The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1906-01-24
MAYOR UNFIT
FOR POSITION
so REV. F. |. HAYDEN DEC ARES
Either He Is Wrongly Informed on
the Matter of Gambling or He
Has Made Measurements.
PRICE BAKING POWDER CO.
CHICAGO.

At the local Presbyterian church
on Sunday morning the Rev. L. l..
Hayden took for the subject of his
sermon The Present Status of Re-
form Work in the City" The most
interesting feature of the sermon,
which is given in part below, was
when Mr.. Hayden declared that
gambling is being carried on in the
public resorts of the city and de-
clared that the mayor and chief of
ant of the facts and for that reason
were unfit to hold office, or that they
were untruthful in their statements.
In another column will be found
Mayor Reeds reply to the assertions
of Mr.. Hayden. The sermon in part
was as follows:
MY reasons for speaking to you
on this subject at this time is a note
of encouragement that has come to
me from certain quarters during the
past few days.
1T is we'll to examine our ground
and see whether there is anything
in the situation to discourage us.
Look at the situation a moment:
The city council has repealed all re-
strictive ordinances that guarded the
Sabbath and the city against drunk
enness. This action is directly
against the statutes bearing upon
these subjects, and today we are I'M
der the reign of official lawlessness
The mayor and chief of police are re-
ported in city paper as saying there
is no gambling in the city. These
men are men of veracity, so our con-
clusion is they do not know what
half the men and many of the boys
of the city can tell them, viz, there
is public gambling in many of the
public resorts of the city. If these
men know it they have not stated
the facts. If they do not know it
they are unfit for the positions they
hold Which is true l leave you to
judge. Why do they not come out
squarely and ADMIT the facts and say
what we all know, that every gam
bier is now getting the reward of his
services in electing this administra-
ton into power l like a man who
will fight fair This city cannot be
hoodwinked by any such statements
as are quoted above.
This is the way the ante-election
pledge to provide such regulation
as may be required by decent re
gard for public MORALS is being kept
by this administration. This is the
situation as we know it to be.
This situation suggests some
needed reflections:
'1.-Great reforms have an in
significant beginning and are slow
in developing their true proportions.
The anti-slavery sentiment was born
with the beginning Of this govern
ment. but nearly a century elapsed
before freedom won it's final VIC
tory on fields of blood. 1t required
half century of temperance agita-
tion to make it possible to make
prohibition a factor in public life.
Five years ago this winter the
Guyles gang rode into a gambling
hell in this city and robbed the ia
bles and the players. No such thing
is possible today. Now the patrons
of the green cloth ply their trade
behind closed doors. See what we
have gained! We deal with charac-
ter, a most subtle thing. Evil is hard
to eradicate. Goodness is difficult
to develop. The magnitude of the
thing determines it's speed. The re-