Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-09-25
VICE FLAGRANT
AND PROTECTED
HERE, |ScHARGED
The Rev. E. |. StearnS
Insists in Letter
Lid Is Off.
SAYS CITY CONDITIONS
ARE VILEST IN JERSEY
mo Other Community Qualified
to Compete With 1t for Un-
checked lawlessness.'

Declaring that open fiagrant, un-
checked, tolerated and protected vice
and lawlessness" flourish in this city, |
the Rev. Edwin |. Stearns. superin-
tendent of the Anti-Saloon League of
New Jersey, communicated with
Mayor Haussling today, taking him to
task for his letter to Governor Wilson.
in which the mayor denied that this
city is vice e-ridden. as the league
charged
ut will require something stronger
than adjectives and inveetive to set
aside the concrete charges that have
been made against your administra-
ton," MI Stearns declares.
The text of the letter is as follows:
Your letter to Governor Wilson in
the matter of vice conditions in the
city of Newark has interested me as
an illustration of how a chief magis-
trate of. great city may be blinded
and deceived by the system that is all
about him. The only other alterna
tive of Willful blindness TO conditions
that are depraving our youth and
maidens in great shoals is of course,
inconceiyable.
'Permit me to suggest to your
honor that IT will require something
stronger than adjectives and in
vective to set aside the concrete
charges that have been made against
your administration. If those charges
are, as you say, highly colored,' you
ought to be able to prove 1t, and If
they are, as you say, false in gem
eral and in many particulars you
surely have, or ought to have, some
thing more than assertion with
which to back up your denial.
Repeats Governors Statement.
Permit me TO repeat the gov
ernors lucid statement, The police
and civil authorities not only con-
nived at the lawlessness, but in some
instances countenanced 1t in person
You vigorously object TO this state
ment, but it is, nevertheless, true,
and some of your associates IN he
city government know that 1t is true,
for they have taken part in the
Bacchanalean revelries in violation of
the laws.
THE charges that were made in
the petition To the governor are
specific, and are verified by the oaths
of Mr. Wilson and myself, and
gore OF Newark's, best citizens stand
ready to repeat and amplify them be-
fore the proper tribunals These con-
ditions were reported to you, and
from week to week you were re-
minded that your police were doing
nothing to abate the nuisances. Now
for you to indulge in heroics about
the good name and fame of the city
without doing your sworn duty to
clean out the pest spots sounds very
much like political buncombe.
Hopes Challenge win BE Accepted
1T is to be hoped that other cities
will accept your challenge that
most eursory comparison would
show no other city so free from evil
resorts and corrupting conditions
II they do there will be some hopes
of moral municipal housecleaning.
warn you, however that from our OBJ
serVations there Is no other city in
New Jersey that is qualified to enter
the contest with Newark when 1t
comes to championship for open, flag
rant, unchecked. tolerated and pro-
ltCltu NlIO anu 10 iNofshtSS-
Il note that you claim to have made
Investigations and found conditions to
be decent. / think | see the smile
on the countenance Of the denizens of
the underworld who participated in
lawless conditions when they read
that statement They know. the po-
lice know. some of your associates
know and thousands of reputable citi-
zeDs know that If you made any OBJ
servation and your observers did not
report that the lid Is off in Newark
and vice and lawlessness are un-
checked 1t Is time to appoint new
corps of observers.
"The people of Newark are not blind
and can distinguish black and white,
and they remember your very recent
statement wherein you did not deny
that these conditions existed, but VOC
claimed that you tolerated them be-
cause you believed that the people
want to live In a wide open city. |
am inclined to believe that some who
are fathers will repudlate this at
tempt to force revolving conditions
upon a society in which their sons
and daughters have to live"