The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-19
REsPEcTABILlrY AND REFORM.

Telegraph company, in New York CITY,
responding TO a strong popular demand
upon Them have ordered their service
cut out from the pool rooms. Police
Commissioner McAdoo, in his earnest
and successful campaign to put stop
to gambling in New York, found the
pool room one of the most obstinate
offenders and one most completely be-
yond his reach. He declared finally, in
a public statement, that he could not
prohibit this form of lawbreaking I'M
less he had the assistance of the tele-
graph company. 1t was alleged that
the corporation had a special branch
of it's business devoted to this illicit
service, that wires were secretly
strung, that contemplated police raids
were tipped off, that men were espe-
cially trained to furnish information
on the quiet and that the pool room
business was based entirely upon the
telegraph business.
Following this revelation there was
a general cutlery, and heavy pres
sure was brought to bear upon the
directors OF the telegraph company.
These, who are prominent and honora-
BILE men, were not able to withstand
the demand upon them. Almost every
newspaper in New York city took 4
shy at them, and their responsibility
was clearly and publicly fixed. No
profits that could accrue from this por-
ton of their business would recon-
pense these men for the injury to their
reputation and standing involved in
openly siding with the gambling inter
est. The end came quickly with the
order just issued to cut out all .pool
rooms from the company's service.
The case is particularly interesting
as showing the ease with which appar-
emily impracticable reforms can be ac-
complished. when once attack is made
in the right direction, and when the
really responsible parties are made to
bear the brunt of it, instead of hiding
telegraph corporation carried the
odium of supporting the pool rooms,
nobody cared and nothing was done. 1t
was only when the public began to can
names, when Comm issioner MeAdoo
branded the guilty parties directly, and
when men foremost in business circles
and in church activities were summon
ed to stand forth and say why they did
not put an end to this nefarious bust
ness that action began. They coulI
not stand this line of attack for a
week.
The suppression of the pool room
S Will be tremendous moral gain. but
the lesson of the method by which 1t
was accomplished, if generally Needed.
would be far greater. As a general
rule, if we could but reach the respect
able, orderly and professedly virtuous
members of a community, who are Sc
cretly responsible either through indo-
lence or through greed for vicious
practices, we should have taken the
most telling step in a great moral re-
FORM Drive the moral home. Right
here in st. Paul there are those who
1nveigh against the liquor interest.
Obtain list Of the owners of propertv
occupied by saloons and find how many
professors must answer when the roll
is called. There are other more un-
speakable places of resort, against
which the voice of the entire resnonsi-
bic element in the community is raised.
Yet these are almost never owned by
the parties who inhabit them. The
landlords, acting through agents and
falsely disclaiming knowledge of their
own responsibility, are in a great many
cases men of wealth. of standing and
of high moral pretensions.
If the owners of property in any city
IN the country were tomorrow to accent
the responsibility that 1ightfullv he
longs to them, if they were to insist
that no profit and no other inducemen+
should purchase the use of ground or
buildings belonging to them for i'm
proper purposes, if the element that
prides itself upon its responsibility aud
devotion to law and order were to put
law and order above profit tomorrow.
we could wipe out more than half thA
lawbreaking and half of the nol;ea
force and police expenditure in an the
cities of the country.
Thus the lesson of bringing the
/ Western Union company to terms and Of
the crusade against pool rooms be-
comes impressive. Thus the country
learns that the present administration
IN New York city is really in earnest in
It's movement against vice, and is
taught valuable lesson in practiea.
procedure Thus. most of all. may we
understand that one of the worst men