Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-02-26
Up to the Vice Commission

IT is the Vice Comm ission'S next move.
L Mayor Ainsies request for the specific
evidence that Chairman Starke has said he
willing to furnish makes the issue
tirely clear. If there question in
distinctness about the commissions duty, it
now has been removed.
There has been no disposition in any quar-
ter TO harass the commission to interfere
with the exercise of its sound discretion. So
far are aware. the whole community
has conceded the purity and rectitude of the
commissions purpose and its determination
to discharge difficult and thankless duty In
the way that would best advance the public
interest
So far as The Times Dispatch is concerned.
ii has insisted from the first that when the
time came the commission would be found
ready and willing to support the limitations
of it's original report with the evidence on
which they were based.
No other conclusion. indeed. was possible.
The commission represented the city in the
inquiry it Nndertook. Its very appointment
prcdcated an undercurrcnt of public dis
satisfaction with then existing cosditons and
a public determination that errors OF policy
method should be corrected. In the in
vestigations il made, in the evidence il re-
ceived. the commission represented the pub
lie conscience its own. 1t did not listen
to great mass of nauseous and revolving
testimony in order 10 crafty prurient curl
OSltI, nut tndl from us HuulnSS ana recon-
mendations, so based and fortified, higher
civic morality might be expected to emerge.
In the course Of its inquiry, It came across
conditions that caused it to be distrustful of
the existing administration Of the Police De-
Dartment. 1t found that disorderly houses
were allowed 10 operate outside the district
to which they had been assigned by DELHI
crately formulated public policy-that, in
deed, unsegregatcd commercialized vice was
in the proportion of two 20 one TO that ac-
tually segregated
These findings and others. the recommen-
dation that the assignment of policemen TO
posts be taken away from the Police Board
and coniided solely to- the chief; the fact that
the board received no single word of the COM
mendation conferred on the officers and men
Of the force; the plea for protection for GER
tain policemen who had testified, and the
whole tone OF the repor, created the irresisti-
BILE conclusion in the public mind thal police
administration had been found unsatisfac-
tory. and that some members OF the board
perhaps all Of them-were responsible for
this condition.
Richmond has adopted, following the adj
vice OF the commission, new method of deal
ing with the social evil, and public opinion.
impressed by the commissions findings. has
Endorsed the change. 1t is evident, how
ever, that any policy of this character must
depend for Success on the honesty and eff
fcency of the Police Department. There
are other requisites. OF course but police
honesty and police efficiency are basic and
vital.
Under the commissions report, the present
police administration stands discredited and
distrus,ed in the public mind--whether right
~ or wrongly only an investigation in which
the accused have the opportunity to face
their accusers is competent to determine.
Until that investigation is held. judgment
should be suspended-but a suspended judg-
ment is all that the situation admits