The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-25

the point in the. consideration
of this awful state of af-
fairs where even our most intelligent
and public spirited citizens submit them
selves to the belief that the remedy is
to be had only through turning out one
set of party politicians and putting in
another. Here is what the president of
the New York police board says on the
situation in his city, speaking of the
remedy which Senator Plat offers, and
referring to police corruption:
''When a place is running openly from
Gay to day it stands to reason that the
captain is getting something for allowing
it to remain open, but it's mighty hard to
prove any such charge as that. 1t may
be morally proved but it is next to i'm
possible to prove such a thing in court.
This Is apparent when 1t is remembered
that every man except one who was dis
missed after the LeXoW investigation for
that sort of thing is now back on the
force, and even Capt. Dougherty, who
was convicted in two appellate courts,
has been pardoned, and Gov. Roosevelt
has signed a bill to give him new trial.
They talk about l,,, state Gons d4 2Eg
captains are not doing these kinds of
things on account of politics. There are
just as many men of one party IN mat
kind of business as of another. vice
can't be stopped; it can only be regulated.
We can't keep vicious people IN
doors, either. When there IS not
weather the people in the crowd
ed tenements have got to get
out of doors. There's no law by when
we can keep them inside. There is bound
to be liveliness Where there are cf9 5EyStI
and what YOU call Irritation on Firth
avenue, YOU are likely to cali soliciting
when you see it on the East side
There is a deal of human nature re-
vealed in this statement; but it is the
vile side of human nature which finds
Revelation in it. Can it be that it is that
side alone, or chiefly, which is bound to
find expression in E-atters of American
municipal concern?
Of what avail will it be to the Ameri-
can people, if with all the conquests
abroad and all the extension of their
foreign trade, they enrich themselves
only to find crime fostering at their very
doors, and the springs of their social
| and political life mere sinks of pollution?
We have grown greatly in wealth and
population We have advanced to the
very front as a great recognized -Torld
power But where will our advance
finally lead US to if we leave in our rear
moral plague spots which reveal rotten
ness in the very heart of the body poll
tic?
Whatever Providence has in store for
US as a nation there is no experienced
or moral-minded man but knows that
crime will bear it's burden sooner or
later and that substantial evil never goes
unpublished in the last event. 1t is 50
to the individual, and history proves it
| to be so with the state. Other countries
have had the same problem to deal with
| in their large cities. They have dealt
with them successfully in many in
| stances. There are numbers of cities in
! Europe today wherein official corruption
does not exist; and wherein social vice
and the moral helplessness of the poor
have found safe remedy Can we not
do what others have done, or can it be
| that the cancer has eaten too deeply?
The entire system of party contest has
furnished nothing like substantial prom
Use of remedy. Indeed the remedy
lies with the people themselves,
rather than with their politi-
clans. Unless they rise to the seri-
business of the situation, and under the
leadership of men whose hands are clean
in public as in private life, put an end
to the conditions which naturally beget
vice and crime and ignorance end poverty
in their big cities, the penalty will one
day come home to them with force
which may endanger the, very fabric Of
their moral, political and social state.