New-York tribune., 1900-12-02
PROPERTY OWNERS AND r1cE

Coincident with the declaration of the Tam
many Committee on Vice that the publication
OF the h1mes of owners of property used for
vicious purposes was inadvisable, because if
might interfere with the ends of Justice and
because many highly respected citizens and
institutions, whom the committee believe 70
DE innocent of the rental uses of the pram-
Uses. might thereby suffer disgrace" District
Attorney Gardiner comes forward 70 interfere
with the ends of justice and disgrace respert-
able people by publishing list of alleged own
ers of vice harboring property whom he threat
ems 10 prosecute. Nobody can misunderstood
the significance of his act The trick is an old
one. Devery tried ii when public indignation
over the violations of law allowed to the vicious
concert halls forced him 10 action He tried TO
make law enforcement obnoxious by interfering
with orchestras in respectable hotels When
ever there is demand for greater vigilance our
Iammany authorities do not undertake To dis
turo the vicious. who pay for liberty to COM
INIT crime, hut turn their attention TO honest
men ana try by strained construction of The
law 10 annoy them. II is process of giving
reformerS "a taste Of their own medicine -
Doubtless il is hoped by adopting policy which
even the Tammany committee say is antago-
nlstic TO justice and morality to rescue from
politicians interested in the protection of i'm
morality by enlisting respectable and influential
property owners against the continuation and
spread of the public movement for reform.
III is a transparent device and we do not
DeleVe II viii accomplish it's purpose. even
though the District Attorney should trace the
rental for vicious resorts to the pockets of
dozens OF millionaires, philanthropists and so
clal leaders. Disagreeable as such situation
would be to them, and shocking as il would be
10 The rest Of the community. knowledge of II.
II IL existed. would only arouse the people TO
more vigorous action and force the propertv
owners themselves TO clean house Nobody he
heVes that decent men realizing what thav
were doing have shared the profits Of vice
They would be disgraced by a revelation OF I'M
whiting patronage only Just so far as they v-era
seen with knowledge Of the facts 10 be for,ifv-
! ing themselves in the continued eniovment Of
Such an income Their wise course would no
AT once 10 acknowledge their past cuIpable in
oinerehce and make amends for IL. The de-
manu- LOT reform has gone too far for onv
ie 10 stay II. Tammany cannot throw
It's responsibility the land owners 80,
thelr sins What ii can do now snectacuIar r,,
to save itself and bring reproach 70
persons II could long ago have done oniotl, ,D
\ the Interests OF morality Its sudden en-,
merely measures the extent IN which ., -.
/ hitherto protected vice. The District ATTORNEY
in doing what the Tammany committee says
should not be done In the Interest Of reform
( gives another revelation of the insinceritv of
the Tammsny movement. which has from tho
first been intended 10 thwart the genuine pnblic
demand for better and cleaner administration
The innocent property owners who may find
, themselves to their surprise put before the
public as patrons OF vice ought to learn lesson
which they viii remember Probably no one
OF them who owns property used for yIcious
purposes has definite knowledge of the fact
Probably most of them do not suspect the char
! acter OF the tenants TO whom their agents give
leases but In some cases, IL is t0 he feared the
owners have not known about It because thew