Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-12-16
"A Crime the Way Cities Are Rum"

"A Crime the Way Cities Are Run.
The resignation Of Mrs. Ellen O0rady
- = police deputy Of New York City, md
her attendant explanation for giving up
the work, perhaps illustrates very well tho
difficulties that women may have to con
tend with in public life, if they seek TO re-
form existing evils
Mrs O'Grody, who apparently IS
earnest and sincere in her efforts to aid In
breaking the hold Of crime and the crimi-
nal classes on city, found that almost all
the powers that prey" have friend close
to the man highest up," who protects
them at all hnzsrds and against rl dis
turbing conditions or individual s.
This fact is no less true of Philadelphia,
Boston, Chicago, or San Francisco, than 1t
is of New York or any of the large cities,
and it is tho influence that is compelling
Americans to adopt a system in charge OF
compact agencies upon whom rcprisals
cannot be visited by the lawless and dis
reputable elements at the ballot-box.
Mrs. O'Grady declared, in presenting
her resignation, that practically every
effort she put forth To check the organized,
lawlcss classes was immediately nullihed
bv the Police Commissioner Of the city,
and that she eventually found herself
without a semblance Of authority with her
recommendations ignored and he work
for betterment of the city thwarted at
every point.
cit is a crime against the city the way
things are run" Mrs. O'Grady declared,
and she proceeded 10 enumerate some of
the abuses she referred TO which include
almost all offenses against decency,
honesty and morality She discovered an
almost invisible bond between the high
up" men on the police force and the ro-
voting underworld of the metropolis,
proving that vice and vicious men and
women are officially protected by the
Instruments set in action and maintained
to crush them In her enumeration of
offcnses against decency. law and order,
there seem very few forms Of vice that are
not permitted or even propagated by the
public officials.
Unless Mrs. O'Grady is widely exag-
gerating she has done the city a great
service in uncovering conditions "a she
has found them and which should but
will not-arouse the taxpayers to unite IN
the demand that the community be purg-
ed Of its immortality, uncleanliness and
graft of all kinds The facts she has
brought to light, however shocking they
are, were well known 10 almost every
body who knew anything Of conditions in
either New York or any Of the big cities,
and which have endured for years
Just why il is impossible to check
crime. immorality and graft in cities would
be almost incornprehenslble were il not
explainable by the term politics" Il is
politics that have demoralized the cities,
biz and little, IL this country. They have
debauched even the cross roads towns, en-
tire States. end have Oripped the country,
and are, indeed, renewing its clutches on
tie nation, as everybody knows
There seems TO be no escape from th 6
blight, it has attacked every function Of
government New York is relatively nc
worse than any other city. probably not SC
rotten as Chicago, and possibly cleaner
than Philadelphia, when we consider the
opportunities for evil In each city.
The trouble naturally Is based in turn
ing over the city to in capable, or worse
men, and while we Do not often get as
direct an inside view Of the corrupt mslev-
client influences that doninste e cty
government as Mrs O'Grady has gwen
we have had many unwLolesome peep:
back Of the screen that should have Ions
sgo aroused the public 70 acton 20 rescue
cities from the poltcian-psrtisans Of al
brands