Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-13
UNMAsKEp!


T'HE refusal Of the Interchurch Fedora
tion 20 play the farce with the Mayor
is the most wholesome development IN
the vice situation With a single gesture
the clergymen have torn the mask from
the hypocritical virtue in the City Hall
and exposed IL for what it is.
No more important words have come
from any source than the following SEN
tences from the letter of the federation
to Mayor Smith:
Whatever may be your personal con-
Niction and intention, our earlier inter-
views and past experiences do not war
rant the belief that the important work OF
rectifyins Vice conditions will be accom-
plished through your Administration and
police officials They know all that we
Know concerning the immoral and Illegal
practices that are going on in the va.
rious neiehhorhoods Your police will do
what is really expected OF them.
The Mayor had asked the ccrgymen
for their evidence against vicious resorts.
This is their reply They inform him, as
if he did not know it, that he has men
under his direction who know the truth
and have known it all along. They tell
him that the police in protecting or at
least permitting, vice are doing what is
expected Of them and that they will con
tinue to do it so long as the expectation
continues. They refuse to disclose their
evidence. for they are not willing that
the police should know against what
places they have proof, and they are not
willing thus to assist the protectors of
vice in warning the suspected so that
tbny m AXE takn to poypr
The Importance Of this pronouncement
lies in its revelation Of the fact that the
church people have their eyes open.
They are no longer to be fooled by fair
words. When Thomas B. Smith says, az
am trying to do right" they know how
much and how little it means. They
know that he has the legal power to
remove the head Of the Department Of
Public Safety and to appoint in his place
a man devoted to the public interests.
They know that if he had the will he
could tear the Police Department to
pieces from top to bottom and impress
upon every officer from the patrolman to
the superintendent that he is expected
to bring an end to the partnership of the
public officials with the underworld and
that protection for price must cease.
There has been talk of organizing the
Church vote" in support Of certain fac
tional candidates. AS was said on this
page a day or two ago. there is no such
thing as a Church vote" to be organ
lied. But there is such a thing as a
conscience vote. Some Of the men who
cast it are in the churches and some are
not. Some of the men are Republicans
and some of them are Democrats. But
all are opposed to a continuance of the
spurious form of popular government
now holding forth in Penn Square.
The Church Federation has laid down
the first plank for the platform of the
next candidate for the Office of Mayor.
1t is in the last sentence of the letter
from which we have quoted
"YOur police will do what is expected
of them"
There is the issue, clear cut and pre-
else. Now. what do we expect of them?
Are we so cynical that we do not believe
the city can be kept decent? Are we
willing that there should continue to be
a partnership between controlling
political faction and the purveyors Of
vice to the vicious?
The federation is evidently unwilling.
The men who dictated the reply to the
Mayor have put their finger on the burn
ing shame. If they continue to see as
clearly for the next fifteen months they
can serve their city we'll by continuing
the fight, not as churchmen nor as or
ganizers of any "church vote" but as
leaders of an aroused community in put
ting an end to a public disgrace.