The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-05
justifiable or a useful method Of at
lacking the social evil?

a justifiable or a useful method Of at
lacking the social evil?
1t is hardly worth while showing that
good does not accrue to the immediate
victims. II their reformation were the
object aimed at, no one in his senses
would dream of selecting course OF
treatment which deprived them of every
remaining shred of self-respect and in
many cases consigned them beyond hope
to the outcast class. Most likely the
hackers of the raid would simply say
that they were incidental victims of a
movement for the general good Of the
community-an act for the publication
Of its morals and its politics.
| 1t is hard to see how a case can be made
out on this ground any more than on
the other. Wholesale raiding ia an utter
and oft repeated failure. 1t has never
effected the slightest diminution in the
prevalence of the social evil or even in
the brazenness thereof. The common
est experience is that the spectacular
raid causes no perceptible interruption
| in the career of the place or the people
raided. If by persistent raiding backed
with other measures of an effective char
acter any one locality is made untenable
by the vicious class they are sure to
move on to another, and thus they de-
stroy BY the canker Of their presence
neighborhoods which had previously
been wholesome Without going into
any general discussion Of the question
whether this evil can be suppressed or
reduced to any extent worth speaking Of
in big cities. it may be said with conf
dence that the true methods of suppress
sion or repression do not include raiding,
They. are we'll known to policemen and
Magistrates, of any degree OF intelli-
gence, everywhere. They consist in at
tempts to reform the erring class, in the
severe punishment of those who recruit
it and in the rigorous punishment Of the
proprietors and managers of resorts Of
vice-all lines OF activity separable from
IL not inconsistent with the wholesale
raid. II the Philadelphia authorities
were aiming at a cleaning up" Of the
city pure and simple. they could, it
"Oull SetIl, nave uollC iul AioIC CIlCS'-
i've work by arresting the Keepers Of the
houses raided on Saturday-and perhaps
the totally vicious inmates of them
quietly, in detail in the broad day, as is
now more than in the past coming to
be the practise in New York. Rigorous
prosecution should follow.
In taking this course the police would
not only have avoided the cr,lelties
and injustices Of their wholesale gath
ering of the weak and foolish as we'll
as the hardened and peotligate, but
they would also have avoided the shock
which the monstrous performance of
Saturday must have given to public
morals everywhere when the accounts Of
it were read Not only is the fearful
prevalence of vice blazoned before the
minds of the young the simple. the in
nocent, but they are made acquainted
with the extent to which it pervades
even the realms Of good order and re-
speciality. But look at the warning,
we may be told, which the fate of these
miserable people offers to all men and
women Will not those who are tempted
hesitate long before Drawing the same
fate? This is not human nature. Warn
ings are soon forgotten, and the lesson OF
this raid to many is apt to be only that
it is possible to indulge the hayward
passions and keep friends. position and
good repute, barring accident. Of course.
when the accident happens the penalty
is terrible, but even the timoro,s will
be apt to argue-as people do in every
circumstance OF life-that the chances
of mourning it in their own cases are
so remote as not to be worth reckoning.
1t is trite to say that if people did not
calculate this way every day in the week
there would be hardly any vice or crime
in the world.
No doubt the further argument will
be advanced based on special condi-
tions in Philadelphia, that the raid is
useful to complete the divorce between
the police and the vicious class and to
prove that the power Of the ring has
been smashed. 1t may be granted
that these purposes are temporarily
accomplished, but it is to be feared
only temporarily. Raids Of this sort,
so far from freeing the police from cor
r,lpt alliance with vice, are the very
things that tend to strengthen that
alliance in the long run.
The occurrence, in whatever light il
is considered appears to have been
most deplorable one. Upon individuals
it bears as a wanton act Of oppression
The community is injured rather than
benefited by it, 1t even tends to affect
disastrously the very cause that it was
mistakenly designed to promote.