CRIMINALITY AS A BUSINESS.
IN 1854 Fernando Wood, a ward politician who acknowledged that he had cheated his business partner by falsifying the figures in their accounts, was elected mayor of New York. Mr. Godkin speaks of his administration as "the organization of New York politics on a criminal basis." William M. Tweed succeeded Wood as New York's mayor, but far outstripped his predecessor in his daring criminality. Indeed, Judge Noah Davis said of Tweed that he "saw fit to pervert the powers with which he was clothed, in a manner more infamous, more outrageous, than any instance of a like character which the history of the civilized world afforded." The thugs of the city, nicknamed "Tweed's lambs," were organized by the "Tweed ring" into a part of the political machine; and by the corrupting influences of money and the control of the ignorant and immigrant element, together with all the other dark ways known to the unscrupulous, Tweed and his "ring" kept themselves in power, while they plundered the people. Mr. E. Benjamin Andrews, in his book, "The Last Quarter Century in the United States," says: "The ring's operations cheated the city's taxpayers, first and last, out of no less than $160,000,000, 'or four times the fine levied on Paris by the German army.' . . . In 1871 he boasted of being worth $20,000,000, and vowed soon to be as rich as Vanderbilt. . . . He used gleefully to show his friends the safe where he kept money for bribing legislators." We have not the space here to picture the shocking and many-sided corruptions that were boldly, yes, brazenly, practised in New York under the management and protection of the "Tweed ring." But twenty-five years ago Tweed himself was undergoing his prolonged trial, and the whole country, outside of his friends and accomplices in New York, was horrified by the revelation of the dark deeds that had been committed by Tweed and his pals. It was believed that the exposure of these official crimes, and the revolution against them, would make the repetition of such deeds an impossibility in the future politics of New York. But these high hopes were destined to be dashed to the ground. In 1878, seven years after his arrest, and with his trial uncompleted, Tweed died in Ludlow Street jail. But the seeds of political corruption did not die with him. For in the years 1894–95 the Lexow commission, appointed by the New York Senate to investigate the frauds and corruptions of that second city of the world, found that the evils of Tweed's time were not only continued but growing worse. The commission held seventy sittings, and the report of their inquiry filled five volumes of 1,100 pages each. In this report the commission affirms that almost every form of crime and vice is under political and police protection. And the helpless, the widow, the uninfluential,—the keepers of small fruit stands and cigar and tobacco shops and the like,—are made the objects of extortion and blackmail. The police are appointed by the politicians, and so lucrative is the policeman's position considered that they are required to pay the political ring $300 for their appointment, and when promoted to the post of sergeant the price is $1,500, while a police captain has to pay $15,000 for his appointment. Among the sources of revenue of these corrupt officials they collect from $50 to $300 a month from pool-rooms; $20 to $25 a month from policy shops; $2.00 a month from liquor dealers; $10 to $50 a month from houses of ill-fame; and when a new house of prostitution is opened, an initiation fee of from $500 to $2,000 is charged, in addition to the regular monthly fee thereafter. The foregoing figures are not surmises, but are facts given under oath before the Lexow commission. If it shocks us to hear of a professional highwayman "holding up" a person and demanding his money, how much more shocking is it to know that city officials accomplish the same thing under the garb of the guardians of the very laws that they are trampling underfoot. Twenty-five years ago this form of criminality was being broken up in New York, as it was supposed, and it was firmly believed that our Christian civilization would not allow it to break out elsewhere. But we see that the criminality and evil of twenty-five years ago has not only augmented in the metropolis, but has spread to other cities. The Illinois Senate caused an investigation to be made in Chicago during January, 1898, and they found the same evils there that the Lexow commission found in New York City. Indeed, the Chicago chief of police was driven to such straits by the investigation that, according to the press reports, "he apologized for the thugs and toughs who had been appointed as members of the police force since he was made chief." And at the same time when this investigation was going on in Chicago, a committee of citizens was making a like investigation in Philadelphia, and found the same evils there. Language is feeble to express the appalling criminality of this time. For it is not the skulking highwayman alone that is to be dreaded. But men chosen to execute the laws, or robed with the judicial ermine, have prostituted their high positions of trust and responsibility to rascality of the most infamous depths. And with our large cities a veritable cesspool of crime, what is there to hope for? This nation is rapidly rushing down the same decline that Rome traveled when she was crumbling to destruction. And hers was only a heathen civilization. But what will be the terrible end of a nation that so terribly degrades herself in the presence of the light of the pure doctrine of Christ? And when Rome fell there were other nations—even tho they were called barbarous—that had not degraded themselves with vice and aristocratic criminality, that came in to absorb Rome's civilization, reject her vices, and thus found new empires. But where is there a nation to-day that is not in even a worse condition than the United States? There are no peoples now to overturn this evil and establish enduring governments. The prophet describes this condition of evil most minutely. He says:— "For our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them. . . . And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity can not enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey; and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment." Isa. 59:12–15. When men refuse to relieve the oppressed and to execute justice in the earth, the only thing left them is for the just Judge Himself to execute the judgment of the great and final day. And before that tribunal where neither bribery nor any other fraud can enter, the whole world will soon be summoned. God's Spirit is impressing this solemn truth upon your heart. Do not reject the divine admonition. T.