48 FIGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS 



good records with Spaniards — in fact, every nationality is represented 

 almost but the Chinese, and I find the men as a class willing to give 

 faithful service. When men find the official in charge of them consis- 

 tent, always keeping his word to the letter, they will soon begin follow- 

 ing the example set before them. Treat a man squarely and you will 

 get square treatment in return. That is human nature and sound 

 doctrine, whether in the police or in any other department." 



Being an honest man and determined to do his duty fearlessly 

 and without favor, Mr. Roosevelt was not caught in the many traps 

 set for him. All attempts to ensnare him were failures and soon 

 appeared so ridiculous that he became the best "let alone" official in 

 the city government. 



Jacob Riis says that ''Jobs innumerable were put up to discredit 

 the President of the Board and inveigle him into awkward positions. 

 Probably he never knew of one-tenth of them. Mr. Roosevelt walked 

 through them with perfect unconcern, kicking aside the snares that 

 were set so elaborately to catch him. The politicians who saw him 

 walk apparently blindly into a trap and beheld him emerge with dam- 

 age to the trap only, could not understand it. They concluded it was 

 his luck. It was not. It was his sense. He told me once after such 

 a time that it was a matter of conviction with him that no frank and 

 honest man could be in the long run entangled by the snares of 

 plotters, whatever appearances might for the moment indicate. So 

 he walked unharmed in it all." 



But the new Police President had no path of roses to walk in. 

 Corruption was deeply planted and it was not easy to uproot it. The 

 system of blackmail by police and officials was hard to overcome. It 

 was the enforcement of the Sunday liquor law, in particular, that gave 

 trouble to the Commission. There were plenty of arrests, indeed, for 

 its violation, but these were of people who had no political pull or 

 refused to pay the police for shut eyes. This system of blackmail 

 existed in the case of all illegal pursuits, which could be carried on 

 unseen by the police if the necessary money were forthcoming, but to 

 which refusal to pay brought sudden retribution. 



Dishonesty at elections was another of the prevailing forms of 

 vice. Honesty at the ballot box had almost ceased to exist, and it 



