The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-11-17
POTTER TO VAN WICK
EPISCOPAL BISHOP CALLS ATTEN-
TION TO VICE IN NEW YORK.
Strong Letter to the Mayor on the
Greatest Evil of the Big City
Reform Movements.

NEW YORK, Nov. 16.-Bishop Henry c.
Potter. bishop of the Episcopalian diocese
OF New York, to-day sent a letter to Mayor
Van Wyck, in reference to vice in this
city, and especially on the East Side. This
letter is the one promised some weeks ago,
when the bishop publicly announced that
one of his rectors had been grossly insult
ed by the commanding officials of a GER
tain police station, and that he proposed
to take up the matter in a manner which
the heads of the police force should feel.
The public has been awaiting with in
terest the bishops first move, and in con-
nection with Tammany Halls announce
ment that it proposes to look into vice and
stop il, the bishops letter received to-day
by the mayor is bound to form the princi-
pal subject of discussion in public places
as well as in private homes for some time
to come. AT the present writing there are
three movements directed against vice as
it is displayed on the great East Side
These are quietly conducted investigation
by District Attorney Gardner in connec-
ton with Anthony Comstock's Society for
the Suppression of Crime, Tammany's APP
pointment of a committee TO investigate
crusade.
Bishop Potter, in his letter 10 Mayor
Van Wyck, first calls attention to the
work that is being done at the pro-cathe-
dral No 100 Stanton street, in endeavoring
to improve the condition of the poor OF
the East Side tenement district, in which
it is located, and says ii has been recog-
nized as an important factor in promoting
the virtue and good order of the commun-
ity in which 1T ministers. He continues:
I'm view of these facts it would seem
that it has a valid claim on the sympathy,
cooperation, and, at least, courteous con-
sideration of those who officially represent
our city government and the guardianship
of decency and good morals. L urge mere
no other claim for it, and l beg to say that
L am not now addressing you because
there has been in that which now desire
to bring to your notice vulgar and brutal
absence of these in connection with one
who happens TO have been my own repre-
sentative. The personal element, so Tar as
he is or L am concerned, Is OF the very
smallest consequence. But the thing that
is consequence, sir, is that when minis
ter of religion and resident in partlcu-
lar neighborhood, whose calling and CHAR
acter, experience and trustfulness, are all
alike widely and abundantly recognized,
goes TO the headquarters of the police In
his district TO. appeal TO them Tor the pro-
lection of the young, the innocent ana the
defenseless against the leprous harples
who are hired as runners and tutors Tor
the lowest and most infamous dens or vice,
he is met not only with contempt and de-
riSiOn, but with the cOarSeSt cOntuineiy
and obloquy."
Bishop Potter then goes on to tell how,
when two clergymen called at the police
station of the precinct to complain OF the
notorious condition of affairs, one OF them
was told by the police captain that ne
lied; and that, when, disheartened by such
an experience. the clergyman carried ms
, complaint to higher authority In the
a
The bishop goes on to say:
Il not, 1 beg to say, unmindful OF
the fact that the existence OF vice IN a
great city is, practically, an inevitable
condition of the life of such a community
/ am not demanding that vice shall be
stamped out by the police or any other
civil authority. This is task which would
demand for its achievement race OF
angels, and not of men. 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
encouraged by those whose sworn duty
it is to repress and discourage it, and, in
the name of unsullied youth and innocence,
of young girls and their mothers, who,
though living under conditions often of
privation and the hard struggle for liyeli-
hood, have in them every instinct of viz
tue and purity that are the ornaments
of any So-called gentleWoman in the land
and, before God. and in the face OF the
citizen of New York L protest, as my peo-
pie have charged me to do, against the
unutterably defiling contacts to which, day
| by day, because of the base completely of
the police of New York with the lowest
forms of vice and crime, they are sub
| ject.
And in the name of these little ones,
| these weak and defenseless ones, Christian
and Hebrew alike, of many races and
tongues but of homes in which God. is
feared, and His law revered, and virtue
| and decency honored and exemplified, |
call upon you, sir, to save these people
who are in very real way committed to
| your charge, from living hell, defiling,
| deadly. damning, to which the criminal
| supineness of the constituted authorities 5.
| 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 lettering
| of tho conditions: these are in the hands
| of the mayor He says his letter is in ac-
cordaEce with instructions laid him by
| the convention of the Episcopal Church of
| this diocese, and he leaves the matter in
| the mayors hands.
Mayor Van Wyck at once replied to the
/ passed the bishops communication TO the
| district attorney. and then says: 81 wish
here to assure you that | will exert every
power which the law has given to right
| the wrongs and do away with the condi-
| tons of which you complain and to secure
1oiice Senart art With ali Who are Wy wo rke
| ing to do away with public violations of
| law and decency. 1 stand ready at all
times to assist and cooperate with you in
| this matter
| Mayor Van Wycks letter to the district
| attorney requests him to cooperate with
Bishop Potter and the police department
| i'm the movement.
| In a letter to the Board of Police Com
| missioners the mayor incloSeS a copy of
the bishops letter and directs the commits
! sioners to at once conduct a searching in
| vestigation into the conduct of the two
| police officials who the bishop SAYS in
suited the clergyman. He also directs them
! to at once do away with the conditions
| complained of on the East Side. The
| mayors closing paragraph is: III wish
| it distinctly understood that to this end
| shall use to the utmost limit all the power
| vested In me. and that shall hold to per-
| sonal responsibility those who fail to ex-
| ert themselves in like manner"