New-York tribune., 1901-11-20
yP CROKER'S BLUFF.

MI Richard Croker thinks he wants vindl-
cation. Mr. Croker is sometimes lnclhed 10
think he wants things that he does not really
want Mt all About year ago ne thought he
wanted publication of this city. With the
same brave show of virtue which he now makes
he then proclaimed an investigation or the
charges of police protection of vice but the IN
vestigation had not much more than oegnn,
found Holahan on the track of his wayWard
son, and obtained from Barney York the
avowal that if vice flourished it paid for the
privilege when the publication committee was
called off Mr.. Nixon. in closing up its bust
ness. blamed Devery the protector of vice,
but Mr.. Croker's Mayor pronounced him the
best Chief of Police New-York ever had, Mr..
Croker nut him I'D at the club and Tammany
made a campaign for his vindication Mr.. Gro
ker's desire for publication was not lasting.
Perhaps he thinks that with the general good
nature after election a bluff about vindication
will go" and that the public in self-reproach
will class its past opinions OF Mr- croker as
mere campaign prejudice. But 1t is 10 be
doubted if the bluff about vindication would be
carried much further than the bluff about puri-
fication If il was called" by an offer to nvesti-
gate.
Mr.. Croker has had chances for thorough
vindication before now, and was careful not
to embrace them 1t will be remembered
that he was n witness before the Mazet COM
mittee. and to every leading question which
threatened TO expose his relations to financial
operations depending On the favor Of the city
government for profits he interposed the objec
tion. private business" Mr.. Croker now says:
wish / wish they would attempt to prove the
charges they have brought against me person
ally. I only wish they would. They have
placed me in a bad position before the public.
4 40 plIr n IA
tions withdraw them.
Does this mean that new investigators would
encounter no such obstacles? Would Mr. Gro
ker draw aside that veil of private business"
and tell how he manages so honestly TO use
his power over the city government for the
benefit of "his pocket all the time? Mr..
Croker says the reformers have placed him in
bad position True. he is in bad position. but
it not they who placed him there They
did not originate the charge that he In
politics for his pocket all the time. He
proclaimed that himself, and they have done
little more than repeat his declaration the
subject and give 1t specific application.
Mr.. Croker admitted himself to be the boss of
his party, a person with great influence in all
the departments, and one whom all officeholders
sought to please. He admitted that In pur-
suance of mis- policy of using his power In politics
for his own pocket all the time" he had received
large profits from company which bonded
city officials. The more officials took bonds
from 1t, instead Of from its rivals, the larger
its income and the larger were his profits.
Hs also admitted that his family had a large
interest in a ffreproofing concern, whose busi-
ness in this city was at the mercy of the rulings
of the Buildings Department Just how much
he paid for that interest in cold cash, and how
much in the worth of his goodwill as an aid to
favorable rulings, was never clearly understood
by the public. That apparently private
business" 1t will likewise be remembered
that Hugh J. Grant, when an officeholder by
favor of Tammany, found it convenient to
make present Of $4,000 to one Of Mr.. Croker's
children. That, too doubtless private
business"
We do not understand that Mr.. Croker is
charged with sharing the profits from the pro-
lection of vice and crime. That particular
variety of political graft according to com
mon report, is appropriated by other and lesser
lights. Mr.. Croker processes to be highly In
dignant, and defies his critics to prove that he
has any part in such iniquity. But there are
other ways of working for his own pocket all
the time than taking 'rakeoff'' from gamblers
and Mr.. Croker wastes his heroics in demand
ing proof withdrawal Of charges about his
use of the city government to fill his own
pockets when those charges are based on his
own admissions. He himself is one of the
greatest exponents Of 'commercialism in poli-
tics" He defined the system and defended il
from the Mazet committees witness stand long
before Controller Coler gave it name After
having declared that he was in politics for
money, he merely makes himself ridiculous bv
crying out against the reputation attached TO
that sort of activity. He only recalls dis
graceful past. He would better continue his
policy of silence remembering as Mr. Shepard
has said. how prone people to forget