The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1910-05-17
ASSERTS NO CITY CAN BE CLOSED"
Mayor Whlock of Toledo Remarkable Letter discusses Law En-
forcement.-Ae Answers Church Inquiry About Laws.

Toledo, Ohio.-Contending that
practically all crime is the result of
involuntary poverty and that the en-
forcement of laws not backed up by
public sentiment is little short of inn
possible, Mayor Brand Whitlock, in a
letter to several representatives of the
Federation of Churches, defends, his
administration in this city He as
serts that no city can be really "closed
up" Although the Mayors defense
is in epistolary form, it is in reality
an elaborate essay in which the his
tory of human institutions has been
traced to earliest days and for which
has been assimilated the wisdom of
Cato, Demosthenes, Kant, Jeremy,
Bentham, Savigny, Blackstone, Ralph
Waldo Emerson and William Dean
Howells
Mayor Whitlock tells why he be-
lieves the poor people are driven by
economic pressure to "shatter to bits
everywhere the little minor laws re-
stricting their enjoyments on Sun
days." he tells why women are
driven on to the street and into
dives" he tells why gambling in sa-
looms will always persist while bridge
whist parties flourish in other quar-
tiers" and while stock gambling, too,
sis practiced so brazenly everywhere
in the country" he tells why people,
tired after a long weeks work, have
a right to their entertainment at the
theatre and at the ball game on Sun
day." and he even tells why saloons
are permitted to operate on Sunday,
quietly and behind curtains, so as
not to offend those otherwise inclined
He asks what he is to do with the
women on the streets, and answers
his own question with two more--are
they to be driven into the brothel or
into the river, or out of this town into
another, or will the good people who
want them chastened and driven out
and punished take them into their
own homes, or actually do something
to help them? Mayor Whitlock SEEM
ingly is satisfied that there women
will not reform or go to work unless
society, which condemns them, is will
ing to help them. He asks what right
Toledo has to foist it's bad people on
it's sister cities.
Enforcement of those laws dealing
with acts that are wrong merely be-
cause prohibited and which do not
offend the universal conscience, Mr..
Whitlock says, involves disorder
even riot--and begets bitter hatreds.
Gambling will go on in saloons and
other resorts, he asserts, while bridge
whist is permitted in society. There
will be drinking over bars as long as
wine is served in the homes Of the
rich There will be Sunday baseball
and other forms of outdoor sport as
long as those who assail them most
bitterly themselves demand and con-
nive at such violation of Sunday labor
and other laws that serve their own
selfish purposes. Unfortunate women
will flock the streets of the cities,
! the Mayor believes, as long as they
are barred from honest means of live
| lihood--in fact, as long as women are
kept in state of economic depend
| ence upon man.
Hits "City Slanderers."
Among the most evil forces in a
city Mayor Whitlock places the Cow
ardly and indiscriminate" slanderers
of a city's good name. He asserts
that in Toledo certain classes which
have feared the loss of unjust privi.
leges have tried to darken the issue
by charging that the city was wide
open" and that vice here was on the
increase. This is denied in almost
tho same breath in which 1t Is as
serted that neither this city nor any
other, on this side Of the millennium
ever will attain the purity and excel.
lence the academic reformers demand
A Mayor is not beadle, nor a
| public mentQF, nor censor of the
morals, acts and opinions Of others, !,
says Mr.. Whitlock. "Nor is he tc
constitute himself spy and go peep
Ing and prying about violations o.
the law" The administration is moi
for the best people alone, he says
nor for the wisest. but for good. bad