I Philadelphia's Republican Tammany By Clinton Rogers Woodruff N the judgment of many observers, Philadelphia's municipal politics has become as degraded, corrupt, and vicious as that of New York. This is perhaps expressing the severest condemnation possible, as Tammany stands for the worst possible methods. Conditions have been bad in Philadelphia for many years; but it has remained for Mayor Samuel H. Ashbridge to perfect the system and to work it for the personal advantage of his faction in a way not dreamed of by his predecessors or even by his colleagues. Not Tweed in his halcyon days nor Croker in his moments of most brutal disregard of public sentiment or decency has been so cynically disregardful of public interests, public opinion, or public propriety. Not content to abase the city's government for personal ends, he has done so with recklessness and brutality. "After us the deluge "seems to have been his policy, and he should not complain if the deluge comes a little earlier than he anticipated. It is, perhaps, a trite statement to say that the city's civil service has been used to pay political debts, but in Philadelphia it has been used to pay personal debts as well. The spoils system has been carried to a previously unknown perfection of villainy. Not only are the examinations held behind locked doors by examiners appointed from among the Mayor's personal friends, but appointees selected weeks in advance by the Mayor are announced as having passed with averages of 100. The Chief of the Bureau of City Property, who had never been in the real estate business nor had aught to do with its management, was given an average of 100. The Chief of the Health Bureau, who had previously been coroner's undertaker, was likewise given 100; and so I might continue the list. Every man who had shown the least independence of judgment has been discharged or forced to resign. Superintendent of Police Linden, one of the most efficient and straightest of policemen, was forced out early in the administration to make way for a super intendent who, it is true, received an average of 100 per cent., and who has deserved so far as serving the interests of the administration goes. Chief John C. Trautwine, of the Bureau of Water, could not be depended upon to fall in with the machine's plans while millions of dollars for filtration were being expended, and he was forced out for a man with fewer embarrassing scruples. Ashbridge has utilized the civil service of the city, not only to reward his friends, but to make way for subservient tools, to influence nominating conventions, and, above all, to force legislation which he favored through Councils. He has done this in defiance of the letter and spirit of the law. There has been no office too small to escape his attention. It is on record that he seeks to control the appointment of so insignificant an office (from the point of view of salary) as that of election clerk, which pays just five dollars per day on two days in the year! He has not stopped with his utilization of the civil service, but has used the contracts as well, to serve his ends and those of his friends and political colleagues. There is certainly nothing new in this, for contracts are so used in all cities; but it has remained for Ashbridge to go to "the limit." There have been more scandals connected with the award of contracts under the present administration than under any previous ones. In the matter of garbage disposal, Philadelphia pays $2.64 a ton, while the Borough of Manhattan pays but $1.73; Brooklyn, $1.23; Washington, 75 cents; Boston, 63 cents; Cincinnati, 90 cents. There was a company that put in a bid for $100,000 less than the favored company, and Director of Public Works Haddock actually had the temerity to award the contract to the lowest bidder. In less than two weeks the latter had to ask to be relieved, so stringently had the police enforced the law against him, and so far had they gone in directly interfering with him and trespassing upon his property. He had a legal remedy, to be sure, but it would have cost him too much to have enforced it. So he retired from the field, and the contract was then awarded to the favored contractor, against whom the ordinances have not been so rigorously enforced, if at all, and who has been permitted to pursue his way unmolested. The contracts for the erection of filterbeds and other work in connection with the improvement of the water supply have all gone the same way, this time the contracts going to one McNichol, a brother of the Select Councilman of the same name, one of the three most powerful politicians in the city. One contract was so flagrantly awarded that the court set it aside, because Mr. McNichol had been permitted, after others had put in their bids, to change his. This action of the court, however, only delayed, it did not prevent the final award to the favored contractor. In connection with the asphalt paving, the most recent contracts were awarded to the highest bidders because the lowest bidder had sent the sample of the cement in the name of the agent instead of the name of the company! In the matter of electric lighting the bid of the Trust was accepted at the rate of thirty cents per lamp per night, in the face of the bid of a responsible company to light all or any part of the city at the rate of twenty cents per lamp per night. If there had been any doubt as to the company's ability to light the whole city, it might have been awarded a section in which to demonstrate its ability. Instead, however, the Director of Public Safety, who had been Chief Clerk under Ashbridge while he was Coroner, took away from the independent company the territory it had been lighting for years. One reason assigned by Director English for his action was that there had been complaint against the company in question, although he admitted under cross-examination that the complaints had not been received until after the contracts had been awarded! Not alone has the administration utilized the civil service and the contracts for personal ends, but the police power as well. The "speak-easy" in Philadelphia is the unlicensed saloon. It is given police protection in exchange for votes and political support. The Law and Order Society has convicted and has had sentenced in the courts nearly eighty "speak-easy" keepers, and 196 are under indictment and still untried. All of these cases are the result of the private prosecution of the Society. I doubt if the Police Bureau can point to a single conviction within the same time. On the other hand, the police have deliberately refused their assistance to the Society's agents; they have time and again refused to allow them the use of the patrol wagons for the conveyance of prisoners; and not infrequently the patrolmen have jeered the Society's detectives and constables executing warrants. Furthermore, policemen have been found in speak-easies at the time of the raids, and in one case a police lieutenant was found in one of the houses raided drinking beer with the proprietress. The same statements apply to the Society's efforts to suppress the social evil and to show that the politicians in power protect the keepers of disreputable houses. The Secretary of the Society charged in open court that such places were protected by politicians and city officials. He was challenged to prove this charge. While he is still engaged in this task, he has already produced an abundance of evidence to substantiate it. He has brought out under oath the names of a Select Councilman, a police sergeant, and other officials and politicians said to be influential in protecting places of evil resort. Another Select Councilman went bail for one of the women arrested and requested that his name be suppressed, as he" went her bail as a matter of politics." Other officeholders have similarly served as security for accused women, and have shown the greatest solicitude for their welfare and safety. Furthermore, the same Society has shown that one of the papers which enjoys a large share of official advertising (and is of course a stanch supporter of the Ashbridge administration) openly and flagrantly advertised. these places. The last batch of cases was made up of the women running places so advertised. Several months ago I was shown a copy of the newspaper in question, on one side of which were advertised the ordinances of the city of Philadelphia, and on the other side, immediately backing them up, were these iniquitous advertisements. A fine com mentary on Philadelphia's Chief Magistrate's sense of decency and fitness; but what more is to be expected of a man openly charged in the columns of a reputable and responsible newspaper and by a clergyman of high standing of having made an obscene speech at a public dinner largely attended by young men ? Since November 1, 1900, the Law and Order Society has made the following arrests: Gambling-house keepers.. Keepers of disreputable houses. 53 196 150 350 784 Of this number 87 have already been convicted and 87 more indicted. The other cases have been so recent that the Grand Jury has not as yet had time to act upon them. an opportunity to work only because the authorities make no serious attempt to interfere." Unquestionably the most flagrant abuse of the police power was the personal attempt of Director of Public Safety English to silence the "North American," a paper owned by John Wanamaker's son, Thomas B. Wanamaker, which was then and is now an unsparing critic of the administration. Director English, with the Chief of the Bureau of Property (he of the 100 per cent. average), visited Mr. John Wanamaker's private office, and told him 35 that unless the attacks of the "North American" ceased, information concerning him, and which had been collected during the preceding eight months by the police, would be given to the public. Mr. Wanamaker treated this effort to blackmail him in silence as it deserved, and at once gave to the public all the details of the interview, which he had had taken down by his stenographer. The indignation of the public was intense. A great massmeeting was held, at which this highhanded abuse of the police power was denounced. The Director made no defense except that he was tired of being denounced, and in this the Mayor backed him up and retained him in office. I doubt if the annals of any city can furnish another equally glaring example of the use of public official power to throttle public newspaper criticism and to blackmail a private citizen. To quote the words of the "Ledger," a paper whose reliability and conservatism is beyond question: "Whether or not the wicked men and women who keep disorderly houses pay cash consideration for protection, it is clearly evident that there is a direct connection between such establishments and the corrupt politics under which this city is misgoverned. Many of the houses exposed recently were recorded in the assessor's lists as the domiciles of mythical voters, and were in localities where the political machine rolls up its heaviest fraudulent majorities. In one of the precincts in the heart of the slums the delegates elected at the Republican primaries were almost without exception men reputed to be the keepers of dives and speak-easies. The work of padding assessors' lists, of repeating and personating at the polls, and of making out false returns, thrives best in disreputable localities, because the politicians can make use of the criminal element for these nefarious purposes. The habitués of evil houses naturally seek the protection of the dominant politicians, and in return for such favors they are ready to corrupt the elections or perform any dirty work that their political masters command. The open and flagrant immorality which has been exposed by the Law and Order Society could not exist for a day were Mayor Ashbridge and his police to do their duty. The leaven of corruption has A goodly portion of this article could be devoted to election frauds and crimes against the ballot-box, and the interference of police in primary and general elections. Not since the early seventies has there been such flagrant conduct on the part of the police. Last winter the Municipal League published a little leaflet setting forth the details of a number of typical instances of the brutality of the police at the November election and the preceding September primaries. Not counting the men in jail serving sentences for election frauds and those who are fugitives from justice, there are nearly five hundred election officers under indictment and awaiting trial. Indeed, a separate article could be devoted to the subject of election frauds during the present administration. In 1900, Councils passed the Keystone Telephone Ordinance, giving to a corpo ration composed of the Mayor's friends valuable privileges estimated to be worth at least five million dollars, without compensation to the city and with no restrictions, and without protection to the city's interests. The Trades League and the Municipal League protested against the ordinance to Councils and to the Mayor, pointing out its defects and the utter lack of safeguards, but to no avail. The Mayor left the Chamber where he had perfunctorily listened to arguments against the ordinance by prominent citizens, and retired to his private office, where he almost immediately signed the ordinance after he had consulted with several of the more influential politicians. The Mayor's conduct on this occasion, however, was cordial and public-spirited compared with his conduct in connection with the recent street railway franchises. Readers of The Outlook will recall that the Focht and Emery bills were introduced into the Pennsylvania Legislature on May 29, and were approved by the Governor on June 7, without a public hearing of any kind at any stage of the proceedings. The ordinances introduced under these bills were "jammed through " Philadelphia Councils even more rapidly. The Mayor, whose private secretary had positively announced that the ordinances would not be approved on June 13, on that day hastened back from the ceremonies incident to the opening of the new United States Mint, and signed every one of the fourteen bills without a hearing, without a consultation with a single bureau chief, and in the face of John Wanamaker's offer to pay the city $2,500,000 for the same privileges which were given to the Mayor's friends for nothing. Further comment of mine is unnecessary. The record I have here briefly outlined speaks for itself. It will come before the voters of Philadelphia this autumn for ratification or rejection. The Republican ticket stands for Ashbridge and his record. He dictated it; he used his power to nominate it, and he proposes to use every resource at his disposal to elect it. He rejected those who, like District Attorney Rothermel, were not subservient to his will and his wishes. He has replaced those unwilling to wear his collar by those whose subserviency will stand the strong test to which he will subject it. The people of Philadelphia are aroused, and if an honest and untrammeled vote were to be taken to-morrow, I am assured that it would be overwhelmingly against Ashbridge and his record. The task of the Municipal League and its allies in the present fight is to secure an honest and untrammeled vote. Confession By Henry Johnstone I cannot say "So be it " to Thy will; So is it as Thou orderest, not as I Have long'd it might be, dreamt that it should be ; Thus hast Thou dealt, thus wilt Thou deal with me, Not altering Thy purpose for my cry. But I would be no longer like a child, Taken half-witting in a scarce-hid snare, Following a hope found false, but still held fair, Teach Thou obedience to my stubborn soul, An Autobiography BY JACOB A. RIIS Author of How the Other Half Lives," "A Ten Years' War," etc.. etc. Chapter XIV-I Try to Go to the War for the Third and T Last Time HAT which I have described as "sitting up with a club" in a city like New York is bound to win your fight if you sit up long enough, for it is to be remembered that the politicians who oppose good government are not primarily concerned about keeping you out of your rights. They want the things that make for their advantage; first of all the offices through which they can maintain their grip. After that they will concede as many of the things you want as they have to, and, if you are not yourself out for the offices, more than otherwise, though never more than you wring out of them. They really do not care if you do have clean streets, good schools, parks, playgrounds, and all the things which make for good citizenship because they give the best part of the man a chance, though they grudge them as a sad waste of money that might be turned to use in " strengthening the organization," which is the sum of all their self-seeking, being their means of ever getting more and more. Hence it is that a mere handful of men and women who rarely or ever had other authority than their own unselfish purpose, have in all times, even the worst, been able to put their stamp upon the community for good. I am thinking of the Felix Adlers, the Dr. Rainsfords, the Josephine Shaw Lowells, the Robert Ross McBurneys, the R. Fulton Cuttings, the Father Doyles, the Jacob H. Schiffs, the Robert W. de Forests, the Arthur von Briesens, the Norton Goddards, the Richard Watson Gilders, and their kind; and thinking of them brings to mind an opportunity I had a year or two ago to tell a club of workmen what I thought of them. It was at the Chicago Commons. I had looked in on a Sunday Copyright, 1901, the Outlook Company. 66 evening upon a group of men engaged in what seemed to me a singularly unprofitable discussion of human motives. They were of the school which professes to believe that everything proceeds from the love of self, and they spoke learnedly of the ego and all that; but as I listened the conviction grew, along with the feeling of exasperation that sort of nonsense always arouses in me, that they were just vaporing, and I told them so. I pointed to these men and women I have spoken of, some of them of great wealth-the thing against which they seemed to have a special grudge-and told them how they had given their lives and their means in the cause of humanity without asking other reward than that of seeing the world grow better and the hard lot of some of their fellow-men eased; wherein they had succeeded because they thought less of themselves than of their neighbors, and were in the field, anyway, to be of such use as they could. I told them how distressed I was that upon their own admission they should have been engaged in this discussion four years without getting any further, and I closed with a remorseful feeling of having said more than I intended and perhaps having made them. feel bad. But not they. They had listened to me throughout with undisturbed serenity. When I had done, the chair man said courteously that they were greatly indebted to me for my frank opinion. Every man was entitled to his own. And he could quite sympathize with me in my inability to catch their point of view. "Because here," he added, "I have been reading for ten years or more the things Mr. Riis writes in his newspaper and in the magazines, and by which he makes a living, and for the life of me I never was able to understand how any one could be found to pay for such stuff." So there you have my measure as a reformer. The meeting nodded gravely. I was apparently the only one there who took it as a joke. |