The New York Police Force 213 



he desires vice and crime put down; but, also in a 

 vague way, he objects to the only possible means by 

 which they can be put down. It is easy to mislead 

 him into denouncing what is necessarily done in or- 

 der to carry out the very policy for which he is 

 clamoring. The Tammany officials of New York, 

 headed by the Controller, made a systematic effort 

 to excite public hostility against the police for their 

 warfare on vice. The law-breaking liquor-seller, 

 the keeper of disorderly houses, and the gambler, had 

 been influential allies of Tammany, and head con- 

 tributors to its campaign chest. Naturally Tam- 

 many fought for them; and the effective way in 

 which to carry on such a fight was to portray with 

 gross exaggeration and misstatement the methods 

 necessarily employed by every police force which 

 honestly endeavors to do its work. The methods 

 are unpleasant, just as the methods employed in any 

 surgical operation are unpleasant ; and the Tammany 

 champions were able to arouse more or less feeling 

 against the police board for precisely the same reason 

 that a century ago it was easy to arouse what were 

 called "doctors' mobs" against surgeons who cut 

 up dead bodies. In neither case is the operation at- 

 tractive, and it is one which readily lends itself to 

 denunciation; but in both cases it is necessary if 

 there is a real intention to get at the disease. Tam- 

 many of course found its best allies in the sensa- 

 tional newspapers. Of all the forces that tend for 

 evil in a great city like New York, probably none 

 are so potent as the sensational papers. Until one 



