TAMMANY TYRANNY IN NEW YORK.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12402, 16 January 1901, Page 3

TAMMANY TYRANNY IN NEW YORK.

The fact that Tammany Hall, perhaps the most corrupt political organisation rathe 'world, threw in its lot with Mr Bryan lends pointed interest to im article which appeared in a recent number of “ Harper’s Weekly,” by Mr Franklin Matthews, who sets out to prove —and, of course, succeedswithout much difficulty—the terribly baneful influence which Tammany exerts upon the city of New York, where it reigns supreme. “ A REEKING CESSPOOL OF CORRUPTION.” The Tammany system has been described by the American General, P. Wat Hardin, as “The reeking cesspool of corruption in the city, the mildew of party politics in the country. It destroys morality, creates vice, and encourages crime. It thrives and fattens upon blackmail, levied upon the first elements of society as a license for -wrongdoing, andl thereby strengthens its-powers. Leprous by nature, its abode is infamy, from which it, crawls forth during- the darkness of the night, sliming all that it touches, withering all that it passes, and contaminating all that it approaches. It openly rewards its guilty followers for fidelity to- its cause in utter contempt of public disapproval, and! blackguards all decency that is opposed to it until respectability shrinks from- all association with it, -and its triumph is complete.’' THE SOURCE OF TAMMANY'S POWER. This is certainly a strong indictment, but that it is not -an exaggerated one is demonstrably proved by -a careful Study of the article to which reference has been made. The writer, Mr Franklin Matthews, points out that Tammany Hall has become supreme in the Democratic party of Now York State, and that never before had it dominated completely the State management of its party. How did it succeed? Bluntly, it had the money, and its opponents in the State, not having any office-holders 'to assess, not having power to levy tribute from public treasuries through the increase of salaries, through the partial fulfilment of public contracts and the like, not having opportunities for certain kinds of political blackmail, had "no money, and the side with the fat purse and the power to punish treachery won. The Tammany leaders are now rich men, and in- the great game of politics they are looking towards Washington . “ Take away its blackmail tribute-;” adds Mr Matthews, “and many of the leaders would be poor, Tammany’s power would be crippled, and common -decency would not he the loser.” STARTLING STATISTICS. Mr Matthews gives many statistics to show that in New York, under the regime of Governor Van Wyck, who was, of course, the nominee of Tammany, and who wasl elected by its votes, the death-rate has in-' creased in districts where tenement -houses predominate, that there has been a startling,' increase in private crime, that the crime of homicide has, increased threefold in ten years, and that the number of arrests of disorderly women, which was 13,076 in 1826, was last year 17,255. What gives point to the last statement is the fact asserted by Mr Matthews that a profit of sdol an arrest goes - with many of these cases, and represents some of the police blackmail on the traffic of the streets; AN INCREASE OF MURDER. With regard to the increase in the number of cases of murder, this is what we.jarni told: '

Now take another grade of police statist tics and see whether Tammany Hall is really costing actual fiesli and blood. Here is tie record of arrests for homicides for ten yean back 1889, 99; 1890, 91; 1891, 96; 1892; 91; 1893, 139; 1894, 134; 1895, 164; 1896; 178; 1897, 213; 1898, 261; 1899, 277. Irt ten years there has been a threefold increasd in this grade of crime. Will anyone say' that Tammany rule does not call for human victims to an undue excess? Is human life as safe as it was? The Mazet investigation showed l that property was not as safe aa formerly, and the suppressed reports of robi beries would go to prove it. Isn’t all this low standard', as revealed in police court re." cords, costing flesh and blood? Couldn’l some of it be averted by a decent enforced ment of the laws? Would such enforcement of the laws interfere with the income ol Tammany men? Ask a certain State Senator whose name is heard all over town as the collector for the pool-room (betting) blackmail. Ask any of the “ ward .men '■ who may be seen going into the office oi Adams, the policy king, what they go- there for. Ask a certain police commissioner who was annoyed as he looked out of his back windows at home by seeing directly into a policy-shop, and who asked if they couldn’t) move it off some distance, not so much because a church near by objected, as because ho didn’t like to be reminded in so pointed a way of certain sources ;of his income. , INSOLENCE. Here is another story to illustrate the insolence of Tammany Hall in the open protec J tion of vice and corruption that are costing human life;— “ I know -a clergyman on the East Side who complained because he himself was openly accosted day after day within 200 feet of one of the biggest public schools ou the East Side. He complained to police! headquarters. A police guard was sent to the corner. The policemen turned their backs and the work went on within 50 feet of them. Again the clergyman complainedto the police captain of the district. Thei captain intimated that- the clergyman was untruthful in the matter, and when the clergyman appealed to the police inspector of that district, in the presence of the cap« tain, the inspector turned on the clergyman brutally and told him in so many words that he was a liar. That captain and that inspector are still in the high confidence of Tammany Hall. Ido not- know their politics, but if Tammany Hall desires their names and the name of the clergyman in-: suited and) bullied, right in police headquarters, too, I can give them. Thepreachef is one of the best-known men in the cityv and he has suffered these insults in silence.’*THE GOOD NAME OF THE NATION INVOLVED.; In conclusion, Mr Matthews brings the’ following strong and stern indictment against Tammany: “ Upon afoundation of a traffic in shame, and vice, upon, blackmail and open corruption, Tammany Hall’s foundations are seen to rest- nowadays. Upon its escutcheon is the stain of an increased death-rate, the debauchery of the young, the rum of children, the lowering of the’ conditions' of decency on all sides. And on the strength, of this condition its pleaders are enabled to demand a foremost place an national affairs.; If Mr Bryan is elected he inust deal with; these men. They must have a voice in the' selection of ambassadors and ministers to’ other countries that come from New York State.' It is an open secret that the national patronage has already been promised to Tammany Hall. Witness the great activity of Tammany Hall nowadays compared with! 1896, and ask what it means. The question for the people of this country to face and answer is whether these men whose pockets are fat with the drippings of vice and whose garments are spotted shall sit in the high councils of party or nation. What a spectacle it would 1 s to see that State Senator whio collects the tribute from pool-rooms, or that police official who- revels in the tolls wrung from the haunts of vice—-one map in every ten in New York can name them both off-hand—sitting as honoured guests at the White Housd’table! If Mr Bryan is elected will he repudiate this alliance with filth that his party has made? It is a matter far deeper than that of politics. It involves the good l name of the nation. It is a question whether those who thrive on the flesh arid blood of the helpless or innocent shall have standing in national affairs.”