times subject to the supervision of every judicial magistrate of the
county, and of the Supervisors and Overseers of the Poor of the town
where the criminal may be found, to the same extent that a minor is
subject to the control of his parent or guardian.”
Another large class of persons who are totally unfit to be at large are
kleptomaniacs, dipsomaniacs, pyromaniacs, epileptics and incendiaries.
They should be placed permanently in an asylum. If necessary they could
be deported to some island, where many of them could be put to work to
cultivate the soil.
What we shall do with our unemployed criminals who roam the country in
search of plunder is becoming a very serious problem. It is said that
New York has from forty to fifty thousand ex-criminals. This is a low
estimate. Whether it is true or not I am not prepared to say. At any
rate, there are enough to keep over ten thousand policemen busy watching
for this fraternity night and day.
It is safe to say that New York alone has a floating population of
twenty thousand habitual criminals, who are ready at any moment to
commit crime, without a moment’s warning, and then sail under a new name
or leave for parts unknown.
There are also at least forty thousand men and women habitual
misdemeanants in New York, who have been in prison for small offences,
such as drunkenness, disorderly conduct, assault and petit larceny, from
one to fifty times, and even more. What is going to be done with these?
The only remedy for the twentieth century tramp and habitual criminal is
either to cure them, exile them or kill them. What shall it be? Perhaps
the better and more humane method would be to colonize them until
permanently reformed and cured. But while locked up they should be
compelled to work for their living.
The obstinate criminal is a dangerous character. He lives on crime; his
hand is against every man, and naturally in the interest of self
protection every man is against him. It can be said of the unreformed
criminal what the frontier man says of the Indian—”dead Injun, good
Injun.”
Nor should petty thieves, paupers or tramps be allowed to go at large
under any circumstances. They are social parasites and the State and
city authorities should place them where they can be cured of their
insane, lazy notions and made to work for a living or be permanently
locked up. They have no more right to be at large than lepers or yellow
fever patients, as they defile all with whom they come in contact.
A well known prison authority told me a short time ago that hundreds of
men and women in this city go and return from prison like the swinging
of a pendulum, and they are hardly out of prison before they are back in
the toils again. What shall be done with them? That is the question
which our authorities are called upon to answer.
The cost of crime in this city is enormous and, sad to say, is on the
increase, and nothing is done to make our prison population share the
expenses of their own keep; although it is well known that in deference
to our Labor Leaders more than half the prisoners in the country are
idle most of the time.
We would suggest that the inmates of this colony be classified in the
following manner.
1. The diseased. Segregate them by themselves in a charity hospital
until cured.
2. The aged and infirm. Send them to the Almshouse.
3. The able-bodied criminal rounder. Lock him up till cured. It is
dangerous to keep him at large. But make him work for his living.
4. The chronic tramp and idler. Lock him up and make him work for his
living.
5. The habitual drunkard. This man should be confined in a hospital till
cured, and afterwards put to work.
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CHAPTER XXXVII
THE COST OF CRIME IN GREATER NEW YORK
The cost of crime in the city of New York is a question of such vast
importance to the taxpayers as to seem bewildering. It is a most
difficult thing to follow crime into its various ramifications. If this
could be done satisfactorily, it would show that crime enters a larger
area than we think it does. The figures given below do not include the
building of a new prison on Riker’s Island, which is a needless waste of
$4,000,000. This, with many other steals, can be laid to Tammany
politics. Kings County Penitentiary, situated on Crown Street, Brooklyn,
was sufficient for all the needs of Greater New York for many years to
come, but schemers desired the land on which the prison was built, and
after some time, had it condemned and the plant and the real estate sold
for a song!
Next to the liquor traffic, crime is our greatest National waste for
which there seems to be no adequate remedy. Crime burns the candle at
both ends as it affects old and young of both sexes in its ceaseless
undermining of human character, aiming at the moral and social
demoralization of the human race.
If the police were to arrest the hundreds of criminals that remain at
large every year in this city, the correction and suppression of crime
would cost vastly more than at the present. In all likelihood the
expense would not be less than one-fourth of the entire cost of carrying
on the Government of Greater New York.
We have made a careful study of the cost of crime in Greater New York,
and find that the amount of money appropriated by the civil authorities,
according to the figures of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment,
since consolidation in 1898, has increased every year. Since the
boroughs went into partnership, and took the name of Greater New York,
crime has increased from fifty to seventy-five per cent. Last year the
number of arrests in this city exceeded that of the previous year by
more than forty thousand, not to speak of hundreds of the most atrocious
crimes on record, such as murder, arson, assault, highway robbery,
burglary and larceny, that have baffled the detective bureau to discover
the perpetrators.
Crime shows a larger increase in New York than elsewhere, because of the
large foreign population, although it is a well established fact that
crime is not the result of our foreign-born people as much as of their
children, who are classed as native Americans.
In the following table the sums mentioned were appropriated by the Board
of Estimate and Apportionment for 1909.
Perhaps I ought to say when we come to deal with the various departments
of the city government that are only indirectly connected with crime, we
find it more difficult to arrive at correct conclusions. Take for
example the sheriff’s office. This official’s work is both civil and
criminal. He has charge of the county jail and pays for the support of
the inmates. He takes full charge of indicted prisoners for felonies,
and after they are sentenced sees that they are safely landed in State
prison or penitentiary. But he also deals with many civil processes
besides. After making careful allowance, we set aside three-fourths of
the sheriff’s entire appropriation for crime.
In the first statement below it will be seen that all the moneys
appropriated to the various departments and institutions are spent on
the correction and repression of crime alone. Here are the official
figures:
Department of Police of Greater New $15,195,331 00
York
Department of Correction 1,274,957 00
District Attorney, New York 371,860 00
District Attorney, Kings 106,000 00
District Attorney, Queens 35,500 00
District Attorney, Richmond 12,900 00
City Magistrates, 1st Division 355,800 00
City Magistrates, 2nd Division 328,000 00
Special Sessions and Children’s 134,420 00
Court, 1st Division
Special Sessions and Children’s 94,800 00
Court, 2nd Division
General Sessions, New York 291,500 00
Juvenile Asylum 55,005 00
New York Catholic Protectory 326,500 00
Brooklyn Catholic Protectory 17,500 00
Jewish Protectory 50,000 00
Brooklyn Court Rents, etc. 40,000 00
Miscellaneous Criminal Expenses 75,000 00
───────
$18,765,073 00
In the second table the various departments of the city government that
are indirectly connected with the repression of crime are mentioned and
only a certain percentage allowed for criminal matters.
Sheriffs of Greater New York, 75 $236,301 50
per cent.
Department of Health, 10 per cent. 248,485 00
for Crime
Department of Charities, 25 per 275,696 21
cent. for Crime
Fire Department, calls for an 4,019,782 75
appropriation of $8,039,565.50. I
find after careful inquiry that
half of the fires in this city
are caused either by wilful or
criminal carelessness. Fifty per
cent. of that appropriation is
spent on crime
Twenty-five per cent. may safely be 600,000 00
allowed for the Criminal Expense
of the City Law Department,
Appellate Division, Supreme Court
and Miscellaneous Expenses
Commissioners of Jurors’ office, 50 53,550 00
per cent. for Crime
Coroners’ Office, 50 per cent. for Crime
79,850 00
Miscellaneous Criminal Expenses in 220,000 00
the Courts of Greater New York
Private Penal Institutions that 250,000 00
receive petty offenders
───────
$24,748,738 46
The Cost of Crime to $6,000,000 00
business men and
corporations in
Greater New York
for Private
Police, Detective
Agencies and
Watchmen
Property stolen and $5,000,000 00
not recovered
Bank losses by fraud 1,500,000 00
───────
$12,500,000 00
Loss in Wages to Families of Men 5,000,000 00
Sent to Prison
───────
Total Amount spent yearly on $42,248,738 46
Correction and Repression of
Crime
The budget for the present year calls for the expenditure of
$156,545,148.14 to carry on the city government. A little more than one
sixth of the money appropriated by the city government for the year is
spent on crime.
Admitting then that the expense of crime touches almost every avenue of
domestic and civic life, the only question is how long our national,
state and city governments can continue to pay such enormous sums for
the maintenance of police, courts of justice and the costliest and most
expensive kind of prisons and penal institutions that money can build
and furnish, without landing the country in irretrievable bankruptcy.
With all the loopholes in the law which favor the murderer, it costs the
city at least $10,000 on an average to send him to the electric chair,
or even to State prison for life.
There are 200,000 criminals in the land to-day, who are a burden on the
taxpayers to the extent of more than a billion dollars a year. But this
loss to the country, as we have already intimated, is incomparable with
the greater loss sustained by the kingdom of God. The work of reaching
these brothers in stripes belongs to the Church, and she should
prosecute it continually till she has brought them to Christ for healing
and saving power.
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CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE AGE OF GRAFT.
We have had our stone age, our iron age and our steel age, now we have
our graft age. This is the age of the political highwayman who makes the
city and her people pay him tribute. This graft comes in the nature of
perquisites, commissions and assessments for the good of the machine and
those that run it. The graft disease first attacked the men in Congress.
The government paid good salaries to all of its servants and even their
mileage. But the railroads wishing large slices of the public domain
sent the members of both houses free passes. After this other big
corporations desiring special privileges were compelled to graft the
legislators or receive no favors. Then the disease attacked our State
law-makers, which in turn made everybody pay tribute to them, especially
rich corporations. To-day, graft is the bane of our Municipal
Government. And Tammany Hall has become the horse leach that cries,
“Give, Give,” and is never Satisfied! Nor is there any need of denying
the fact that we are reaching a period in American history greatly to be
deplored. Whatever may be said of our extravagance and high living, it
cannot be denied that New York is drifting on the Rocks of Municipal
bankruptcy. And the cause of it all is an insatiable desire for money,
for which honest labor is not given.
With New York’s phenomenal increase in population and material
prosperity, since the close of the Civil War, the temptations for money
making have become so numerous, that a Tammany contractor can find more
wealth in paving one of the streets of the city than in a Klondyke gold
mine. As a result the city Government is now in the hands of a gang of
political-grafters, who are able to systematize the business affairs in
the interest of the House of Grafters on Fourteenth Street, and are able
to cover their tracks and “hoodwink” the people.
The amount of money appropriated by the Board of Estimate and
Apportionment as the running expense of the city for the year 1909 is
$156,545,148.14, which is $13,722,089.91 more than was spent last year.
It may be fairly estimated that one-half of this amount is used to pay
salaries of all city employees and the other half the yearly supplies,
such as coal, books, stationery, printing, wagons, fire engines, rents,
etc., etc. From all of the supplies furnished to the various
departments, a commission of from twenty per cent. to twenty-five per
cent. reaches the men higher up, taking a circuitous route to do so, but
it gets there beyond the shadow of a doubt. This money is never given as
a commission, but as a gift to the organization, so as to keep within
the law. In round numbers these commissions will amount to not less than
$12,000,000 a year. No one will deny that nearly all the Tammany
employees of the city government pay into the organization yearly not
less than twenty per cent. of their salaries. Sometimes they are
assessed from five dollars and five thousand dollars, and if they refuse
to pay, they are black-listed and afterwards “bounced.” Twenty per cent.
of graft from the wages of city employees would amount to not far from
$12,000,000 a year.
Then there is enormous graft from the purchase of real estate, school
houses and other buildings for the city, bridges, paving of streets,
sewers, public improvements, etc, etc., $12,000,000 of which will
eventually reach the house of grafters on Fourteenth Street.
We have said nothing about the police graft, which, to use the most
conservative figures, will amount to at least $20,000,000 a year. The
larger part of this reaches the house of grafters and is used for the
purpose of buying elections and paying idle retainers who work for the
organization around a November election. In the collection of this
graft, brewers, malsters, saloon keepers, merchants, builders,
contractors, the great shipping interests of the city, dives, pool-rooms
and baudy-houses all pay tribute. Even bootblacks, cabmen and push cart
men have all to contribute to save themselves from petty annoyances.
Using the most careful figures, from sixty to seventy million dollars a
year is spent in graft.
Gen. Bingham, in a newspaper article, estimates the city graft at a
$100,000,000 a year. Our figures are less as we wish to keep on the safe
side!
Everybody knows that street railroads, gas companies and big
corporations of every name can tear up our streets and leave them in a
dangerous condition for months, but that could not be done without
paying “graft” to some persons!
Nearly forty years ago Boss Tweed got away with something like four
million dollars from the city of New York. This startled the entire
country. But when Mr. Croker went to Europe a few years ago, he is said
by the “Boys” to have taken with him a fortune of fifteen millions cash!
Tweed’s roll looks more like thirty cents alongside of Croker’s, and his
successor, Charley Murphy, shows no signs of poverty thus far. If there
is a bigger grafting institution in the country than this place on
Fourteenth Street, we would like to know where it is.
There are many ways whereby money can be used to advantage in enriching
and bribing city officials in return for favors that the temptations to
use graft are very great. Ordinarily, when we speak of graft, we mean
the payment of money or its equivalent, to some public official or even
a member of his family who is willing in return to perform a dishonest
act or wink at the violation of law. A considerable amount of graft is
received in the form of gifts and tips for favors given indirectly in
one way or another, that cannot be considered criminal. Still no
business man is willing to tip an employee of the city government
without expecting some favors in return.
What the average city official receives as gifts and gratuities are
insignificant compared to what the “big grafters” receive who are the
leaders of our political organizations, from rich corporations and
railroads and for fat contracts, franchises and special privileges which
are worth millions of dollars.
A few years ago the Lexow and Mazet investigators, who exposed this
graft plague in the city government, showed that many persons in the
police department, from the highest officials down to patrolmen, were in
the business for “Graft” and all favors and promotions cost money. It
also became known that a captaincy cost as high as $17,000 to $20,000,
and sometimes much higher. But the bi-partisan political character of
the Board was mainly responsible for this shameful corruption. Under
Gen. Bingham all this was done away, and merit ruled the department.
For several years police officials have been involved in “Graft
Scandals,” and after their retirement from the department were found to
be immensely rich, besides having large real estate interests. This
condition of affairs has gone on so many years that the rank and file of
the force are not satisfied now with their regular salary, and demand
graft for protecting the “gin mill,” the “immoral house,” the pool room
and the “gambling hell,” all of which brings an enormous revenue. In
some cases everybody in the block is called upon to pay tribute, and woe
be to the one that refuses.
A man named G........, from Chicago, who was arrested in the lower part
of the city for intoxication, told me, when he was in the station house,
he could remember distinctly the cop going through his pockets; when he
came to himself next morning he found he was minus a diamond ring and
some bills. The police had relieved him of all his money. When he called
for his money he had his face punched.
There have been times when by the free use of graft, inside information
including secrets that are supposed to be carefully guarded by the
officials in the controller’s office, tax office, corporation counsel’s
office, board of education, office of the coroner and other departments,
have been given away by grafters to men who reaped thousands of dollars
thereby.
A grafting contractor can afford to pay a dishonest municipal employe a
thousand dollars, or even five thousand dollars, for the information
that will enable him to secure the job to build sewers or pave streets,
erect a school house or build a bridge or a reservoir. Often “fake” bids
are made so as to secure the work to a ring of speculators who in the
end reap millions.
The new water works for this city will cost at least $250,000,000.
Tammany Commissioners make fifty dollars a day. If they work twenty-four
days in a month they get $1,200. That is big money to men who are only
laborers in intellect!
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● Transcriber’s note:
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
when a predominant form was found in this book.
○ The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in
the public domain.