TAMMANY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13466, 5 July 1909, Page 7

TAMMANY.

CABLE NEWS.

COMMISSIONER OF POLICE

DISMISSED

United Press Association—By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, July 2. Mr McClellan, Mayor of New York, has dismissed General Bingham, Commissioner of Police, ostensibly because h_ refused to dismiss certain subordinates.

The New York correspondent of* "The Times" reports that the general interpretation i.s that General Bingham has been sacrificed to Tammany.

An investigation conducted in 1594 into the conduct of the New York Police service revealed a scandalous state of affairs. It was found, inter alia, that every keeper of a publichouse who sold liquor at illegal hours — and that meant practically every publican in New York —paid a fixed sum, based on the amount of his trade, to the police captain of his district. Every gambling-house paid its monthly or weekly tax, and every other illegal place of resort paid its regular rate for immunity from police attention. Theso taxes were collected by the captains, wardman, or privato detective, and the wardmen, as well as the captains, bocame wealthy. Then there was tho money paid by each officer to his superior. Thus, a captain was expected to turn over a stated sum each month to the inspector, who, in his turn, was obliged to pay regular contributions to tho chief of police. Few men, it is stated, hay© retired from the office of chief of the New York polico who were not millionaires. It was also disclosed that captains paid largely for transfers from a lean to a fat district. On© famous captain is said to have paid £20.000 for a transfer from a business district to the notorious "Tenderloin,'' and it is declared that ho recouped himself in less than six months. General Bingham has conscientiously endeavoured to effect an improvement in tho service in this regard, and there certainly was a lull in dishonesty for a short while, but it appears that the scandal is now in full swing again.