The New York Police Force 219 



sional politicians, and occupy toward them a posi- 

 tion such as is not held by any other class of men. 

 The influence they wield in local politics has always 

 been very great, and until our board took office no 

 man ever dared seriously to threaten them for their 

 flagrant violations of the- law. The powerful and 

 influential saloon-keeper was glad to see his neigh- 

 bors closed, for it gave him business. On the other 

 hand, a corrupt police captain, or the corrupt politi- 

 cian who controlled him, could always extort money 

 from a saloon-keeper by threatening to close him and 

 let his neighbor remain open. Gradually the greed 

 of corrupt police officials and of corrupt politicians 

 grew by what it fed on, until they began to black- 

 mail all but the very most influential liquor-sellers; 

 and as liquor-sellers were very numerous, and the 

 profits of the liquor business great, the amount col- 

 lected was enormous. 



The reputable saloon-keepers themselves found 

 this condition of blackmail and political favoritism 

 almost intolerable. The law which we found on the 

 statute books had been put on by a Tammany Legis- 

 lature three years before we took office. A couple 

 of months after we took office, Mr. J. P. Smith, the 

 editor of the liquor-dealers' organ, the Wine and 

 Spirit Gazette, gave out the following interview, 

 which is of such an extraordinary character that I 

 insert it almost in full : 



"Governor Flower, as well as the Legislature of 

 1892, was elected upon distinct pledges that relief 

 would be given by the Democratic party to the liquor- 



