Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-08-01
POLICE, NOT GRAND JURIES,
MUST MAINTAIN ORDER

TOUCH the underworld and your hand
Lis on the pulse Of the System. In
the habitat of the ieYd, the desperate
the degenerate and the vicious flow the
currents Of corruption which men of
keener minds, in silk hats and white
shirts, direct to their own advantage,
organize and capitalize as a political In
strument and use TO blunt the enthu-
siasm Of high civic endeavor and defeat
the purposes of those who love Phila-
delphla and yearn to scourge corruption
from its veins.
Humilating as II must be to all good
citizens to have the city's vice paraded
about, the fact remains that thorough
cleansing program could be Of enormous
value to the city eventually. Could the
trafIlckers in vice, the mysterious influ-
ences in the background. be brought into
the open and their activity exposed, we
take It that a reorganization Of some sort
would be necessary in more than one
ward and the trickery which has marked
gang election campaigns in the past
would not be so apparent in campaigns
to come.
Mr.. Rotan declares that he has never
had so golden an opportunity. That Is
true. 1t is the reason why the public is
watching the proceedings Of the Grand
Jury 80 closely and is prepared to reach
conclusions of It's own II there is any
hitch or any plan to Catlinize the inves'
tigation. Back of the Grand Jury is Mr..
Rotan. It is up to him TO produce the
goods, and the only kind Of goods worth
producing in the circumstances Is the
men higher up They are the ones to be
exposed, for in them immunity for vice
nestles. A minor scapegoat or two is not
what the public wants.
Yet it may be doubted IL any Grand
Jury action could be more than pallia.
tive. The key to the problem Is in the
pocket OF the Director of Public Safety,
which official holds office at the pleasure
Of the Mayor. It is not seriously denied,
we believe that for three months or more
the city was wide open. Either 1t was
open with the connivance of the Mayor
or Director Wilson disobeyed orders. II
the latter is true. the Mayor has but one
way to clear himself before the COM
munity, and that is to fire Mr.. Wilson,
whether the Wares like 1t or not Vice
mongers are like mushrooms; they spring
UP overnight, under favoring conditions
Were a Grand Jury to drain the district
black as the neither regions under police
force that was acquescent. Superin-
tendent Robinson AYERS that he had heard
rumors about some men taking graft
That means nothing, but the one big fact
that does stand out and that does mean
something is that for months the dis
trict was wide open, and it could not have
been that way one night without the con-
nivance of the police. The police could
not have been derelict one night with
out the knowledge of Director Wilson.
Nor is 1t written in the record OF human
events that vice, in defiance of law,
waves its Haunting banners without pay
ing for the privilege in one form or
another.
Director Wilson may have been able to
explain to the satisfaction of the Mayor
the situation which existed. but he has
not explained it to the satisfaction OF the
public. The Administration calls itself
Republican. The kind of Protection the
Republican party stands for is the pro-
lection OF legitimate American indus
tries, not the protection of vice. 1t might
do the Mayor good to let that thought
sink in and ring the vacation bell for
the official in whose department there
seems to have been but faint realization
OF responsibility
The Director under whom vice has
thriven is not a director under whom it
would hereafter wither.