SAFE BUT NOT DECENT

White Ribbon, Volume 33, Issue 398, 18 September 1928, Page 11

SAFE B UT NOT DECENT

“The politicians wanted me to make Philadelphia safe, but they didn’t want me to make it decent,” said General Butler In charge of law enforcement in Philadelphia. as quoted in an article In the “Christian Herald.” “They thought that If I made Philadelphia safe, the citizens would cease worrying and would not demand decency.” “Folks swm to have an idea that vice and violent crime are two separate things.” says General Butler. “ ‘Leave vice alone and take care of crime,’ is the advice I’ve often received from eminent citizens. They don’t seem to know that vice, which involves the self-control of the individual. is a general disease and that violent crime is only a manifestation of this disease. Vice is the disease and violent crime is the headache or the sore throat that goes with it. No city can he content with vice these days and expect to be saf«* from violent crime. “And the main reason why I can’t clean up Philadelphia just yet.” continues the general, “is not crooked policemen or crooked officials, but the inability of many good people to realize that hidden and protected vice must he driven out before crime departs.”