Middletown transcript., 1915-08-14
sIDDLETOwN, DEL, AUG. IA, 1915
BECKER'S EXECUTION

MANY believed that It. Becker VINO
AVA caused the assassination of Ros-
enthal, would never pay the penalty of
his crimes, despite the fact that he was
twice found guilty of murder-his polit-
ical ''pull'' being deemed so great.
But he did pay the supreme penalty
death! His crime was made possible
by condition in the metropolis of this
country rightly styled appalling one
murder every day and a multitude of
lesser crimes against the property and
persons of the citizens.
Not only was the government of this
great city in the hands of thieves or
ganized into big plunder bund, syste-
matically robbing the taxpayers of mil
lions annually, but worse still, the per
sons and lives of these plundered citi-
zens were at the mercy of set of
thugs deliberately organized for crime,
having leading police officials at their
head-among whom was BECKER, though
it is believed that there were rogues
still higher up, who have alas so far
gone unwhipt of justice.
The very officials paid to protect So
ciety, themselves engaging in vast
conspiracy of blackmail, assault and
assassination against society these
guardians of the public, as Chatham
said of King Georges minions, being
formidable only to those whom they
were sent to protect
That these systematic assaults upon
society were shared by the officers of
justice, is the most startling fact in the
whole horrible business. Thus it was
clearly shown that 1t. Becker whom
two Juries found guilty of melting his
bravos to murder the peaching gam
bier, Rosenthal, was at the head of a
big system of official, syndicated vice
whose yearly revenues derived from
the criminal underworld, ran into mil
lions of dollars! Though only part of
Becker's personal deposits was discov-
cred in widely scattered banks it reach
ed 100000, and he did not get the
lions share either!
Even Mayor Gaynor and his commits
sioner Waldo, seemingly sought to
shield these plundering, numbering
thugs. Both certainly protested against
the efforts of District Attorney, now
Governor, Whitman-the one truly
heroic figure in this huge scandal-to
show Becker's completely in the awful
murder plot for which he has just gone
to the electric chair-being the fifth
thus executed.
Against their protests, Whitman
with equal courage and ability, persist
ed in uncovering the big criminal con-
spiracy, and finally brought the active.
head of it, 1t. Becker, to justice.
A like condition long existed in Phil
adelphia, and to some extent still does,
though Mayor Blankenberg has tried
hard to reform it. This fact was shown
by the detection of special officer ia
cobs as the official protector of the
same sort of syndicated vice in that
city.
The cause of this frightful municipal
corruption, which is more or less true
of all our big cities, is POLITICS plus
"a surprising lack of civic pride and pa
triotism among the citizens of those
cities.
The heart of crime in New York City
is Democratic Tammany, an organiza-
tion that for over fifty years has been
deliberately prostituting every agency
of government to the purposes of Off
cial corruption and plunder until it
brought the government of goth cen
fury Christian city to lower level than
that of the naked savages from whose
chieftain Tannemund, it takes its
namel
But the Philadelphia machine is Re-
publican; thus it is seen that Crime
uses both parties to further its vile
ends. Perhaps some day American
civic patriotism will be sufficiently
aroused to end this widespread CORFU
tion, though we fear not till Woman
be given the ballot everywhere, when
something like reign of righteousness
will be witnessed in our great cities,
those plague spots upon the body
polite, as Jefferson styled them even
in his early day, when they but feebly
illustrated their present wickedness
that is often menace to the Common
wealth.
Alabama PecI1 Trees