Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-09-02
THE DRUG HORROR

IF A FEW casual raids. to which reluc.
L tant police and detectives were lashed
by Judge Monaghan, can fill City Hall with
drug victims and make It place OF horror !;
II a mere scratch on the surface of the un-
derworld Is enough to reveal an "unprece-
dented spectacle or torment and degradation
due to narcotics" what should we see II
the drug syndicate and its hackers and Its
political relationships were to be exposed
suddenly and at one stroke?
Where were the people who profted from
the drug traffic while the tortured addcts
were waling in the patrol wagons? Where
do the drugs come from? Who are the
merchants?
In the spectacle Of Common Pleas Judge
pleading with the police and threatening
them in the effort to restrict the most de-
structive of modern social scourges and n
police department hesitant and obviously
afraid and n Mayor relatively powerless to
force 1t to action, the easy minded voters
Of this city have at last an opportunity to
see what consistent political negligence may
lead to. For there need be no mystery
about the seeming immunity of the men
higher up in the dope traffic. The district
police and even the members of the vice
squad are either unwilling or afraid to
arrest them. Such is ward politics in the
Philadelphia of the old organization.
No matter what Judge Monaghan may do
in the course of one of the bravest and most
consistent campaigns ever directed from
the bench, and no matter what the Mayor
or the police may finally do in aid of the
present limited crusade, the drug traffic Will
not be seriously hindered. Until some in
dividual or group of individuals. shocked
and aroused by the condition Of affairs re-
nIxl Al Co. Al, dc fnDr
every last veil of deceit from the political
machinery established for the protection of
criminals. narcotics will be plentiful and
their victims will multiply.
The station houses and the House of
Correction and the hospitals might be filled
with addicts gathered up from the side
streets, yet more would remain to be taken
in the routine raids which do little good
beyond saving the face of this or that police
lieutenant. This Is because, while the
addicts are netted like hapless animals, the
profteers of the trade are strong enough
politically to look on unmoved and without
fear of molestation. The law operates to
punish the victims of the abominable trade.
while it functions, through the weakness
and corruption Of some elements in the
police bureau, actually to protect the real
criminals
Judge Monaghan Will work in vain II ne
cannot force the police to do more than
arrest the drug addcts. OF what perma-
nent good can such n procedure be so long
as new victims are being made every day
by the peddlers employed by the drug ring?
Ultimately the basis of the Judges crusade
may have TO be shifted The inquiry which
he is directing with admirable spirit and
energy may have to be centered at last at
the sources of the drug supply. in the places
where narcotics are being manufactured
Working from the top of the dreadful
business downward instead of from the
bottom up, 1t might be possible at last to
shed light directly upon the pseudo respect
ables who are growing rich by the most
consc!enceless system of human prostitu-
ton ever devised.