The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1911-12-30
An Object Lesson

read Jane Addams's articles on "A New
Conscience and an Ancient Evil" now
coming out in McClure's Magazine. The
series deals penetratingly and from
high moral stan 1point with CONNER
cialized vice." its causes, it's evils, and
the possibilities OF doing away with 1t.
A prominent man, an anti-suffragist,
once said that any mention of this sub
ject makes women so angry that 1t Is
impossible to reason with them. Miss
Addams's reasoning is as calm as it is
clear, and she never loses sight of char
ity; but the woman who can read these
articles without burning Indignation,
lacks a heart, and the woman who can
read them without wishing for the ballot
must lack head-or her head must be
empty of any sense of logic.
The comfortable and careless woman
thinks that If girl goes wrong it is gen.
orally through innate perversity. The
ANTI says that the social evil grows
out of conditions which have nothing to
do with politics. While its underlying
causes are complex, Miss Adams shows
clearly the close and direct bearing of
debased politics upon 1.-THE practical
partnership between the city govern
ment and the traders who exploit young
girls for profit. Miss Adams says:
The police, as they themselves well
know, are not expected to serve the pub
lie in this mattep, but to consult the de-
sires of the politicians; for, next to the
fast and loose police control of gambling
nothing affords better political material
than the regulation of concentrated
vice.
First in line is the ward politician
who keeps a disorderly saloon which
serves both as a meeting place for the
cadets and as market for their wares.
Back of this, the politician higher up
receives his share of the toll which this
business pays, that it may remain I'M
disturbed. The very existence of a Sc
gregated district under police regula-
tons, means, of course, that the exist
ing law must be nullified, or at LEAST
rendered totally imperative. When poi
lice regulation takes the place of Law
enforcement, SPECIES of municipal
blackmail inevitably becomes intrenched.
The police are forced to regulate an il
licit trade, but, because the men engag-
ed in an unlawful business expect to pay
money for its protection, the corruption
of the police department is firmly estab-
lished, and, as the Chicago Vice Commits
sion report points out, is merely called
protection to the business The prac /
tice of grating thereafter becomes al,
most official On the other hand, any
man who attempts to show mercy to thd
victims of that business, or to regulate
1t from the victims point of view, is
considered a traitor to the cause.
Quite recently a former inspector O,
police in Chicago established a require
ment that every young girl who came to
live in dsreputable house within a
prescribed district must be reported to
him within an hour after her arrival.
Each one was closely questioned as TO
her reasons for entering the life; if she
was very young, she was warned of its
inevitable consequences and urged to
abandon her project. Every assistance
was offered her to return to work and
to live normal life.
This Chicago police inspector, whose
desire to protect young girls was so
genuine and so successful, vas indicted
by the grand jury and sent TO the peni-
Tertiary on the charge OF accepting
graft from saloonkeepers and proprie-
tors of the disfeputabIe h1uses in his
district. His experience wa a dramatic
and tragic portrayal of the position into
which every city forces its police. When
a girl who has been secured for the life
Is dissuaded from it, her rescue repre-
sents a definite monetary loss to the
agency which has secured her, and incurs
the enmity of those who expected to
profit by her. When this enmity has
sufficiently accumulated, the active
official is either called down by higher
political authority or brought to trial
for those illegal practices which he
shares with his fellow officials. 1t is,
therefore easy to make such an nspec-
tor as ours suffer for his virtues which
are individual by bringing charges
against his grating which is general
and almost official. So long as the Gus
tomary prices for protection are adhered
to no one feels aggrieved but the senti
ment which prompts an inspector to
side with the girls and to destroy
thousands of dollars worth of business
is unjustiIable. He has not stuck to
the rules of the game, and the pack of
enraged gamesters, under full cry of
morality can very easily run him to
ground, the public meantime being graft
fed that police corruption has been eX-
posed and the offender punished. Yet
undreds of girls, who could have been
discovered in no other way, were rescued
by this man in his capacity of police in
5pector The fortunes of the police are
81 tied up to those who profit ny this
rad, aad to their friends the pol Ii
clans. that the most wellmeaninS mai
upon the force is constantly handicapped.
Several Illustrations of this occur to
me: Two years ago, when very urto-
ward conditions were discovered in con-
nection with certain five cent theatre
a young policeman arrested the proprie.
tor, who was later brought before the
grand jury, indicted and released upon
bail for nine thousand dollars. The
crime was a heinius one, involving the
ruin of fourteen little birls; but so much
pc. Il cal nlence had been eXerted or
behalf of the proprie Tor, who was re-
lative of the Republican committeeman
of his ward, that, although the license
of the theater ives Immediately revoked