The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-11-30
Compared TO RefOrmsr by
Assistant Prosecutor Mott
in Vice Address.
POLICE WERE DERELTCT
County Official Rebukes Them for
Failure to Suppress Disorderly
Houses in Past..Flays Cheap
Theatres for Their Effect
on Young.

Assistant Prosecutor Wilbur A. Mott
was the principal speaker at the
special meeting for men held in st.
Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church,
Broad and Marshall streets, last night.
The attendance was not large, but those
present thoroughly appreciated Mr..
Motifs address. His subject was Rem
der Unto Caesar the Things that Are
Caesars
After Mr.. Motifs address the Rev.
DIR. William A. Morgan spoke FOR
twenty minutes on Faith in Cod"
Mr. Motifs address was filled with
references to those who have no vision
further than the confines of their own
domicile and have no part in the great
struggle with the few whose efforts in
the interest of cleansing the city of
its cesspools, it's nurseries of crime, In
which children are taught immortality.
Mr.. Mott said In part;
One thing is certain, the things that are
Caesars 5 today are vastly different from
the things that were his 1000 years ago.
Then Caesar was everything. the in
dividual nothing. Then the individual had
no rights except such as Caesar con-
descended to grant him; now Caesar pos
sesseS no power except such as has been
conferred on him by the people.
think ] can safely say that in the last
analysis we Of today owe no duty to the
government which we do not primarily
owe to ourselves We want good gov
ernment because of the advantage that
aecrues TO ourselves from such gov
ernment but good government can only
De obtaineG when the citizen performs his
dRfy to fhe government therefore the
Performance OF duty to the government
II but the performance of duty to our
Selves.
we are. | think. inclined to take too
nnrrow view of the scope of our duties
both TO the government and TO our
selves. When man has paid his taxes,
done his duty as a citizen at the primary
and on election day, served on the jury
and performed other like duties, which
are imposed on him by law, he has by
no means fulfilled the full measure of his
duty to the government to himself or to
the community in which he lives. These
in sense are but the ordinary and COM
monplace duties OF citizenship, but above
and beyond them are higher duties of
Christian citizenship which are vastly
more important
Let me illustrate: Two years ago a
young man, who was by nature a clois-
tered student but who possessed a moral
courage as fine and Incompatible as that
of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms.
was elected Sheriff OF this county. You
know what followed. He had not bean in
Office long before he discovered co1di-
tion of affairs that was simply appalling.
Under the awful strain Frank Sommer
broke down physically, and for months his
friends were anxious about his condition.
But buck of him stood the Prosecutor OF
Pleas and Judges of our Criminal Courts,
and there was never a day, no, not min
ute, when they did not do everything that
in them lny to bring these criminals to JUS
tice; and the net result of the combined ef-
forts of these men is that of some fifty or
sixty indictments already disposed or, not
o man has escaped convlction--ne. not one.
One of the duties which Mr. Mott ac-
cused his auditors of leaving undone was
of not cheering these men on in their
time of anxiety Much had been accom-
plished he said, and all that remained
would be accomplished as fast as possible.
''If the police would follow the keeper
OF a disorderly house with the same zeal
and intelligence with which they follow q
murderer, there would scarcely be a DIS
orderly house in the city of Newark to-
night. Crime standing alone and unpro-
fected by the police is a coward and can
be easily reached. The police can close the
saloons on Sunday, IL they want to, for
they are now doing it. l know our work
is not completed; l know there are guilty
men yet to be dealt with but | do not
hesitate to declare to you tonight that in my
opinion the alliance between the police and
crime in the city of Newark Is broken,
and 1t will be your fault il it is ever re-
newed."
The criticism of the police was qualified
by the statement that the speaker did not
mean all members of the department He
believed. he declared, that the majority
OF the force were honest men.
Much was yet to be done, he asserted.
He reminded his hearers of the wave of
reform that swept over the city about two
-ars ago, when press AMI clergy pro-
tested against the posters of certain
theatre which advised boys and girls to
steal money to come and see the plays.
Those theatres existed to-day, he said,
and were places where vice was made to
appear more attractive than virtue.
Il do not say that these plays are so
grossly vulgar as to make the place
public nuisance, SO far as the adult is
concerned" he continued but I dc say
thar they are utterly demorallzlng and
vicious 50 far as children are concerned.
The results of these plays Mr.. Mott said
be was painfully aware of. They not only
led to tfuancy, theft and immortality, but
established in the minds OF the children
false ideas on life. He concluded:
What, do you ask, Is to be the remedy?
l am not prepared to say what should be
the ultimate remedy. The immediate remedy
should be legislation that viii make 1t un-
lawful to admit boy or girl under the age.
say of 10 years, 1t ought to be higher, un-
accompanied by parent or adult frierd. to
plnce Of public lAmusement. IT we can
get that law, It will save hundreds OF boys
and girls that are now on the high road to
in2rai ruin. For twf years In succession
the Legislature has passed such bill, but
hut not 70 US, the Governor has refused to-
sign It.