Evening journal., 1918-04-05
DANIELS NAY NIKE
PHILADELPHIA DRY
CitizeaS See Threat in FoS-
dick Report of Vice
Conditions
GOVERNMENT ORDERS
CLEANUP OF TOAN

PHILADELPHIA April 5.-Unless
Philadelphia cleans house Secretary
Daniels may take his pen in hand and
make This city Of 100000 people dry"
--hotols. resiauran.s :. clubs and every
ihins-iusi SIS last month he dealco-
hoil7ci Newport Annapolis Hampton
Hosds and ave other communities by
lrsNNirs s. nNc-milo prohibition circle
sroDni nsNsl training stations under
ihe authority siyen him by the selective
service law
lhsi IS ihe real thrcst discerned by
ftisoc c,phians in The Fosdick report.
7uA. shed iast Monday, wherein the
oaslrman of The Governments Commits
sion on rra'nIns Camp Activities told
Secre,sry Daniels that Philadelphia
s,Cne, smong the country's big cities,
has failed 60 protect American soldiers
ard sailors from viclously evil in1u-
ences.
The comparatively mild iniimation
ihat sailors on liberty might be forbid
den t0 enter the city suggests a sufl-
clenily serious picture 20 the thous-
ands ~ persons who in legitimate and
iiiesitmate ways profit by the pres
ence OF the blueiackets But Il is a
fair vision compared with the prospect
~ teetctalism suddenly thrust upon
Philadelphia as punishment for her
loosenCss Of the past and a guaranty Of
future decency for the period Of the
war. AID even more obnoxious, to
the minds NJ citizens who would well
come prohibition with a glad cry, is
the thought that Philadelphia would
stand before the country as a great city
80 persistently and helplessly evil that
Uncle sam had TO step in and reform
her.
In the last two years there have been
cleanups comparable to the present
one, with hundreds Of loudly trumpet
cd arrests followed by lapses OF ap-
proXimately the old situation when that
portion Of the public which has not
lost interest in reform" seemed TO have
been properly appeased. But now the
city administration cannot afford to be
spasmOdic in well doing. Il must
satisfy not the Philadelphia public,
which Is VIGOROUSLY Indifferent TO any
lawlessness short Of brass knuckles
personally applied, but the Federal
Government, and It must keep on
satisfying the Government until the
end OF the war. The period Of mere
warning has passed. The Government
seems to be weary Of beseeching Phila-
delphia to do its own purging.
As long ago as July Q last year Sec
retary Daniels said that moral condi-
tions in Philadelphia are not what they
should be from the naval standpoint
and in the following month there wer,
raids. not by the city authorities, bu
by agents Of the Department Of justice
Since then, while the Fosdick investl
gators have been at work. repeatei
J. hints have been received that Wash
b lngton would be pleased If Phlladel
phia would take 1t upon herself 10 cor
rect her faults.
Mayor Smith truthfully says tina
there have been many arrests by hi
men since that time, but impartial wit
nesscs do not support him when H.
goes further and asserts, as he did L
a sun reported THAT Philadelphia il
the cleanest big city in the country,
and that "on any night one may see IA
more women Of the street on certall
streets In New York" He was ol
nrmer ground when he spoke Of tn
great transient population that ha
been drawn to Philadelphia and .nearb,
territory by war activities and the dlf
flculty Of keeping in bounds their ap
pettes and the ay0rice Of those VIII
prey upon them. But tho fact is tha
the conditions to which Mr.. Fosdocl
so holly objects, while intensified sine
the city became a great war centre, ar