The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-03-09

| NDi'stS'SNe@ NfSNo AAS'
a present exist; even if it did exist, the
amount spent would be inadequate to
keep together such an organization
based upon principles Of iniquity, as
Tammany Hail.
1t is the influence, not political, but
commercial, that the leaders can WELD
with the great corporations and the
contributions which monopolsts direct
Ivy make to the funds of Tammany in
payment for their special privileges or
immunity, that is the strength of polit-
ical corruption in this city. And these
contributions do not all go to Tamma-
ny: they go to the republican machine
also. A prominent clergyman then of
Chicago, in addressing dinner Of the
Civic club of that city upon THE
Causes of Political Corruption" said,
II see two hundred of them seated
around this table,
The committee of fifteen and the
committee of five will do no more to-
ward the permanent publication of the
city than the former committees Of a
hundred, of seventy and Of fifty.
For each of those committees is
mainly controlled by men who want to
reform social conditions without
changing them.
Our Crusade" Is against brothes
and bucket shops and faro banks. VIII
any one break a. lance against mistress
es or stock exchange gambling or gam
bling in land?
1t is true that the average Tammany
voter is ignorant and careless of his ul-
| innate welfare, but the men who lead
them are, in their way, men of brains
and Of strong personal sympathies; and
these people are led, not because they
are politically ignorant, for on the
whole, they are no more politically ig-
norant than our average merchant or
banker;) nor because they are corrupt,
(for their methods are no more corrupt
than the ordinary methods of our bust
neSs,) but because what is to them the
inevitable necessity compels them, or
else the feeling of fellowship leads Them
to vote for Tammany Hall 1t is the
best they know. | heard Mr.. Joseph Fl,
Choate say in open court that the Me-
tropolitan Street Railway company had
on hand staff of paid false witnesses
to testify in defense of the company as
to accidents. In that very trial (Wil-
lams against the railroad company he
said that one of the witnesses fled the
city or concealed himself as soon as his
testimony was concluded. If you were
the counsel OF the road you would have
o wink at that or lose your excellent
job.
Will our crusade against vice include
any notice of all that? I think not It
I.,,@ ~, -. -
people of no consequence. If it aimed
higher the money to carry it on would
be stopped and the influence to carry it
off would begin. 1t is not possible to
reform society in spots any more than
it is to make clear place in a mud
puddle. Suppose you We're trustee of
Trinity church or of the Aston estate
and wished to reform their tenements
You would refuse to rent them for vice?
That would enable some one else to get
a higher price for the same use and
you would be removedatthe end Of your
term because you We're not getting
good returns from the property under
your charge. Then you would sell the
bad tenements? But that would only
be change of owners, not change Of |
CHdIdCltl Luz Tic letltiliSlllS-
Well, you would put in all the im- !
of them? But when most men are so !
and make first-class houses
poor that they have to live in misera-
bic homes, it does not pay to make the !
houses good. And even If it did you |
would only secure richer class of ten
ants, not provide better for the poor
ones.
Yet these men who start such cru
sades are not worse than the rest of u.s.
Perhaps they are better. At any rate
they are trying to do something, though
they will fail.
1t must be so; as long as men are
shut out from work by speculation in .
the opportunities which nature offers
for employment, the larger part of men
must be degraded miserable and inca
pable of the higher pleasures and dead
to the higher motives. 1t is we, the
well-to-do, that shut them out from the
to do right. eWere the
taxes which now slft down to the very
poorest laid upon the rental value of
the land alone so that it would be I'M
prof ia BILE to hold land unused or only
partly used, and that all the resources !
If the earth would be utilized instead of
being kept idle, we would bring about
such conditions as would, on the one
1and, incline men to abandon the
,rosser gratifica tions Of drink and gam
bling, whether in faro chips or shares
If stock, and the gratifica tons of lust
because independence would bring the
higher qualifications within reach.
And, on the other hand, we would Gre {
lite self-reliant voters who would Sc
,ure an honest administration of such ]
avs as we possess.
Money rules because men are for /
ale,' and men are for sale because the {
Tread of want and the unreasoning
rave for riches, which is bred of the
ear of want, make men and women ]
Wiling to sell their talents and their
,odies. !
As the author of that great new book, !
The Religion of Democracy" says:
Crusades" by scribes and doctors /
gainst the pubieans and harlots, the S
lded league of scholars in politics list l
d in busting combat against the S
Prince of the Power of the Air, these
hings make passing contribution to the i
eneral fund of humor, but they do not +
cid the people to refrain themselves /
r to believe in God"
COTTON HALL. is