Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-12-07

ers of the force have gone out of
office millionaires. | can count up
several of them now who are still
alive and living the lives of million
aires with their country houses and
their yachts. That is all at an end.
There are g~rafters still left from
the old regime. They are being re-
tired one after another and every
chance WI get we dismiss one. But
the process of publication and edu-
cation takes some time. We have
made much progress In the last three
years. And l hope by the end of my
term to be able to say hat all graft
has been cut off from the police force.
you ask me what the sources of
graft are. Why, the great sources of
graft are in the enforcement of the
excise law, the law against gambling,
and the law against prostitution. If
you turn the police loose on these
three things, they will take graft
right and left. When | came in here
as mayor, the thirteen thousand
hotels and saloons of this city were
paying, the least of them, $25 a
month for graft, to the police and
politicians. Do you perceive that
THAI lOOlS up " OUsU d gSdl.
| am saying this to you to illustrate
how much can be collected in this
great city from these three ources
of graft. Each of the other three
sources can be made to yield nearly
as much as the liquor traffic. In
years past all of these three sources
were made to pay the maximum, and
as | have said to you, the chief Of
ficers in the police department re-
tired one after another m~illionaires.
THE excise graft l have cut off
absolutely. Everyone knows that.
If there can be any graft at all there
now, it is some petty graft by some
petty scamp of a policeman here or
there. There is no general graft
paid by the liquor organizations any
more, nor by the separate establish
ments, nor by the brewers for the
liquor trade. I have the thanks Of
the brewers and of the liquor organ
izations for having done that thing.
In fact, they asked me to do 1T. They
came to me shortly after I became
mayor and opened their hands to me
and showed the way they were being
grated upon, and / stopped it. Deal
Ing with the other two things we
found more difficult. But we adopt
ed a plan. We took away from the
police force as a whole the dealing
with gambling houses and houses of
prostitution. To leave each captain
and each inspector free in that mat
ter, made grating possible all along
the line. We therefore adopted a
different method.
ga rD1ioo fnrnn hop fuyn th in orc fn
do. First, and most important, Is it's
duty to preserve outward order and
decency throughout the city. That
is it's first duty, and to deal with the
ordinary run of crime. The second
duty is to dea | with these three
things that | have mentioned. That
has to be done largely through sec
ret work. We therefore established
for hat work a squad of lao men.
Three l~ieutenants were put owe this
squad and they and the squad were
put under the police commissioner
himself. Nobody else could give
them an order. The inspectors and
captains are required to report the
houses of ill-fame and gambling
houses in their precincts or districts.
Then the commissioner himself
through this squad, and these three
|~lieutenants, observes these places and
gets evidence against them and sup
presses them. The possibility Of graft
is therefore taken away from all the
officers of the force, and brought
hight down to the commissioner him
self and those under him in this
squad.
81 knew that the commissioner
could not be corrupted, but of course
we all knew that members Of the
squad under him could be corrupted
here and there. Lieutenant Becker
was one of these l~ieutenants. He got
in with a notorious gambler and
scoundrel named Jack Rose, and was
corrupted by him, and was for ONE
months, l suppose, taking graft be-
fore the murder of Rosenthal. He
completely deceived the commission
err. But l did not condemn the COM
missioner for it and throw him to
the wolves, as the sensational press
loudly demanded that should do. On
the contrary l stood by him because
he had done no wrong.
"Of the twelve who dipped the sop
with Jesus one betrayed him. 1t was
not at all astonishing that Becker be-
trayed Waldo. l could very easily
have thrown Waldo to the wolves
and rode off in safety myself while
they we're ~devouring him. But |
made up my mind that l would in
stead jump out of the sleigh and let
Waldo escape while the wolves were
devouring me if necessary. | would
not go back on him, nor on any other
official whom | have appointed. They
all know that. They know that l
stand by them so long as they do
right. 1t would not only be weak
but contemplate in a mayor to sacr1-
fee his heads of departments when
some clamor arises, and make a hero
of himself. | do not wish to be the
hero of degenerate newspapers. Let
those who want that sort of hero
worship have it.
"You ask me If I think Becker
represents a type of police official?
AS I have told you, in the past there
have been notorious grafters In
rulership over the police. They went
out m~illionaires one after another
for a generation or more. But Beck
er was only a little lieutenant. |
was expecting that some Of the old
time inspectors who are left would
be caught. 1 was looking for it any
day. 1t would not surprise me if we
were to catch some of them yet. |
cannot say that Becker is a type, III
what was testified against him Is in
all respects true, he is one Of the