220 The New York Police Force 



dealers, especially of the cities of the State. In ac- 

 cordance with this promise a Sunday-opening clause 

 was inserted in the excise bill of 1892. Governor 

 Flower then said that he could not approve the Sun- 

 day-opening clause; whereupon the Liquor Dealers' 

 Association, which had charge of the bill, struck the 

 Sunday-opening clause out. After Governor Hill had 

 been elected for the second term I had several in- 

 terviews with him on that very subject. He told me, 

 'You know I am the friend of the liquor-dealers and 

 will go to almost any length to help them and give 

 them relief ; but do not ask me to recommend to the 

 Legislature the passage of the law opening the sa- 

 loons on Sunday. I can not do it, for it will ruin 

 the Democratic party in the State.' He gave the 

 same interview to various members of the State 

 Liquor Dealers' Association, who waited upon him 

 for the purpose of getting relief from the blackmail 

 of the police, stating that -the lack of having the 

 Sunday question properly regulated was at the bot- 

 tom of the trouble. Blackmail had been brought to 

 such a state of perfection, and had become so op- 

 pressive to the liquor-dealers themselves, that they 

 communicated first with Governor Hill and then 

 with Mr. Croker. The Wine and Spirit Gazette had 

 taken up the subject because of gross discrimination 

 made by the police in the enforcement of the Sunday- 

 closing law. The paper again and again called upon 

 the police commissioners to either uniformly enforce 

 the law or uniformly disregard it. A committee of 

 the Central Association of Liquor Dealers of this 



