
| reverence6. and virtue ana deceucy
honored and exemplifed, / call upon
you, sir, to save these people who are
| in a very real way committed TO your
charge, from a living hell. defling,
deadly, damning, to which the criminal
susDineness of the constituted author
| tiles set for the defense of decency and
good order, threatens to doom them.
Bishop Potter, in conclusion, says he
has no methods TO suggest for the bet
tering Of the conditions; these are in
the hands OF the mayor.
Mayor Van Wyck at once replied
| to the bishop by letter, in which he
| said he had passed The bishops com
munication to the district attorney,
and then says:
Il wish here 70 assure you that /
win exert every power which the Law
| has given TO right the wrongs and 10
| do away with the conditions Of which
| you complain, and % secure a hearty
and efficient cooperation by the police
department with ali who are working
| to do away with the public violations
| OF law and decency
Il stand al all times to assist and
cooperate with you in this matter"
Mayor Van Wyck's letter to the dis
trict attorney requests him to cooper
ate with Bishop Potter and the police
department in the movement. In a
letter to the board Of police commits
sioners. the mayor encloses, a copy OF
the Bishops letter and directs the COM
missioners to at once direct a search
| ing investigation into the conduct of
the two police officials whom the
Bishop says insulted the clergyman.
He also directs Them TO at once do
away with the conditions complained
Of on the East Side. The mayors
closing paragraph 10:
| 81 wjsh 1t distinctly understood that
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