The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-11-20
BISHOP POTT{R'S
SWORD IS BARFD
And flashes in Corrupt Police
Officials Eyes.
They lNSUlTEDA RECTOR
Disregarded His Appeal For Protec
ton Of the Innocent.
TIE POLICE SUPPORT DENs OF IMFAMy
So The Bishop Declares in His Letter 10 Van
WICK, Who Replies That He is With
Him in the Crusade Against
(By the Associated Press.l

New York, Nov. 16.-Bishop G.. Potter
Bishop of the Episcopalian Diocese of New
York, today sent a letter to Mayor Van
Wyok in reference to vice in this civ
ana especially on the East Side. This let
t,Y is the one promised some weeks ago
when the Bishop publicly announced that
one of his %rectors had been grossly in
zulted by the commanding officials of a
certain police station and that he pro-
posed to take up the matter in a manner
which the heads of the police force should
feel. At the present writing there are
thrte movements directed against vice as
it is displayed on the great East Side.
these are a quietly conducted Investigation
by District Attorney Gardiner in connec-
ton With Anthony Comstock's Society for
the Suppression of Vice; Tammany's ap-
continent of a committee to Investigate
present conditions and Bishop Potter's
crusade.
bishop Potter in his letter to Mayor
Van Wyck first called attention to the
work that is being done at the pro-
cathedral, $50 Station street, in endeavor-
iES 10 improve the condition of the poor
Of the East Side tenement district in which
ii is located and says it has been recog-
ntzed as an important factor in pronot-
ing the virtue and good order of the
community in which it ministers. He con-
tinues:
In view of these facts it would seem
that it has a valid claim upon the sym
pathy, cooperation and at least courteous
Consideration Of those who officially rep
resent our city government and the guar
didnship OF decency and good morals. l
urge here no other claim for it.
But the thing that is of conse-
qgence, sir, is that when a minister Of
religion and a resident in a particular
neighborhood, whose calling and charac-
ter, experience and truthfulness are all
alike widely and ~abundantly recognized,
goes. to the. headquarters of the police. in
his district to appeal to them for the
protection of the young, the innocent and
he defenceless against the leprous har-
Ijcs who are hired as runners and touters
Tor the worst and most infamous dens OF
vice. he is met not only with contempt
and derision, but with the coarsest con-
timely and obloquy.'
The bishop goes on to say:
Il am not, | beg to say, unmindful
Of the fact that the existence of vice
in a great city is, practically, an %inevita-
lie condition of the life of such a COM
munity. ! am not demanding that vice
shall be stamped out by the police or
any civil authority. This is a task which
would demand for its achievement a race
Cf angels and not of men. But l ap-
Iroach you, sir, to protest with all my
lGwer against a condition of things iE
which vice is not only tolerated but
shielded and encouraged by those whose
sworn duty it IS to repress and discour-
age il, and, in the name of unsullied youth
and innocence, l protest as my people
have charged me to do against the habit
ual insult. the persistent menace, the
Unutterably defiling contacts, to winch
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 defenceless ones, Chrls-
tian and Hebrew alike, Of many races
and tongues, but of homes in which COO
is feared and his law reverenced, ana VII
tJe and decency honored and eXempllheo,
I cali upon you sir, to save these people
Who are in Il very real way committed &c
your charge, from a lower hell, defillng'
deadly damning, to which the criminal
aupineness of the constituted authorities
set for the defence of decency and gooc
order, threatens to doom them
Biehon Potter in conclusion, says ne mas
no methods to suggest for the petlerlns
OF the conditions; these are IN the aahoS
OF the mayor.
Mayor Van Wyck at once replied &c
The Bishop by letter in which he salo
he had passed the Bishops communlca-
ton to the district attorney and incl
SAYS:
Il wish here to assure you that | WI
reort every power which the la" ma
given to right the wrongs and TO 90 away
with the conditions OF which you complain
and 10 secure a hearty and efhclent co
location by the police department VIZ
all who are working to DO away wiz
public violations of law and decehcy'
Il stand ready at all times 70 as