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MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION 



and crime, as may be illustrated from almost any of the large Ameri- 

 can cities, in the relation existing between the police force and the 

 gambling and other illicit life. The officers are often flatly told that 

 the enforcement of an ordinance which the better element of the 

 city has insisted upon passing is impossible; that they are only 

 expected to control the robbery and crime that so often associate 

 themselves with vice. As Mr. Wilcox has pointed out in The Ameri- 

 can City, public sentiment itself assumes a certain hypocrisy, and in 

 the end we have " the abnormal conditions which are created when 

 vice is protected by the authorities ; " in the very worst cases there 

 develops a sort of municipal blackmail in which the administration 

 itself profits by the violation of law. The officer is thoroughly 

 confused by the human element in the situation, and his very kind- 

 ness and human understanding are that which leads to his downfall. 



There is no doubt that the reasonableness of keeping the saloons 

 in lower New York open on Sunday was apparent to the policemen 

 on the East Side force long before it dawned upon the reform ad- 

 ministration, and yet that the policemen were allowed to connive 

 at law-breaking was the cause of their corruption and downfall. 



In order to meet this situation, there is almost inevitably developed 

 a politician of the corrupt type so familiar in American cities, who 

 has become successful because he has made friends with the vicious. 

 The semi-criminal, who are constantly brought in contact with 

 administrative government, are naturally much interested in its 

 operations, and, having much at stake, as a matter of course attend 

 the primaries and all the other election processes which so quickly 

 bore the good citizen whose interest in them is a self-imposed duty. 

 To illustrate: It is a matter of much moment to a gambler whether 

 there is to be a " wide-open town " or not; it means the success 

 or failure of his business; it involves not only the pleasure, but the 

 livelihood, of all his friends. He naturally attends to the election of 

 the alderman, and to the appointment and retention of the police- 

 man; he is found at the caucus " every time," and would be much 

 amused if he were praised for the performance of his civic duty. 

 But because he and the others who are concerned in semi-illicit 

 business do attend the primaries, the corrupt politician is nominated 

 over and over again. 



As this type of politician is successful from his alliance with crime, 

 there also inevitably arises from time to time a so-called reformer, 

 who is shocked to discover this state of affairs, this easy partnership 

 between vice and administrative government. He dramatically 

 uncovers the situation, and arouses great indignation against it 

 on the part of the good citizen. If this indignation is enough, he 

 creates a political fervor which constitutes a claim upon public 

 gratitude. In portraying the evil he is fighting, he does not recog- 



