Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-08-26
GET OUT OF THE MIRE, MIR.
MAYOR

TWIE people of Philadelphia are tired
Aof vice exposures. They are disgusted
and nauseated that at time when they
were expecting great public enterprises
to be well under way the business admin
istration" which they elected to do things
should be spending its energies and its
power in explaining why it countenanced
an open Tenderloin and from improper
motives later staged big raid which held
Philadelphia up to the scorn Of the coun.
try.
The people are weary of the Mayors at
titude They had a right to expect when
1t was made apparent to him that his ad-
ministration had been betrayed by sub
politics had riddled the police department,
which was being used as a mere pawn in
the game of factional politics, that the
whole underworld was laughing at his
efforts to enforce the law through the
instrumentality of man who had pros.
tituted that law and made 1t a carpet
for cadets and procurers to walk on-they
had q right to expect in such circum-
stances that the Mayor would rise
promptly to the exigencies of the situa-
tion, discipline the men who had so
wantonly prostituted the police, and in
an instant clear the situation by restor-
ing public confidence in the Department
of Public Safety.
Instead, many weeks after the first
revelations when n second Grand Jury
has exposed again the iniquity of the
the vice situation is merely another name
for a political situation, the Mayor is
still telling the public to trust him, that
he will eventually be able to do some
thing.
May the public not reasonably ask
the Mayor even now to throw aside his |
lethargy, to assert his independence by |
cutting the Ware leading strings, to cut |
the Gordian knot so far as there is one, |
and get this horrible vice matter out of |
the news? Indeed, but stroke of pen
and the chopping off of a single head is
necessary to restore the prestige of the
police and assure once more the enforce.
ment of law.
1t was a business administration that
was promised, Mr.. Mayor, an admins
tration to push along great enterprises,
to throw splendid energies behind the
public movements for improvements, to
bring this city to the forefront of the
of the world in the matter
of public facilities for doing business.
But the Administrations energies are
wasted in political quarrels. Its time is
taken up by compromises with vice.
The city is losing $500 a day, Mr.
Mayor, because authorized bonds are not
sold to provide funds wherewith to pay
No new contracts for rapid
transit have been let nor can any be let
until some bonds are sold The conven-
tion hall has not been begun. There are
no new hospitals in process of construc-
tion. No, a do-nothingism hangs like
pail over City Hall. The money has been
voted, but there is no energy to give
direction to its expenditure The days
pass and there are more postponements.
Why not. Mr.. Mayor, get rid of the
Director of Public Safety and so free
yourself for the consideration of really
veighty problems? In all friendllness,
We suggest that you are fishing for cat
ish in trout pond. There is nothing to
'e gained by this emphasis on conditions
n the Tenderloin. Get out into a cleaner
where Philadelphia's great
constructive program is waiting for a
eader to translate it into reality Your
administration is not yet hopelessly
wrecked. There is still time in which to I
et busy.