The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-11-04
Father Coffey Says Aid of Pulpit
and Press Is Needed to Re
form st. Louis.
THEIR INFLUENCE AT POLLS.
Political Corruption and Supreme
cy of Ring Rule Due to
Moral Cowardice of the
Public, He Says.

At the invitation of the Christian Min
listers Alliance the Reverend Father James
7. Cohey addressed that body yesterday &t
No. 1922 Locust street. The subject Of Ills
discourse was Municipal Reform All OF
the Christian ministers of the city and many
leading members of their congregations were
present.
Father Coney showed the relation be-
tween the individual and the body politics.
saying that common sense processes were
as needful as the application of scientific
ne: hods. He declared that 1t vas only
beating the air to take a stand against
the effects of political rottenness and then
fail to get at the source of municipal cor
ruption.'
The remedy for these evils, he said. lies
with the pulpit, the newspapers and the
voters, who must elect competent nen to
NIL important offices. He said, in part:
The fossilized preachers of the word OF
God mus. arouse themselves. shelve their
supposedly up-to-date scientific sermon
books and study all vital questions from or
lgirai sources. They must get out and
mingle with the great active masses and
cease spending so many precious hours In
the parloTs and libraries Of the case owing
classes, They must preach as Jesus Christ
preached in the plain and forcible language
or the people and tell the truth in season
hurt; II this were done concertedly and
persistently, how different would be our
political situation in St. Louis to-day.
REPUBLIC HAS SPOKEN OUT.
for party gain only and raise their mighty
voices against all vicious characters on all
party tickets and against the bosses who
would dare foist their filth on a patient and
long-suffertng people. Let them speak cut
as The Republic has spoken out in the
present campaign against the brazen pub
tickets besmirched with their unclean
records. The people will refuse to support
papers; which. fearing to honestly cry
FOR public office, would lead us nack again
to the fearful reign of Ziegenheinism.
sa rna may n, be good politics On the worst
machine-created nominees who are unfit to
conduct our public affairs. but it IS certain
be silent about disreputable men. who seek
our suffrage in this present crisis, are
guilty of a great crime against our free
Institutions and must meet the fate of all
traitorous and corrupt agencies. 1t is a
notorious fact that two leading papers in
this city have failed to show W the white
sepulchres of the Republican ticket simply
because they stand for the machine and all
that ii grinds out-the rotten and nasty
ofscouring of humanity as well as the de-
ship.
When our newspapers. controlled by men
whose patriotism cannot be subsidized BY
community. will make a united and deter
mined attack upon the rum-hells-the in
lQullouS tEdlUll6 SCROClS OF almost all our
sewer politicians and the noxious breeding
places of all the cabals against public de-
cency and public honesty, when this comes
to pass. and not until then. may We expect
some kind of substantial municipal reform.
The public conscience has long been
dormant-it must be Quickened again into
enforcement of the existing laws regulating
vice and crime is necessary to bring this
nSSgt' d i fe e c we will l %SlIe in o0 vain infer for this aIs
sought after by men whose worst quail
fication is not that they are inferior law.
yers, but that they are dyed-in-the-woo
strong odor of the rum-shop and the
brothel.
CORRUPT COURTS
BRING DISORDER.
long as We shall have judges on the
bench who trifie with the sanctity of the
law, who openly protect the fixing Of ju-
ries by political bosses. who associate with
d%runkards gamblers prostitutes and
der and morality are jeopardized. Public
conscience is polluted and demoralized, and
the people are driven to lynch law and
homes. We have plenty, of law for the
suppression of vice and the punishment of
have dared to clog the wheels Of justice and
to make our criminal courts the jest of the
lawless element of this city.
Court and the Three Cs Court since the
coming into power Of the Ziegenhein gang!
Men have been seated there who openly
whisky-soaks of the slum and the soiled-
doves Of the half-world. The rising genera
tons of voters among our young men see
dragged into the mire Of ring politics and
trampled upon by those whose sworn duty
!, .ed is d to Uphold fPs a1e and oa enforce shis mom ansm; they sIss syen
so filled with fate for the upbuilding of a
new st. Louis, they see our Supreme Court |
ring thai has decreed the deliverance of all |
prostitutors of the ballot. And seeing all |
this: they soon learn to make light of |
No wonder that the young men of st. Louis |
find 1t more conducive to their political |
welfare to place themselves in the ranks OF
the hoodlum Indians rather than to seek |
membership among the law-abiding and
self-respecting element of citizenship.
PUBLIC COwARDICE Tt ELAINE.
II do not think 1t Is our wofully lax sys-
tenn of primaries, I do not think It is the /
Nesbit law, nor ~ziegenheinism. nor Butler
ism, nor any other political ism that under |
lies all our municipal troubles for the past |!
convinced it is our own cowardice. our
neglect to stir up the public con- |
science. our shameful .hesitancy in attack
ing and driving out Of our municipal poll
tics alcohol and its cohorts. / am thor
oughly convinced further that Is the rum |
ruled and hidebound machine newspaper, \
character and drunken, beastly habits and
associations Of MANY of the men who are |
elected to preside ever our courts of jus
tice. /
Awake the ministers. force the news
to a policy of decency, and put only
clean men and able lawyers in our colfts. /
then and then only. may We expect a new
era OF political regeneration. Give US civil /
officers like Folk, Bishop. Hancock and
Maroney, give us more Judges like Ryan, |
Fisher. Douglas and Tracy. give us law
makers like the members of the present ]
CITY council. and in a short time most of 1
our very serious political ills will have a
termination