Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-10-12
is GOVERNMENT A FAILURE?


THERE is danger that citizens accus.
toned to officials who embezzle power
and brazenly traffic in government may
not appreciate the full enormity Of the
frishtful conditions so splendidly eluci.
dated by Judge Gordon in his terrific ar
raigument of the Mayor and his code
tfenda1ts yesterday. The community has
so long acquesced in crooked and wicked
government. it has become SO used to
corruption and conspiracy. that there is
a tendency to condone some Of the Of.
fenses of the accused. on the ground that
they were shown to he merely typical Of
the system which bred them no better
and no worse than scores who had pre-
ceded them and had sed the same meth.
ods though with less friGhtful results.
The evidence is that the Mayor had
given rich contractor letters Of marque
and reprisal to go through the Fifth
Ward and wreak his purposes with the
thugs and brutal policemen" OF every
crime committed there the Mayor had
been promptly informed. He had been
told what his agents and associates were
doing. He had been urged to give protec.
ton. He had been begged to call Of his
police thugs and permit order to return.
individuals and the press had warned
him. He knew the truth. But he put
a paddock on the machinery of order,
and he took the police power Of the city
and turned it over tn political candi.
dates, and he refused to let the processes
of justice run. Aye, had he been tied
to the thugs with bonds and had they
owned him body and soul, they could
not, the testimony seems to show, have
got from him more aid nor could his
actions have more suucly dovetailed into
their purposes.
;
to see the Shiny trail Of the serpent. 1t
has seen how the Organization reaches
down from City Hall into the assembly
chambers of crime and poverty. It has
had evidence to show how poor miserable
foreigners, emigrants to this countr, be-
cause they had heard Of the slores OF
democracy and wanted here to get a
fresh start under fair conditions. were
browbeaten and given repeated doses OF
frightfulness i'm order to change them
from potentially good citizens into bad
citizens, into herd of disciplined voters.
Z. They have seen the very heart of gov
,ernment exposed as a citadel of corrup-
ton, greed and trickeiy, prostituted by
elected officers to foul purposes and util
! lied by designing men whose only
I thought was to get at the treasury and
suck it dry. They have seen enough to
stop asking whether autocracy is a fail,
ure or democracy a failure and get down
to the soul of the issue through this ques.
ton: Is government failure7
1t has been. it is, in Philadelphia, We
have not had government. We have haC
organized anarchy and organized piracy
We have had disorder masQuerading a,
order thugs in citizen gsrb one minut,
and police uniform the next. We hav,
had the sort of thing that provoked tn,
French Revolution and that within tn
year sent Gear into exile. Let citizen
think of it in this way Had the ma
tional Government been administered a
our municipal affairs have been con
Quoted. what chance would our arm
have had i'm Europe or democracy in tn
world? TRis. the Industrial school q
democracy, the workshop of democrac,
has been at the mercy Of local Huns.
Is appalling.
The situation is beyond relief by Judge
courts or iuries Philadelphia can /
feeeued only by the people themselve
who are court, judge and jury Only Il
people can vindicate the integrity Of Il
city and restore government. They ha,
chance 10 begin the work in Novenb b
ana they must not fail,