able political organization in the city of New York.

Samuel J. Tilden was elected Governor of the State of New York in 1874, and William H. Wickham was elected Mayor of the city in the same year. They both had the support of the reformed Tammany. Tilden had a majority of 50,317. Wickham had a plurality over his Republican competitor of 33,118, and a clear majority over all of 8,892.

The great difficulty attendant upon reform in a political party, which is composed of various and some discordant elements, is the impossibility of satisfying them all. The rascals in the Democratic party in New York City found the reformed Tammany very little to their liking. In particular, John Morrissey, who was a professional gambler, and had profited by the indulgence extended to him by the Tweed régime, found the conditions under Mayor Wickham not at all to his taste. Accordingly he bolted. He had a great many friends and supporters of his own kind, and then the good citizens of New York saw before their eyes a coalition similar to that which Randolph described in 1824 as 66 a combination of the Puritan and the Blackleg." To the great astonishment of many, a coalition was effected between John Morrissey and his bolting Democrats and the regular Republican organization. The Tammany leaders who were then in office felt bound to do all in their power to defeat this combination. They nominated for the local election in 1875 what I must say was an excellent ticket.

Unfortunately this ticket was defeated. The coalition carried the day. John Kelly had become the leader of Tammany Hall. The defeat of 1875 impressed upon him that he must make to himself some friends of the baser element.

MAYOR HEWITT AND THE POLICE Some of the bolters of 1875 were received back into the party, but Kelly failed to obtain a sufficient majority for Hancock in the campaign of 1880, and many of the leading Democrats, with Abram S. Hewitt at the head, formed the County Democracy. This maintained a vigorous campaign against Tammany Hall for several years, and came to be recognized as the regular Democratic organization of the city. It joined with Tammany Hall in 1886 in nominating Abram S. Hewitt for Mayor, and he was elected. He became Mayor on the first of January, 1887.

In a speech which he made on the 27th of November, 1900, he gave this account of the manner in which, as Mayor, he dealt with the police situation :

Now, when I became Mayor, I realized the fact that the responsibility was upon me. The condition of things at that time in the city of New York was very bad. I did not go to the Police Superintendent or to any captain, but I simply walked through the streets and observed with my own eyes, and I counted the disreputable places, so far as I could find them, that were open to the public view.

The Chief of Police at that time was Murray, a most intelligent and capable officer. I told him what I had seen. He said it was all true. I told him that I wanted to have the dives closed up, and while I did not expect that vice could be suppressed or extirpated in a great city like this, I wanted at least that respect which vice pays to purity, by being a little more decent. He said to me frankly, "All that you say is true." I said, "Can they be closed up?" He said, " Certainly; it is only necessary to give the order to have them closed up." I said, "Then why do they exist at all?" "Well," he said, "you had better ask some of your political friends about that." I said, "They are interested in these places?" 'Oh, many of them," he said. And if the order goes forth to close them up you will be attacking the men who have been your best supporters in the last election and who have placed you in the Mayor's chair." I said, "That is a revelation; but it does not make any difference to me who they The places have got to be closed up."

are.

..

Are there "Oh," he There are

I said to him, "I don't ask you to commit yourself to anything, Murray, but you are a rich man ?" "Well," he said, "I don't know what you call rich; I am very well-to-do." I said, "Won't you tell me frankly how much you are worth?" Said he, "I am worth $300,000.” I said, Murray, did you ever have any business but that of a policeman and police captain?" He said, No." I said, "How did you get that $300,000?" "Why," said he, “I have friends in Wall Street who have given me good opportunities and I have made this money, and I am very well satisfied with the results." I said, "How about the captains? any of these who have fortunes ?" says, "most of them are well-to-do. some poor men among them!" I said, "How do they get their money?" 'Well," said he, "you can readily understand that as long as this condition of things goes on opportunities occur to make money." I said, "How about the ward men? I hear that they go around and collect money." "Well," said he, "they don't collect any money for me; but I think it very likely they do collect money." "Now," said I, "you have told me very frankly the condition of things here. I don't propose to take any advantage of it. You have dealt with entire fairness with me. All I ask you to do now is from this day to do your duty." He said he would, and he did.

I then sent for the President of the Police Commission. It was a bi-partisan board then, There were two Republicans and two

as now.

Democrats, but the President of the Board was a Republican. I do not care to recall names. All the members of the Board at the time, except one, have since died. I told him frankly what Murray had told me, and I asked him whether he was willing to co-operate in the suppression of the dives and the closing up of these disreputable and unlawful places of resort. He said if I wished he would, but he thought I had better let things alone; that I was going to let loose a hornet's nest, and that if I had any political ambition in the future he wanted to tell me, from his great knowledge of politics, and no man had more, that it would be my political ruin-that there was no place that I could ever be elected to in this community. He also told me the truth. Now what happened? The police were managed by four men, who divided up the patronage into four parts. Two of them were Democrats, two of them were Republicans, and each one had his portion. I was informed that the Mayor, if he saw fit, might have a portion from each one of the appointments. I declined, of course, to accept the offer.

But just consider the condition of the police under such a state of things as that. Every appointee of the police is a political appointee. No appointment can be got without a political pull, and when the Police Board is in the hands of one organization practically, as it is at present, that of Tammany Hall, it means that no policeman can ever by any possibility be appointed or be promoted without the consent of the ruling powers of Tammany Hall. That is a condition of things which in an intelligent and civilized community would seem to be intolerable. I found it so. But I insisted that reform, which then had not been sent to condign punishment, should be effected. I can say to you that in sixty days every dive in the city of New York was closed up, and all the places which had flaunted vice before the community were compelled at least to put on the garb of respectability, and those of you who are old enough to remember will remember that during the two years when I was Mayor externally New York was a very decent city.

I want to say to you that the great majority of the police force are honest men. The number who are willing to take bribes from gamblers and the keepers of improper places of resort are few, and that accounts for the fact that these few get rich, because they don't divide with those who are desirous simply to do their duty for the pay which they receive from the public treasury. Now, I want to say distinctly that my experience of the police as a body was most favorable. But when they are headed by a corrupt Superintendent and by a corrupt Board of Commissioners there is no limit at all to the abuses which may be perpe. trated, for if a man tries to do his duty he is promptly transferred to some place where there is no exercise for his sense of right.

TAMMANY AGAIN IN FULL SWING Hewitt's administration as Mayor was not satisfactory to Tammany Hall, for reasons which this statement of his sufficiently shows;

neither was it satisfactory to the Republican allies of Tammany Hall.

The result was that when in 1888 he was nominated for re-election Tammany Hall nominated Hugh J. Grant, and the Republicans nominated an Independent candidate who took votes enough from Hewitt to elect Grant. Once more Tammany Hall was in full control of the city government. This control continued until the end of the year 1894. No one has described this better than Mr. E. L. Godkin:

The methods of corruption which have led to the explosion to which we owe the attempt at reform of which these pages are a record have differed considerably from those employed by Tweed. His chief mode of despoiling the treasury was the raising of bills by tradesmen doing city work. The present Tammany men resort to much more subtle processes-such as the enormous multiplication of salaried offices, and secret tolls or blackmail levied on all persons having business with the city or exposed to annoyances at the hands of the police or other officials, and the sale of legislation or immunity from legislation to corporations or firms. As usual, the discovery of such disorders was due The increasing corruption of the police made concealment no longer possible, and brought about the uprising of which this book is a commemoration.

to excess.

THE LEXOW INVESTIGATION

These evils had become so gross that Senator Lexow offered a resolution for the appointment of a committee to investigate the Police Department. Governor Flower, who was hand and glove with Tammany, vetoed the bill appropriating money for the expenses of this investigation. Thereupon the Chamber of Commerce raised the money, and the Committee went ahead. The first attack was made upon the interference by the police with New York City elections. Many policemen were members of Tammany clubs and took an active part in city elections, going so far as to permit repeaters to vote without interference. John W. Goff, now Justice of the Supreme Court, became counsel for the Committee. He was assisted by Frank Moss, who was then Secretary of the Society for the Prevention of Crime, and William Travers Jerome. Mr. Goff took the bold step of calling as a witness one of the Police Commissioners, John McClave. He could not stand the fire, broke down completely, resigned his office, and left the city. His secretary followed his example. Proof showed clearly that money had been paid for the appointment and promotion of policemen, and that bribes had been paid to

police captains, sergeants, and wardmen, as they were then called, for permission to continue various illegal trades within their districts. Four captains and a number of sergeants and wardmen were tried before the Police Commissioners for the offenses thus disclosed. The evidence which the Committee had obtained was given, and they were dismissed from the force. One of these captains was afterwards indicted and convicted of bribery, was sentenced to three years and nine months' imprisonment and a fine of $1,000. One police captain admitted that he had paid $15,000 for his appointment as captain. This testimony of his led to an attempt by his superior officers to remove him; but the Committee insisted upon the promise of immunity to witnesses which they had given under the direction of the Senate, and the captain accordingly was restored to his place. The evidence was so clear that it produced a great change-I might well say a revolution-in public sentiment.

A meeting of citizens without distinction of party was held in Madison Square Garden, a Committee of Seventy was appointed, and it nominated William L. Strong for Mayor and John W. Goff for Recorder.

Frederic R. Coudert made the following statement respecting Mr. Goff:

There is no reason why any organization should object to Mr. Goff. Even Tammany should feel grateful to him. If a man comes to your house, which is infected with a deadly pestilence, and cleans out the house, disinfects it and makes it habitable, you would be very ungrateful indeed if you did not say, Thank you. I think Tammany should feel grateful to Mr. Goff.

One of the most effective and terrible circulars which the Committee distributed among the voters was the story of a Russian widow named Urchittel. She had started a little store in Ridge Street in which she sold cigars and tobacco. She was blackmailed by police detectives, arrested, and taken to court. Her trial took place without any professional assistance to her, and without her being able to understand a word of the testimony of the two perjured witnesses against her. Her children were taken from her and her business was destroyed. It was an evil day for the Tammany Hall Democracy when it tolerated such crimes as these.

The following extract from the testimony of a merchant who had been blackmailed by the wardmen is illuminating :

Q. Did any of the wardmen who collected your sidewalk rent tell you how the money was divided?

A. There was something said on that subject

once.

Q. Please tell the Committee about that conversation.

A. Once when I paid a wardman six months' rent I said to him: "You must be getting pretty rich if all my neighbors pay as I do." He said: "Oh, my, I don't get any of this. I hand this to the captain." "Well," said I, "then the captain must be getting pretty rich." He said, "No, the captain gets none of this, or, anyway, only his percentage. It goes higher.' "The inspector then ?" said I. "No," said he, "higher."

"What!" said I. 66 Higher brings it to the Superintendent." "No," said he, "higher." Then said I, "Why, that takes us to the Commissioners." "No," said he, "higher." Then said I," There's nothing but the Grand, Boss of all."

Then he said: "You are getting hot now."

Strong was elected by a majority of 45,187. His administration was a great improvement upon that of his immediate predecessors. During his administration the consolidation of New York, Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond into one city took place. The first election for Mayor for the Greater New York took place in 1897. The Independents nominated Seth Low for Mayor. We had hoped that the Republicans would unite with us, but this they refused. to do and nominated an Independent candidate. This made the way clear for a Tammany success, and the Hall nominated Van Wyck. He If all had a plurality of 82,547 over Low. the vote for the anti-Tammany candidates had been combined on one candidate, Mr. Low would have had a majority of 41,099.

Meanwhile John Kelly had ceased to be the head of Tammany Hall and had passed away. Richard Croker succeeded him. He showed a skill in uniting the worst elements in New York and in attracting the support of many good citizens which has never been equaled except by William M. Tweed.

The Van Wyck administration was not in some respects as bad as that of Grant and Gilroy, but it was more arbitrary. It revived the practice of levying tribute on illegal resorts and using the proceeds to enrich political leaders and maintain the organization. Van Wyck ran upon a snag in the Police Department. John McCullagh was Acting Chief of Police and was not removable by

But

the Mayor. He continued to enforce the law against gambling, pool-selling, and disreputable houses. The endeavors of the managers of these resorts to secure protection by the payment of tribute were rejected by him.

WIDE OPEN UNDER DEVERY

He undertook to suppress a pool-room in which William S. Devery was interested. One of the Commissioners ordered McCullagh to transfer to another district the officer who had done this. This McCullagh refused to do. Thereupon the Mayor promptly removed the two Police Commissioners who had refused to vote for McCullagh's removal, appointed in their stead two pliant tools who joined with the Tammany Commissioners, removed McCullagh, and appointed Devery Acting Chief of Police.

Croker testified before a subsequent committee of investigation, “ I did all I could for Devery." With him in office the city ran wide open.

At the end of March, 1900, the Grand Jury made the following presentment :

We do charge and present that in their relations to these places [disorderly houses], the officials of the police, from the roundsmen up to the Commissioners, are guilty of criminal ignorance and criminal negligence. The root of the evil is not so much in the gambling or pool-selling or policy-playing, or in the disorderly resorts, as it is in the system of police administration, which either blindly or corruptly permits open and flagrant violations of the law to go unpunished and unchecked. The inference is unavoidable that the neglect and the blindness (under the present police system) are due, not to lack of intelligence or knowledge, but to some direct interest in the maintenance of these places.

In October, 1900, Franklin Mathews published in Harper's Weekly" the result of an investigation he had made on the East Side, largely in the Tenth Ward. The infamy of the conditions that prevailed at that time was far worse than anything that has since developed, and cannot be here described.

THE POLICE AND ELECTIONS Meanwhile Mr. Croker had undertaken to renew the practice of controlling elections through the instrumentality of the Police Department. Devery's reputation was such that when he was made Chief of Police it became necessary for the Legislature to interfere, and a law was passed providing for a State Superintendent of Elections in Greater New York, which was called the Metropolitan Election District. To this office McCullagh

was appointed. He made diligent investigation of the voters in many of the districts in which fraudulent voting was anticipated. He examined the registry lists and instituted rigorous inquiry into the qualifications of those persons who were registered. It became well understood that the State authorities would be an obstacle to fraudulent voting. Mr. Croker did not intend that this interference should go on without opposition. Accordingly, on the 30th of October he publicly declared to the reporters: "I advise all Democrats to go to the polling-places on election night, count noses, and see that they get counted. If the vote does not tally, lət them go in and pull out the fellows in charge. I want to have you print this.."

On the night of Sunday, November 4, Devery followed up this proclamation by issuing the following order:

To all-Tactics and methods of intimidation perpetrated upon respectable citizens who have been one year in the State, four months in any of the four counties of New York City, namely, New York, Kings, Queens, and Richmond, who have resided thirty days in an election district, and who are legal voters, by John McCullagh, Superintendent of Elections, will not be toler ated or permitted by the Police Department, and the commanding officers of the department will give all complaints touching on such matters their special attention, and will instruct the members of their commands to use all means within their power to protect the honest right and franchise of all citizens on election day.

Theodore Roosevelt was then Governor of the State, and he at once notified the Mayor that he would hold him responsible for any disorder, violence, or fraud resulting from either the action or the inaction of Devery." The Mayor thereupon directed Devery to withdraw the order, and it was withdrawn.

66

THE CHURCHES AND POLICE CORRUPTION

During all these political campaigns religious people had not been indifferent to the social conditions of the city. In many wards from which the old residents had removed mission churches were organized and did effective work for righteousness. The Episcopal Church established a mission at 130 Stanton Street, in the crowded Tenth Ward. Bishop Potter lived there for some time. The missionary in charge, the Rev. Robert L. Paddock, remonstrated against the conditions which prevailed in that neighborhood, and was insulted by the captain of police of the precinct. Bishop Potter took up the cause and wrote the following letter to the

Mayor, in compliance with a vote of the convention of the diocese:

But the thing that is of consequence, sir, is that when a minister of religion and a resident in a particular neighborhood, whose calling and character, experience and truthfulness are alike widely and abundantly recognized, goes to the headquarters of the police in his district to appeal to them for the protection of the young, the innocent, and the defenseless against the leprous harpies who are hired as runners and touters for the lowest and most infamous dens of vice, he is met, not only with contempt and derision, but with the coarsest insult and obloquy.

I affirm that such a virtual safeguarding of vice in the city of New York is a burning shame to any decent and civilized community and an intolerable outrage upon those whom it especially and pre-eminently concerns. I am not, I beg to say, unmindful of the fact that the existence of vice in a great city is practically an inevitable condition of the life in such a community. I am not demanding that vice shall be "stamped out" by the police or any other civil authority. That is a task which would demand for its achievement a race of angels and not of

men.

But I approach you, sir, to protest with all my power against a condition of things in which vice is not only tolerated, but shielded and encouraged, by those whose sworn duty it is to repress and discourage it, and in the name of insulted youth and innocence of young girls and their mothers, who, though living under conditions often of privation and the hard struggle for a livelihood, have in them every instinct of virtue and purity that are the ornaments of any so-called gentlewoman of the land.

The President of the Board of Police, Mr. York, was obliged to admit publicly on the 17th of November:

There is no use mincing matters. If places are running openly on the East Side, or on any side of this city, it is the fault of the captain of the precinct. They cannot run openly without his assistance. . . It is true, as you say; it stands to reason, when a vile place is running so openly day after day that every passer-by knows what it is and can go in without any trouble, that the captain is getting some consideration for letting this thing go on.

PUBLIC INDIGNATION

Then, again, our citizens adopted the old and well-tried method of a public meeting to express indignation and organize for reform. This meeting was attended by ex-Mayor Hewitt. He referred at the outset to a Committee of Investigation that had been appointed by Tammany Hall :

The incident which led to the formation of a committee, commonly called the Purity Committee, which is now in vestigating the condition of the city on the part of Tammany Hall was either called by what the Bishop said or by the intimation that he was going to take action in

consequence of the Diocesan Convention. At any rate, when the head of Tammany Hall spoke out and the Committee was appointed, it was the first confession, so far as I know, which came from the governing power of the city that they knew there was anything wrong. Everybody else was aware of it. But two years ago reform was sent to hell by a leading official of the administration, and there reform seems to have remained for two years.

Reform has been undergoing the punishment which Tammany Hall thought it deserved. If reform reappears from the purgatorial-to use a very mild phrase-from the purgatorial conditions to which it was assigned, it was because the head of Tammany Hall thought it was time to let up a little on reform and bring it out where it might have a little relief from the tortures under which it has been suffering.

Both Mayor Hewitt and Joel B. Erhardt, who had been a Commissioner, spoke of the evils that flowed from the bi-partisan police commission. Dr. Paddock declared that immediately upon the publication of Bishop Potter's letter the district Tammany Hall leader, Martin Engel, the Assemblyman Isidore Cohen, and the Senator Timothy D. Sullivan offered to close up the disreputable houses in the district, and they were closed within twenty-four hours. But he added: "It is needless for me to say that in a very few days they were opened up again." spoke of the danger to which witnesses were exposed. "I can give you instances of men and women who have been put out of their homes, whose very shops have been closed, and whose livelihood has been endangered because they have been willing to testify."

SHAME AND DISGRACE

He

At this meeting a Committee of Fifteen was appointed. One of its first tasks was to petition the Legislature to abolish the Police Board. Governor Roosevelt recommended this in his usual forcible manner. The Act was passed. It provided for the appointment of a single Commissioner of Police. Mayor Van Wyck appointed to this office Michael C. Murphy, who had the effrontery, after all that had happened, to appoint Devery as his deputy.

Meanwhile the Committee of Fifteen procured the indictment of the keepers of many gambling and disreputable houses and of police officers charged with extortion.

The entire want of sympathy that Mr. Croker and Commissioner Murphy had for these attempts to rid the city of its greatest shame was shown in the fact that when Glennon, Shields, and Dwyer, of the infamous Tenderloin district, were arrested on warrants