Evening star., 1940-01-21

giotti, named special staff of deputies
and assistants, keen younger men, some
of them chosen from the most important
Philadelphia law firms. They were
eager to do a real job. Furthermore,
they had the good fortune to serve un-
der Judge Curtis Box, fortnight and
aggressive oflcial.
A mere summation of what the in.
vestigators found occupies a printed
document 276 pages long. It is text
book in the relationship between organ
lied crime and professional politics in
great metropolitan area. There are
special sections on gambling, prostitu-
ton and the corruption of police and
ofdcials, including the late Mayor S.
Davis Wilson.
343 Persons Indicted.
The grand jury named many men,
bers Of the police force for disciplinary
action. Mayor Wilson was found to have
taken large sums of money from indi-
viduals and corporations, presumably as
"loans." Altogether indictments were
returned against 343 persons, from the
Mayor to mere cops on the beat.
To date no important offender has
been prosecuted. Mayor Wilson died
and the others can thank the party in
power, plus the city's traditional inertia
and indifference, for the fact that today
they are as free as air.
This outcome was not entirely unfore-
seen by those closely connected with the
lengthy and difficult inquiry. In con-
Guiding statement to the jury Judge Box
summed up the investigation in Ian
guage remarkably forceful and free from
legalisms
The special grand jury investigation
brought out some facts about fire pro-
lection, or, rather the lack of it. Expert
enced and competent men were replaced
by political favorites. political job
holder was put in charge of one Of the
citys fireboats and it developed he knew
so little about navigation that he could
not bring the boat in range of a fire if
there was any wind at all.
Politics, petty jealousies and internal
strife run rampant in the Bureau of
Fire." the report said. THE consequent
generalization is reflected in the greatly
reduced efficiency of the bureau, and it
IS only because reports of certain large
fires have been omitted from statistics
given to the public that the showing of
: the bureau appears as good as it
Is stated to be-"
The question Of money is, Of course.
at the bottom Of the crisis. The late
Mayor Wilson, who bore strong resem-
blances to Dickens Micawber, was con-
stantly expecting something to turn up
in the way of city revenues It didn't
and his term closed with deficits
amounting to about $40, 900, ,O00 The city
sent begging delegation to Washington
to see Jesse Jones. Il
Mr.. Jones finally agreed that the Re-
construction Finance Corp. would par
ticipate in loan with Philadelphia
bankers, taking half of about SAL 900 900.
But-said Jesse Jones-only on condition
that the city pledge the revenue from
the municipality owned gas works for
long period Of years. AS the taxi
driver put it, $50 they had to hook the
gas works to get out of the red"
In an effort to get down to funda-
mental reasons for this failure of mu-
nicipal government the inquirer comes
back to the myriad troubles that plague
virtually all great cities today. The mi
grafton to the suburbs has left blighted
areas in which taxable values have
shrunk virtually to nothing. In recent
years Philadelphia's assessed valuation
has gone from $500 100000 to $780,
100000. This has meant, in accord with
the provisions of the city charter, that
the debt limitation has been lowered.
1t has compelled such measures as the
income tax
Geographical location plays a certain
part. Philadelphia is too close to New
York, under the shadow of the Ameri-
can colossus where SO much of finance
and industry are concentrated. Leading
citizens complain of an ancient freight
diferential that works against the city.
Philadelphia is unfortunately on a river
rather than a port directly on the At
lantic. AL these are handicaps and
help to explain the swift attrition of
recent years.