New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-02-09
NOT SURPRISED.

The most significant thing about inc
disclosures Of police corruption Is that'
so far AS the facts uncovered are con-
cerned. there is not ripple OF puollc
surprise The city is not startled TO
know at last as matter OF legal evil
dence that the police. both on their
own account and in alliance with the
politicians. have been levying tribute
ON vice and crime. New Workers take 1t
as a matter of course that the uncoV-
ering of police rottenness has come
from without and not from within
through the agency of the county $
prosecuting attorney and not through
the activities of those to whom the adj
ministration of the Police Department
is confded under the city charter. 1he
ONLY feature of the situation which Is
in the least surprising is that an out
side hand has really succeeded Ill
lifting the lid which most city officials
and those who have nominated ana
elected them have been anxious 10
keep CldlnIltu uuNH tlsuN'
We have had mayors and police
commissioners of good character ana
honest intentions Bnt they have been
satisfied To hold office and TO ask few
or no questions so long as certain
appearance of outward order has been
preserved. Under Tammany rule. of
course. the Mayor who tried 10 peek
below the surface would have taken
his political life in his hands. The
Tammany politicians knew what was
going on and did not intend 10 have
the workings of the graft system in
terfercd with. Had that system been
exposed and abolished Tammanys
power. would have collapsed. So we
have had 10 witness the melancholy
spectacle of mayors and commission
ers looking out of the window and
talking about the merit and honesty
of the police force while millions OF
dollars were being vrung as tribute
from the vicious and criminal elements
in the community Others, perhaps,
in the sand as Mayor Gaynor and Com
missioner Waldo. and the Whitman ex-
posures have come almost as piece
Of poetic justice in the term Of Mayor
who has been constantly preaching
that police corruption exists only IN
The imaginatiOns Of those whose heads
are filled with vice and crime
Yet almost any intelligent citizen
could reason out the existence of 4
system Of graft such as the present
guieleSS and credulous tenant of the
City Hall never dreamed of in his unso-
phisticated philosophy. 1t has been
evident for years past that Tammany
Hall could not support itself on per
centages levied on city salaries, on the
profits of contracts and OH Il hazardous
and intermittent traffic in legislation.
To sustain life in these days of al
rcased prices it has had 10 depend on
nc quick and easy revenue of police
eruption. \ Mayor or Commission
or who cared 10 hire q few competent
0ulSlut utttNilNt> 'ONu easily
established the fact of such corruption.
But to have been caught in the act Of
spying would have entailed the im-
placable hostility of the city's con-
trolling political Organization--a posi-
bility unpleasant 10 contemplate for
anybody holding Office for the mere
sake Of holding office.
Now. when what every intellg ent
New Yorker knew without need ~
specific proof is being reduced t.
shape for submission to courts AMI
juries. few are really startled. Even
Mayor Gaynor will probably be sayin&;
before long that he suspected it all
from the very beginning Disclosures
like those being made here would stir
almost any other great city in tile civ
iliZcd world to fury. They do not stir
New York because here they are like
tales which have been often told. We
are used TO the idea OF police corrup-
ton allied to political corruption. But
II is not 10 our credit that we can
view the lifting Of the lid without Il
sensation. 1t is blistering condem-
nation Of oui cowardly acquiescence
in long st hiding system Of official
craft