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 ON THE 
 
 ENFORCEMENT 
 
 OF LAW IN 
 
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 WHITLOCK 
 
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 ON THE ENFORCEMENT OF 
 LAW IN CITIES
 
 ON THE 
 
 ENFORCEMENT OF 
 
 LAW IN CITIES 
 
 By 
 
 BRAND WHITLOCK 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 The Turn of the Balance 
 The Fall Guy, etc, etc. 
 
 \ 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 Copyright 1910 
 The Golden Rule Publishing Company 
 
 Copyright 1913 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 W»ESa OF 
 
 BBAUNWOHTH & CO. 
 
 BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS 
 
 BROOKLYN. N. Y.
 
 An Open Letter Addressed to 
 
 messrs. julius j. lamson. m. j. riggs. l. v. mckessou 
 f. b. respess. l. e. clark. henry c. truesdall, 
 
 HERBERT P. WHITNEY AND KARL A. FLICK- 
 
 INGER, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE FED- 
 
 ERATION OF CHURCHES, TOLEDO
 
 NOTE 
 
 When this letter was written a few thousand copies were 
 printed in pamphlet form for local distribution, but the gen- 
 eral demand has been so great and so surprising that another 
 and larger edition has been found necessary. It is, of course, 
 gratifying that this is so, especially as it gives opportunity 
 to say that since the first edition of the letter I have been 
 informed that the idea concerning the relation of poverty 
 and drunkenness was expressed many years ago by Miss 
 Frances E. Willard, founder of The Woman's Christian 
 Temperance Union, in a letter to Mr. Stoughton Cooley of 
 Chicago. Miss Willard's statement was to the effect that 
 drunkenness is more frequently caused by poverty than pov- 
 erty by drunkenness. I regret that I did not have it at the 
 time the letter was written, but as with most letters and most 
 speeches, the best things occur to one after the performance. 
 
 B. W. 
 
 25 May, 1910.
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT OF 
 LAW IN CITIES
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT OF 
 LAW IN CITIES 
 
 Gentlemen: When recently you called upon 
 me with a statement of your views of certain phases 
 of the morals of the town, including suggestions as 
 to how those morals might be improved by me, I 
 told you that I would consider your words and com- 
 municate with you. I have considered them and I 
 now reply. 
 
 The subject that you introduce is large, and I 
 wish it appeared as simple to me as it seems to ap- 
 pear to some. It is a subject as old as humanity, 
 as old as the fact of human sin, and to understand 
 it, to discuss it properly or fully, would require a 
 prof ound knowledge of the psychology and of the 
 environment, social, political, and economic, of all 
 peoples in all times. I had thought and read and 
 studied and even made bold to write and speak on 
 
 1
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 these subjects before I became mayor, and since I 
 became mayor I have pondered them still more 
 deeply. I have tried to discover my duty. This, 
 which perhaps seems an easy thing to those who 
 have never had the responsibility, is nevertheless 
 not quite easy, after all. 
 
 I recognize, I assure you, the sincerity of your 
 desire to improve conditions in this city, and in 
 that respect we have a common aim, which is to 
 make Toledo a better city to live in, to provide here 
 a cleaner, wholesomer environment for all people, 
 and to uplift and improve the common lot. The 
 methods which, as it appears to me, are best calcu- 
 lated to bring this end to pass, I hope to make 
 clear in this letter. I should count myself fortu- 
 nate if I could have your assistance in the work I 
 am trying to do, for I believe that therein lies the 
 best, perhaps the only hope of success in what you 
 are trying to do. What I am trying to do, in 
 my personal and official capacity — and I do not 
 believe that a man can so dualize his personality 
 as to do in one what he would not in the other — 
 
 2
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 is to aid in that vast and noble movement toward 
 the people, which, to me, is the most inspiring 
 expression of the yearnings of humanity to-day. 
 This is the movement toward democracy, toward 
 that condition in which the ideals of America, and 
 indeed the ideals of lovers of humanity in all ages, 
 shall be realized. This would mean a nation of 
 free men, it would mean a city of free men, men 
 freed from the bondages which you see enslaving 
 them, men freed from the bondages which I see 
 enslaving them. 
 
 What you regret and deplore and what I regret 
 and deplore, is the existence of vice and crime in 
 the world to-day. You propose to abolish them by 
 the use of force ; in my philosophy they can never 
 be abolished until we ascertain the causes of them, 
 and then remove those causes. To do this, we shall 
 have to undertake reforms with which the policemen 
 and the jailer will have little to do; indeed, the 
 accomplishment of those reforms will do away with 
 the policemen and the jailer, or release them from 
 their present duties of destruction, to real service 
 
 3
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 for mankind. These reforms should eventually do 
 away with those influences in our system which give 
 monopolies and privileges to a tew, and by denying 
 common rights to the many, reduce them to a con- 
 dition of involuntary poverty. For it is involun- 
 tary poverty, and its direct and indirect effects, 
 that produce crime, and our duty is to make invol- 
 untary poverty impossible. To do this we must do 
 away with monopoly and with privilege, and this, 
 as I fully recognize, is a tremendous task, for there 
 are far more monopolies, far more privileges than 
 many suppose. But with these privileges done 
 away, every one will have a chance to do good and 
 to be good, and then, and not until then, will the 
 condition which we all desire come to pass. In other 
 words, I am doing what I can, and that I know is 
 very little, to abolish not merely the symptoms, but 
 the causes of involuntary poverty, which is, as I see 
 it, to stop the source of evil and crime and vice. In 
 the discharge of the duties of the office I hold, I 
 have tried to keep this ideal ever in view; what I 
 do is done in the hope of attaining that end, what 
 
 4
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 I forbear to do Is forborne in the hope of attaining 
 that end. I have tried not to turn aside from the 
 greater, the causal evil, to devote my time and en- 
 ergies to a pursuit of the lesser or consequent evils ; 
 I have tried not to overlook the cause in contem- 
 plating the effect. This much, in the outset, I think 
 it is due to me that you realize and understand. 
 
 It is small wonder that exaggerated ideas of con- 
 ditions in Toledo should obtain, because, when the 
 activities of Mayor Jones on behalf of the people 
 began years ago to menace privilege In this 
 town, privilege did what it always does when pur- 
 sued, namely, it sought to distract attention from 
 itself by seeking to raise other Issues. And when 
 this failed. It began through its various voices, per- 
 sistently and systematically, to traduce the char- 
 acter of the city. This effort, which did, perhaps, 
 influence certain well-meaning persons, had for its 
 object, not the good of the people, but rather their 
 spoliation, and, indeed, the perpetuation and exten- 
 sion of the very forces which produce the evils then 
 alleged. This effort has been exerted in order that 
 
 5
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 the people might be induced to deHver over the city 
 into the hands of those who desire privileges. They 
 have sought to divert attention from themselves 
 and their large immoralities to the smaller offender 
 — an old device, always, in the hope of escape, in- 
 spired by privilege when pursued, just as friends 
 of the fox might turn aside the hounds by drawing 
 the aniseed bag across the trail. From such ac- 
 tions, inspired by such motives, it is of course idle 
 to expect results in improved morals. Men do not 
 gather grapes of thorn trees, nor figs from this- 
 tles, and moral improvement can never be wrought 
 by profane methods. It would, indeed, be difficult 
 to imagine a worse influence on the morals of a com- 
 munity, or a body of actions more debased or de- 
 basing, more evil in themselves, than the cowardly 
 and indiscriminate slander of one's own city, and 
 the wise and prudent can not fail to note, indeed, 
 have noted, with regret that those of whom, because 
 of their wider opportunity of enlightenment, so 
 much better and nobler things might have been de- 
 manded, have not shown as much civic spirit, so 
 
 6
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 much concern for the common weal, as have those 
 of smaller opportunity of whom less would nat- 
 urally have been expected. 
 
 Nor is it strange that there should exist exag- 
 gerated ideas of the powers and responsibilities of 
 the mayor for there is, singularly, an impression 
 abroad in many minds that the mayor, by virtue of 
 his office, possesses some peculiar occult power by 
 which he can make people good. You and I know, 
 of course, that this is not the case. We know that 
 a mayor has no magic wand that he can wave 
 over the city and make it good, and that he has no 
 means of forcing people to be good. And indeed 
 my conception of a mayor's duty is that no such 
 thing is required of him. I, for instance, am not 
 the beadle of a New England village in the year 
 1692, but the mayor of a modern American city in 
 the year 1910, elected not to govern the people, 
 but to represent them, not to bear rule over them, 
 but to carry their will into effect. It is a con- 
 venient device, growing naturally out of an old 
 tendency of human nature, to lay responsibility 
 
 7
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 upon others, and in the matter of morals the mayor 
 seems to have been the one most convenient to blame. 
 And while I regret the evil that exists and have been 
 doing all that I can to prevent it and to substitute 
 good for it in all ways within my power, if the 
 responsibility is to be laid wholly upon me, I assure 
 you that such a reliance must fail. Men are not 
 made good by legal declaration, or by official ac- 
 tion; they are not good because of the fear of 
 poHcemen or of the pains and penalties of the 
 laws. They are good when they follow the best 
 and highest impulses of their souls; goodness is 
 developed from within, and there is no other way by 
 which any one can become good. There are, I think, 
 after all, very few, if any, really bad persons in the 
 world. There are those who do bad things at 
 times, and, in common with all of us, commit many 
 human blunders, follies and mistakes. I think 
 that much of what we call badness arises out of 
 conditions for which the individual is not respon- 
 sible, that men are good largely as they have the 
 chance and the incentive to be good, and that it 
 
 8
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 is our duty to see to it that all men have this chance 
 and this incentive multiplied more and more. The 
 responsibility for the conditions which we all de- 
 plore, therefore, can not rest solely upon any one 
 person, even though he be an official ; it rests upon 
 all, and if we could recognize this fact, and each 
 do his part to improve conditions, it would not be 
 long before a genuine uplift would be felt. This 
 can best be brought about, I think, by seeking out 
 the causes of vice and crime, and then by removing 
 those causes. This would be a large task, but it is 
 a task which should be undertaken, a task which, 
 I believe, mankind must ere long undertake if we 
 as a people, as a city, as a state and as a nation, 
 are to advance. 
 
 In the face of all this exaggeration, however, 
 and despite the slander of the city, the fact 
 fortunately remains that the people of Toledo are 
 peaceable; they love and maintain order. While 
 here as elsewhere, there are, of course, violations 
 of law and many conditions which we wish were 
 otherwise, the people as a whole are as law-observ- 
 
 9
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 ing as any that can be found, and I assert that 
 there is no city, no municipahty, great or small, 
 in Ohio, in America, or in all the world, in which 
 the people as a whole are better or more moral 
 than in Toledo. A certain delicacy might have de- 
 terred me from mentioning the fact that they had 
 recently elected me to the office of mayor, but since 
 you say that you "feel the more wilhng to address 
 me upon this subject" because the people have 
 recently elected me "to the office of mayor with 
 larger authority and responsibility for the enforce- 
 ment of these laws," and thus have introduced the 
 subject, I may be pardoned for saying that — since 
 the same complaints which you now make were 
 made in the recent municipal campaign, as they 
 have been made in all municipal campaigns for a 
 decade, and that in spite of them the people had 
 again, for the third time, chosen me for this office — 
 it might be a not unwarrantable assumption that the 
 people were satisfied upon these points and with the 
 manner in which I had exercised the powers and 
 met the responsibilities of my office. Had they not 
 10
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 been satisfied it might be assumed that they would 
 have needed the advice so freely given and selected 
 some of the other candidates proposed for this po- 
 sition. But I did not wish to speak of that and I 
 do not care to press the point. 
 
 What I had in mind to say was that when the peo- 
 ple elected me to the office of mayor again last fall 
 there was no larger authority or responsibility for 
 the enforcement of law than there had been before. 
 It is true that by a recent amendment to the munici- 
 pal code known as the Paine law, the authority of 
 the mayor and his powers and responsibilities were 
 indeed largely increased, with reference, however, to 
 but one department of the city government. Here- 
 tofore the administrative functions of the municipal 
 government, — all those relating to public works ; 
 that is to the streets, water-works, harbors, bridges, 
 sidewalks, cemeteries, houses of correction, etc., — 
 were vested in an elective board of public service, 
 but by the Paine law the board of public service 
 was abolished and for it there has been substituted 
 a director of public service appointed by the mayor. 
 11
 
 ON THE ENFORCE]\IENT 
 
 This has the effect of making the mayor ultimately 
 responsible for the administration of the depart- 
 ment of public service, or public works, but other- 
 wise excepting only as the elimination of the board 
 of public safety makes for concentration and mo- 
 bility his powers remain what they were with refer- 
 ence to the enforcement of law and to any in- 
 fluence he may have upon the morals of the people. 
 The duties of the mayor with respect to the en- 
 forcement of law were defined long ago, and under 
 these new amendments remain what they have been. 
 Section 129 of the Municipal Code (Sec. 4250 
 and 4548 N. R. S.) says that the mayor 
 "shall be the chief conservator of the peace 
 within the corporation." Section 1746 of 
 the Revised Statutes (Sec. 4248 N. R. S.) says 
 that the mayor "shall perform all duties prescribed 
 by the by-laws and ordinances of the corporation, 
 and it shall be his special duty to see that all or- 
 dinances, by-laws and resolutions of the council 
 are faithfully obeyed and enforced." Section 4549 
 N. R. S. confers upon the mayor within the cor- 
 12
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 porate limits the same power that the sheriff lias 
 "to suppress disorder and keep the peace." These 
 three sections constitute the whole body of the law 
 upon that aspect of a mayor's duty. The oath 
 of office taken by a mayor, so frequently referred 
 to in perfervid discussion, or, as in my case, the 
 affirmation he makes, obliges him to support the 
 constitution and to discharge the duties of the office 
 faithfully, honestly and impartially. 
 
 It will be seen that the three statutes I have just 
 cited, like some other enactments, are not exactly 
 of crystalline clearness, and that they do not de- 
 fine a mayor's duties with that precision and par- 
 ticularity that some have imagined. It is clear 
 that the mayor is to enforce the city ordinances, 
 that he is to maintain the public peace and that he 
 possesses, in his quality of conservator, the magis- 
 terial powers of a justice of the peace. He is not 
 required, as I have said, to be a beadle, or a pub- 
 lic mentor, or a censor of the morals, acts and opin- 
 ions of other people; nor is he to constitute him- 
 self a spy, and to go peeping and prying about 
 13
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 after violations of law. Without undertaking a 
 lengthy discussion of his duties, I presume it may 
 fairly and reasonably be said that so long as a 
 mayor does his best, according to his powers, his 
 conscience, the instrumentalities provided him, and 
 the state of public opinion, to preserve the peace, 
 to enforce the city ordinances, and to suppress 
 public disorder, he is doing what the law requires. 
 There are other officials, of course, charged with the 
 duty of executing the laws, such as the judges, 
 prosecuting attorneys, the sheriff, etc., and there 
 are others who, like the mayor, are conservators of 
 the peace, and while I realize that it is desired to 
 confine this discussion to me, I can not resist the 
 impulse to say that I have often wondered why these 
 other officials have been so completely ignored in 
 the discussions of these subjects with which Toledo 
 is so frequently enlightened. Fortunately, the peace 
 of this city has not for years been seriously 
 menaced or violated and this probably is due not 
 so much to the laws, or to the efficiency of con- 
 servators and other officials or to the presence or 
 14
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 fe<ir of policemen, as it is to the fact that the 
 people are industrious and peaceably inclined and 
 have no desire to engage in brawls or disturbances 
 or to commit breaches of the peace. 
 
 In addition to all this, my duty, according to the 
 fundamental principles of our governmental sys- 
 tem, consists, as I understand it, in carrying out 
 the will of the people of this city, not the best peo- 
 ple alone, not the wisest people alone, not the good 
 people alone, whoever they are, not the people of 
 any one class. This includes, theoretically, those 
 who were opposed to my being mayor as well as 
 those who were in favor of my being mayor ; it in- 
 cludes the bad, whoever they are, and the poor, and 
 all the rest. This is the theory, though of course, 
 practically, I can not carry out the will of every 
 man and woman. I might say, as Carlyle once said, 
 that I have many judges, or, as the old proverb 
 puts it, "He that builds by the wayside has many 
 masters." There are here in Toledo nearly 200,- 
 000 persons, of different tongues, races, creeds, 
 interests, needs, traditions, ideals, views of what is 
 15
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 good and what is bad, what is right and what is 
 wrong, what is wise and what is foohsh, what is 
 expedient and what is inexpedient. They differ 
 on all these points ; each has his own notion of how 
 I should act, each his own conception of my duty, 
 according to his tradition, employment, education, 
 environment, economic condition, etc. They all 
 differ in these respects, they differ in large divi- 
 sions and classes, differ in everything perhaps ex- 
 cept in the great fact of their common brotherhood 
 in humanity — the one preeminent fact unfortu- 
 nately ignored by men. Even you of this committee, 
 who are agreed on certain points perhaps would not 
 agree on all points touching my duty ; how then 
 do you think the matter stands with a whole densely 
 packed population, dwelling together on a few 
 square miles of land, speaking a score of tongues 
 and with all those curious and inscrutable differ- 
 ences that mark a cosmopolitan population? 
 
 There are, to be sure, on the scrolls of the state, 
 and on the books of the city, statutes and ordinances 
 which forbid the commission of certain sins, and 
 16
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 even enlarge venial offenses to the proportions of 
 crimes for the sake of prohibiting them, and hav- 
 ing enacted this legislation society seems to be 
 content because a theoretical remedy has been pro- 
 vided against evil. All that remains, according to 
 the theory, is to "enforce" these statutes and or- 
 dinances, and the evils will vanish, the sins cease. 
 But these remedies are theoretical only. They do 
 not, as I have said, search out the mysterious and 
 obscure causes of crime; they are concerned solely 
 with the symptoms or surface indications of those 
 deeply hidden causes. But, however that may be, 
 these statutes and ordinances can be administered 
 only by human agencies, and in their administration 
 are encountered human obstacles. 
 
 It Is easy to utter words and to employ phrases, 
 such as "law enforcement," etc. In what does the 
 "enforcement" of a law or statute consist? It 
 consists, according to one opinion, in the follow- 
 ing: In a city there is a man, called a mayor be- 
 cause he has been voted into an office by a majority 
 of the people ; there Is another man called a director 
 IT
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 of public safety, chosen by the mayor ; there Is still 
 another man, called a chief of police, selected in a 
 different manner, and there are still others, more 
 numerous, selected in still another way, called po- 
 licemen, who wear garments of a certain color, 
 fashioned in a certain but uniform manner, and 
 fastened by gilt buttons. There are still others, 
 called officials, each with his distinct title, such as 
 judge of the police court, turnkeys, superintendent 
 of the house of correction, guards, jailers, etc. All 
 of these men, though called officials, are nevertheless 
 men, and the only real distinction between them and 
 other men is that they have what Is called "author- 
 ity," that is, there are those called subordinates, 
 who do what they are told to do. Thus the mayor 
 tells the director of public safety to enforce a law, 
 whereupon the director of public safety tells the 
 chief of police to enforce a law, and then the chief 
 of police tells the policemen to enforce a law. The 
 policemen thereupon, seeing an individual violating 
 that law, or hearing that he has violated it, seize 
 him, lead him before the judge, tell the judge that 
 18
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 he has violated the la-w, and the judge tells other 
 men, called b^' different titles, to take the man to 
 the house of correction, and there deliver him, with 
 a paper on which there are certain written direc- 
 tions and the impression of a seal, to a prison 
 keeper, who is to lock the man up for a certain 
 number of daj^s. This process is what is called 
 "enforcing a law," and it is supposed that by it 
 the man who violated the law will be prevented from 
 violating it again and that other men, who have 
 been thinking of violating it, or intend to violate 
 it, will be deterred from doing so and that still 
 other men, who are bad, or are about to become 
 bad, will be kept good. It is considered and be- 
 lieved that this will be the effect, because it has been 
 so stated and written and printed in books. 
 
 Now, whenever the act in which the violation of 
 that law consists is one which the majority of the 
 people do not want to commit, and think it wrong 
 to commit, an act malum in se, as the lawyers say, 
 that is, one in and of itself immoral, and so con- 
 demned by the universal conscience of mankind, then 
 19
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 it is comparatively easy to go through with this 
 process. But when the act which violates that law 
 is venial, and malum prohibitum and would not be 
 wrong in itself, when large numbers of the people, 
 or a majority of the people wish to commit that 
 act or have no objection to others committing it, — 
 such an act, for instance, as playing ball, going 
 to a theater, drinking beer, trimming a window, 
 running a train, or having ice-cream delivered for 
 the Sunday dinner, then it becomes a difficult mat- 
 ter to carry out such a process, and it becomes im- 
 possible to carry out such a process without resort- 
 ing to violence, namely, by rushing policemen here 
 and there in patrol wagons, and forcibly carrying 
 away men and women to police stations, courts and 
 prisons, and when they are out, doing the same 
 thing over again. This process, when attempted 
 on a large scale, is called a "crusade," is invariably 
 accompanied by disorder and tumult, sometimes by 
 riot, and always engenders hatred and bad feeling. 
 Its results are harmful, and it being found to be 
 20
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 impossible to sustain the high pitch of excitement 
 and even hysteria which are necessary to conduct 
 a crusade properly, that is, according to the 
 precedents, as it should be conducted, the enthusiasm 
 of crusading officials soon subsides, other duties 
 are found to demand attention, and so the crusade 
 dies out, is abandoned, and things are worse than 
 before. 
 
 Such a method I have not considered it advisable 
 to adopt. It has been tried, here and elsewhere, 
 again and again, and invariably has failed. It pro- 
 duces no permanent good, and is often more demor- 
 alizing than the conditions it seeks to remedy. It 
 chokes the court with cases accumulated by a resort 
 to those dilatory processes of the law devised and in- 
 tended to safeguard the innocent, and its sporadic 
 character and sensational features but attract at- 
 tention to the evil instead of to the good, and ex- 
 pose, in a manner out of all relation and propor- 
 tion, conditions which exist in all cities, and always 
 have existed in all cities and tovms ; and, further- 
 21
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 more, by overshadowing the good qualities of the 
 city, which are in great preponderance, it gives 
 it an evil and sinister reputation which it does not 
 deserve. 
 
 There is, however, another method that may be 
 employed to enforce the laws. This consists in a 
 determined, sincere, constant effort to correct evil 
 conditions : first, by seeking out and wherever pos- 
 sible removing their causes ; secondly, by steady 
 repression and discouragement; and thirdly, by 
 striving to create a higher concept of life and con- 
 duct. So far as relates to the police this system 
 consists in constant repression by them of the worst 
 and most flagrant evils of a positive character, 
 such as wine-rooms, gambling, disorderly saloons 
 and resorts, etc. This method is one that was 
 adopted by this administration, the one that has 
 been followed, the one that will continue to be fol- 
 lowed until some better system can be devised or 
 suggested. This plan has been carried, in many 
 instances, to the length of placing a police officer 
 in uniform at the door of a disorderly saloon or 
 22
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES ^ 
 
 house, which invariably discourages and in a short 
 while ruins the patronage of the place. Such, I 
 say, has been the policy of this administration. 
 
 I agree with you fully that wine-rooms, 
 gambling, and the social evil, not only in the form 
 in which you complain of it, namely, street-walking, 
 but in all other forms, are indefensibly bad, and 
 that they should be suppressed. I agree with you as 
 to the evils of intemperance and as to all the eyils 
 that proceed from the saloon. And I have tried, 
 by the use of the means at my command, and so 
 far as my powers extend, to do away with them all. 
 I have instructed the police to enforce the ordi- 
 nances against them, and for that matter all the city 
 ordinances. And when your letter came, I referred 
 it to the director of public safety with instructions 
 to investigate the conditions you complained of, and 
 to do all in his power to remedy them. It will no 
 doubt relieve you, as it did me, to learn that your 
 information was not on all points accurate, but 
 there was room for improvement and much of this 
 has been wrought. What has been done, you no 
 23
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 doubt know already, but whether you do or not, 
 I am warranted in saying that the wine-room has 
 been eliminated; and more than this, that the com- 
 bination saloon — if you know what that is — is be- 
 ing abolished; that street-walking has been done 
 away with ; that gambling, at least in those forms 
 that are not purely social, or in accordance with 
 business usages, has been suppressed; that the 
 saloons close promptly at midnight, and that nu- 
 merous saloons and disorderly houses have been 
 forced to discontinue. Much of this had been ac- 
 complished before your letter was presented, some 
 has been done since, and we shall not abate our 
 efforts in this direction ; we shall try to make condi- 
 tions better. The director of public safety knows 
 my wishes and has, and has had for months, my 
 instructions on these points, and he will carry them 
 out. The law is as well enforced in Toledo as it 
 is in any large city ; the moral tone of the town is 
 as good as policemen can make it, and indeed, much 
 better than it could be made by any kind of mere 
 brute force.
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 In all these matters, however, there are diffi- 
 culties which I should like to present to you, and 
 certain reflections which I take this opportunity to 
 express. Take for instance, the subject of the wine- 
 room. I realize fully the evil of wine-rooms, and 
 sincerely and profoundly deplore the fact that they 
 have existed. And I have tried as best I know how 
 to do away with such places. But that has not been 
 easy. It is customary to speak of "wine-rooms" 
 and to use the term "wine-room" as if there were a 
 certain, definite, specific kind of place, easily identi- 
 fied, known to all, referred to by all and accepted 
 by all as a "wine-room" and as such prohibited by 
 and amenable to law. The fact is, of course, that 
 the term "wine-room," in the local vernacular, 
 means a saloon frequented by women as well as 
 men. The saloon, as well as the restaurant, is a 
 legal institution recognized by statute, and the law 
 does not deny women the right to enter a saloon as 
 men do or to drink there as men do, one of the few 
 relations, by the way, in which the law regards 
 women as equal with men. It is easily to be seen, 
 25
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 therefore, that it is difficult to provide legislation 
 that shall regulate this practise and at the same 
 time be constitutional. 
 
 Notwithstanding this fact, this is the first admin- 
 istration in Toledo's history that has made an ef- 
 fort to enact such legislation and three years ago 
 an ordinance was passed by the council in an ef- 
 fort to suppress such places. The legal effect of 
 this ordinance is to define a wine-room as a saloon 
 or restaurant in Avhich there are closed stalls and 
 it makes it illegal for two persons of opposite 
 sex to be alone together in such stall or room. 
 I instructed the police the day the ordinance be- 
 came effective to enforce it; the police have tried 
 to enforce it and to such an extent have they suc- 
 ceeded that I think it may be said that there are 
 at least no saloons In Toledo to-day that are in 
 technical violation of that ordinance. That is to 
 say, there are no saloons with private rooms or 
 stalls, or If there are they are In existence without 
 the knowledge of the police. But, of course, this 
 does not cure the evil. There have been saloons, 
 26
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 possibly are saloons to-day, where women congre- 
 gate with men, where they drink with men, and these 
 places are not confined to what by some are termed 
 the lower strata of society. The police have not 
 been content with trying merely to enforce the or- 
 dinance, but in numerous instances where there 
 have been disorderly saloons frequented by women 
 and men the director of safety or the chief of police 
 has placed an officer in uniform at the door, and it 
 has been found that such a method has been so ef- 
 fective in discouraging patronage that such resorts 
 have been forced to suspend business or else to tone 
 down the demeanor of their patrons and patronesses 
 to a degree more conformable with the usages of 
 higher society. 
 
 That there are in this city, as you state, numer- 
 ous wine-rooms Into which boys and girls are invited, 
 I can not believe. The police have exercised great 
 vigilance in this matter, and are actuated by a sin- 
 cere desire to prevent such atrocious practises. 
 They are doing this. They will continue to do this. 
 And they vill continue to try to suppress wine- 
 27
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 rooms as well as all other disorderly places, and I 
 think that any one who will seek to know the facts, 
 will find that this evil has been greatly reduced in 
 this city. 
 
 Again, when you complain of street-walking, you 
 refer to a condition that has existed in all cities, in 
 all countries and in all times. You bring up a prob- 
 lem here as old as humanity, as old as sin, and I 
 am glad that you regard the men In this respect as 
 being as bad as the women. And you present one 
 phase of a problem which I confess at the very out- 
 set I can not solve, one which I venture to say no 
 man could solve even if he were in my position. The 
 social evil is one with which public officials have 
 contended for ages. It Is one which has been made 
 the subject of countless laws, from the time of the 
 Mosaic code, down to the latest revision of the stat- 
 utes. It has been the basis of the speculations of 
 moralists, philosophers and sociologists. It Is a 
 subject upon which the prophets of old uttered 
 their inspired moralities. But the scarlet woman 
 has survived all manner of edicts and decrees and 
 28
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 whole folios of impotent legislation. She has been 
 made the subject of a dramatic period in one of 
 the imperishable orations of Cato in the Roman 
 Senate. She has evoked one of the most eloquent 
 passages of the famous historian of European 
 morals whose imaginative vision could behold her, 
 while creeds and civilizations rise and fall, the 
 eternal priestess of humanity, blasted for the sins 
 of the people. And the pathetic figure remains, 
 to typify a sad, age-old problem that is seemingly 
 as insoluble as ever. 
 
 The social evil presents Itself in cities in three 
 principal phases : first — I must speak plainly — that 
 of the brothel; secondly, street-walkers; thirdly, 
 women who are supported, often in luxurious sur- 
 roundings, by paramours. Of this last class we do 
 not speak. Society does little more than lift her 
 brows on that phase, and the law there does not in- 
 terfere any more than it interferes with other pros- 
 titutions quite as deplorable, quite as sickening, 
 and far more reprehensible because they are wholly 
 without excuse, namely, those of lawyers and clergy- 
 29
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 men and artists and writers and speakers prostitut- 
 ing their talents in the service of the privileged 
 classes of society for the sake of their favor, their 
 patronage or their reward. 
 
 What you speak of is the second class, the street- 
 walkers. Now there are ordinances wliich pro- 
 hibit this kind of soliciting on the street and there 
 are ordinances which prohibit what is known as 
 loitering on the street. The last offense is one 
 very loosely defined, the enactment is liable to 
 much abuse and, as many lawyers assert, is prob- 
 ably without constitutional validity. Laws seek- 
 ing to regulate, diminish, or extirpate the social 
 evil have been confined almost exclusively to the fe- 
 male. Since the days of Aholah and Aholibah, the 
 man has been guiltless, but the woman has borne 
 her iniquity, and it Is only recently that there has 
 been anything like an acceptance of the truth that 
 there should be an equal standard of morals for men 
 and women. It would be difficult, even for a man 
 possessed of that wide discretion and deep per- 
 spicacity which inhere in policemen the moment 
 SO
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES — 
 
 they get a blue coat on tlicir backs, and a sliield on 
 their breasts, to detect among women on the street 
 at night, those that were of ill-repute ; and it would 
 be still more difficult for them to tell whether the 
 men on the streets at nights were, as you say, un- 
 principled or not. I think it would be very danger- 
 ous to make them thus the silent and irresponsible 
 judges of the motives and morals of people they 
 meet. So we see at once that in this particular ap- 
 plication the doctrine is exceedingly delicate, and 
 about all the police can do is to drive from the 
 streets those women who are known to be conmion 
 prostitutes. And they might arrest men who were 
 insulting females, although it is difficult, because 
 of the modesty of women — some shreds remaining 
 even to the most unfortunate — to secure convictions 
 in this class of cases. Yet this is exactly what the 
 police have been doing, and are doing all the time. 
 Policemen have been detailed in the do\ATi-town dis- 
 tricts at night and they have been striving to keep 
 these women off the streets and they do this by my 
 orders. And I believe that, as a result of that 
 31
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 policy, as I have said, and as the reports show, the 
 down-town streets are free from this condition. 
 
 Do you know that when I said that this had been 
 done by my orders I did not experience any sense 
 of personal elation or satisfaction? The law was 
 responsible, to be sure, but a man does not like 
 to make war on women. Having been driven from 
 the streets, where are these women to go? Are 
 they to be driven out of town ? That would be only 
 to transfer the problem to some other locality. They 
 can not be driven into the river, or put to death, 
 at least any faster than society already drives them 
 into the river or to death. Who will take them? 
 At whose door will they knock for shelter? At 
 whose establishment shall they apply for employ- 
 ment? What are they to do? I'll tell you; they 
 can go either to the river or to the brothel. In 
 either case has the situation been improved? If 
 they select the brothel, their own moral condition 
 certainly has not been advanced, and I doubt much 
 if the general tone of society has been raised. About 
 the only advantage gained is that the calm breasts 
 32
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 of the good men wlio walk the streets arc no longer 
 to be agitated, and a visible temptation has been 
 removed from the young. It seems indeed, and I 
 think that you, as men of affairs, have faced this 
 conclusion, that the modern municipality nmst take 
 its choice. It may drive these women off the streets 
 and into the house with the red light, or it may 
 drive them out of the house into the white light of 
 the street at night. We here are trying to keep 
 these women off the streets. But the condition of 
 these women is to me so abject, so pitiable, and so 
 sad that I have no relish in such work. Somehow 
 the sins of others, the mistakes and the failures of 
 others, can not excite in me that moral indignation 
 which exists in the breasts of some, nor can it in 
 me be artificially provided by an affectation of that 
 impersonal precision, which as it is supposed, should 
 replace in an official all human feeling. 
 
 The only consolation I have in dealing with this 
 
 question is that we have a chief of police who has a 
 
 big heart and has done much good, about the only 
 
 good, I think, that I ever knew an official of the law 
 
 33
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 to do these poor people. After they have been taken 
 to the pohce stations, he personally investigates each 
 case and there are many instances in which, at his 
 own expense, he has sent girls to their homes and 
 restored them so far as might be to a former, better 
 condition of life. And I think it would be worth 
 any one's while some morning to sit with him when 
 he is hearing these sad and sordid tales of broken 
 lives and blasted hopes. It would stir the hardest 
 heart to some human pity, some sympathy with the 
 fallen. 
 
 There is much more that I might say on the sub- 
 ject, much that I should like to say, much that per- 
 haps ought to be said. There is somehow an im- 
 pression that these women and habitues of the ten- 
 derloin are there because they want to be there, 
 that they lead the kind of life they do because it Is 
 happy and joyous. Some speak of It indeed, as If 
 they themselves were deterred from adopting it 
 only by the fear of some future deprivation or pun- 
 ishment, and that for the sacrifice they make here 
 they are to be rewarded appropriately hereafter. 
 34
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 But the fact is that these women are in that condi- 
 tion not because they want to be but because they 
 have to be, because once in it through a mistake, 
 and generally not a mistake of their own, society 
 will not let them seek any other condition or rise 
 to any higher level. As the saying is and as the 
 general belief seems to be, each vvith reference to 
 himself at any rate, they "have to live." How are 
 they to live in our civilization unless they can get 
 money.? And how are they to get money unless 
 they can get a job.'' And what job is open to them 
 other than the one they have,? So long as women 
 are kept economically dependent on men, just so 
 long will this condition exist, just so long will offi- 
 cials and administrations and society have to choose 
 one or the other horn of this dilemma. And until 
 the dawning of a better day in which there shall 
 be equal opportunity for men and women, equal 
 opportunity to find employment and to earn money 
 and to keep what they make, just so long will this 
 class of poor creatures exist In our communities. If 
 a man falls he does not lose his job or his position 
 35
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 in society or his chance of life, and so economically 
 that fact does not drive him either to the river or to 
 the brothel or to the tenderloin or to walk the streets 
 at night to get his bread. In the eyes of society or 
 in the conditions of our civilization it aifects him 
 little, however much it may affect him in his own 
 character. 
 
 But there is another branch of this subject. 
 Many girls who find themselves compelled to make 
 a living are confronted with the impossibility of 
 making that living because the wages paid are too 
 small to live upon. And herein the employer who 
 is grasping profits has a certain responsibility, 
 and while he may evade that responsibility in his 
 own mind or in the minds of others by complaining 
 of the mayor or of the police, I do not think he will 
 be able to evade that responsibility when he faces 
 that God to whom he prays. The recent report of 
 the government on the so-called white slave traffic 
 shows the effect of this cause and bears out a state- 
 ment of the eminent authority, Doctor Sanger, who 
 in his book. The History of Prostitution, says : 
 36
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 "A prolific cause of female depravity can be found 
 in the several tables, showing the description of the 
 employment pursued and the wages received by the 
 women previous to their fall, and it will be a ques- 
 tion for the political economist to decide how far 
 mere business consideration should be an apology on 
 the part of employers for a reduction in their rates 
 of remuneration, and whether the savings of a small 
 percentage in wages is not more than counterbal- 
 anced by the enormous amount of taxation enforced 
 on the public at large to defray the expenses in- 
 curred on account of a system of vice, which is the 
 direct result in many cases of insufficient compensa- 
 tion for honest labor." 
 
 And then there is the more indirect but no less 
 potent effect of the manipulation that goes on un- 
 der the form of law in our country, that subtle 
 process of exploitation and appropriation which 
 makes millionaires of a few and paupers and crlm- 
 mals of many. In the first cold days of winter, the 
 monopolist may raise the price of meat or bread or 
 oil, and in a lordly way give the proceeds of his 
 37
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 facile extortion to charity, and at the same moment 
 and because of what he has done, somewhere in 
 these big cities of ours, some poor girl succumbs 
 and goes out on the streets to get her bread. 
 
 And when we reflect that these women are but 
 women after all, that like their more fortunate sis- 
 ters, they like comfort and fine clothes, it will be 
 seen, I trust, that they are not to be condemned alto- 
 gether and eternally if, in their desire to have these 
 things which they see other women in economic ease 
 and security enjoying to the point of luxury and 
 extravagance, they yield to the temptations every- 
 where about them. To imagine that this condition 
 can be cured or even bettered by the brutalities of 
 prisons, after they have been tried for thousands 
 of years and by all are admitted to have failed, and 
 failed miserably, is absurd. Such methods have no 
 tendency other than to brutalize and embitter their 
 victims, and all the serious students of this subject, 
 all the criminologists. Doctor Alfred Blaschko, 
 Havelock Ellis, and the rest, are agreed that legal 
 restrictions and moral crusades have never influ- 
 
 38
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 enced conditions in the least. We shall never solve 
 this problem by pretending an outraged morality, 
 nor by hounding the prostitute ; we shall never solve 
 it until we open our eyes and see that It Is merely 
 one of the many evils of industrial slavery and legal 
 privilege. 
 
 I might refer to another aspect of this problem 
 and by it show that these same women of Ill-repute 
 have, nevertheless, an important part in our civ- 
 ilization and in our society. If one will trace just 
 where the money goes which they make at such 
 dreadful sacrifice of body and of soul, if one will 
 think of the exorbitant rents that are charged for 
 those squahd tenements in which they lead those 
 lives which seem to impress some as being so happy 
 and luxurious, and reflect that there are gentlemen 
 who are respected and count themselves among the 
 good and eminent of the town, who own the prop- 
 erty where these poor creatures dwell, one will have 
 some deeper reflections and indeed some deeper per- 
 plexities upon this subject. We have had in this 
 town quite recently an example of the very practical 
 
 39
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 manner in which economic changes may effect what 
 are called moral conditions. The board of assessors 
 of real property the other day raised the valuation 
 of realty in that portion of the city called the ten- 
 derloin, that is, the board wisely assessed it accord- 
 ing to its earning power. We all know the sinister 
 implications of the phrase "earning power" in this 
 relation ; we all know what it connotes, we all know 
 its vast implications. And no action taken by the 
 police or by the criminal courts could have the 
 influence for good that this blow struck at the 
 root will have ; this very practical method of ren- 
 dering vice unprofitable, not to its immediate prac- 
 titioners, for they suffer now from it, but to the 
 ultimate recipients of its profits, those higher up 
 in societ}^, to whom all this vice ministers and whom 
 it supports. I do not wish, however, to be under- 
 stood as blaming particularly those who rent places 
 for this purpose. I should be disposed to blame 
 them more, if I blamed them at all, for their public 
 protestation than for their participation in the busi- 
 ness, for they, too, are but the impotent victims of 
 40
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES ^ 
 
 our social system; they can be released from its 
 difficulties, from its pains and from its insidious 
 influences for evil only when all men are released 
 from it. This social system, with privileges for 
 the few, and proscription for tlie many, creates 
 these conditions and these types, and we can not 
 get rid of either, no matter what we do, so long 
 as we continue to produce them. If the director 
 of public safety were to order the police to drive 
 these habitues into some other town or into the river, 
 their places would be promptly filled the very next 
 day by others exactly like them. I think this fact 
 will become clear and patent to any one who will but 
 open his eyes and honestly, fearlessly, look about 
 him. He should be warned, however, before look- 
 ing that the spectacle he is about to behold will 
 reveal society to him in a new light ; a light which 
 will make him inexpressibly sad and seriously in- 
 terfere with his peace of mind for the rest of his 
 days. But it may make him wiser; it may move 
 him to the desire and duty of going to the fallen 
 in the spirit of love, the longing to help and save 
 41
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 them, and I believe that, presently, he will conclude 
 that the best way to help and to save them is to be- 
 gin to reconstruct society so that it shall no longer 
 produce the conditions that condemn thousands of 
 his fellow human beings to such a life, or to such 
 a death, as it is pretty certain soon to be. At any 
 rate, if he does one of these things, he will see 
 why these people are in the tenderloin or on the 
 way there; he will come to see that they are not 
 there because they want to be there, but that they 
 are there because they have to be there, because we, 
 all of us, that is, society, put them there. It is the 
 inequality and the denial of brotherhood resulting 
 logically and inevitably from privilege in our laws 
 that put them there. It is that which makes aU the 
 poverty, all the vice, all the crime in the world, the 
 crimes of the poor and the crimes of the rich. To 
 maintain the economic conditions which produce 
 these effects and put these people in the tenderloin 
 and then to turn around and berate and beat and 
 destroy them, seems to me a bigger crime than any 
 42
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 they have ever committed. It passes my compre- 
 hension how any one can look at them and see how 
 miserable, hoAV poor, how wretched they are and 
 then have any feeling of hatred for them, or wish 
 to hurt them more than we have hurt them already. 
 In one realizing their helplessness, their dumb 
 yearning for life, they must inspire only feelings 
 of prof oundest pity. 
 
 As to gambling, by which I presume you mean 
 those places where men gamble with the forbidden 
 paraphernalia of the professional gambler, I have, 
 as already said, instructed the police to suppress 
 it and I think that they have succeeded in doing 
 this. If there are such places they are surrepti- 
 tiously conducted without the knowledge of the 
 police authorities and if discovered will be abated. 
 I am trying, and have tried and shall continue to 
 try by the use of the means at my command, to 
 continue the suppression of this evil and to put a 
 stop to this form of gambling. That is the policy 
 of this administration, and orders in accordance 
 43
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 with that poHcy have been Issued by the director of 
 public safety to the pohce, are now standing and 
 in force, and, I beheve, are being executed. 
 
 And yet, when you say that in such resorts, wher^ 
 they do exist, "men risk their earnings, thereby im- 
 poverishing themselves and families", I fear you 
 do not fully realize just how our civilization works. 
 It is not the men who earn the money, that is, the 
 laboring men, who gamble. They are too busily em- 
 ployed, and, in general, too honest and too intelli- 
 gent to do this sort of thing. The lives they lead, 
 full as they are of hard work, do not offer the 
 leisure for such dissipation. They have not been 
 contaminated by luxury and do not have to seek, 
 in a gratification of the senses, those forms of vice 
 which appeal to the exploiting class. Gambling, 
 which is just one expression of the spirit of specula- 
 tion that is rife in our land, is not a vice of those 
 who are engaged in productive toil. It is in- 
 dulged in rather by those who live off the labor of 
 others, those who do not earn money but merely 
 gather or appropriate, often by the subtle processes 
 
 44
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 of the law, the money that has been earned by oth- 
 ers. Gambhng is essentially a vice of the idle, and 
 exists only where there is apparent in the upper 
 classes of society that decadence which comes with 
 wealth and luxury, all of which are made possible by 
 those processes of exploitation which take from the 
 man who works and give to the man who docs not 
 work. The wages of workingmcn, it may therefore 
 be said, arc indeed wasted, but not by the working- 
 man himself; they are wasted before he gets them 
 by those who arc living idle lives on the product of 
 his toil. 
 
 But the form of gambling to which you object 
 is not the only one that has existed in Toledo. It 
 is, as I have said, but one expression and it is in a 
 sense, bad though it be, a minor expression, a some- 
 what feeble note of that larger spirit of specula- 
 tion which animates so many in society. This spirit 
 leads a certain few to imagine that government Is 
 made for them and their personal interest and that 
 it should give them the privilege to exploit the labor 
 of the many, to take from them what they produce. 
 45
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 It expresses itself in speculative operations in stocks 
 and bonds and in grain and produce, just as it 
 expresses itself in the gambling that goes on in 
 clubs, in private homes, at the wliist table, at the 
 poker table and on the stock exchange. All of 
 these forms of gambling are abhorrent to me, as 
 they are to you, and I am trying as best I can to 
 do away with them all by seeing to it that the law 
 shall cease giving privileges to the few in the way 
 of franchises for street railways, gas companies, 
 electric light companies, exorbitant tariffs, exemp- 
 tions and the like. These processes represent gam- 
 bling on an immense and sinister scale, and are far 
 more dangerous than any other kind. They have 
 been pointed out over and over again and could be 
 prevented if those who profit by them were ^ot so 
 powerful in our society, so influential with our gov- 
 ernment, so persistent and insidious in their demands 
 and so successful in securing and keeping for them- 
 selves the means by which they exploit others. This 
 is, indeed, "a condition dangerous to public morals 
 and welfare", and while it is not now altogether in 
 
 46
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 violation of law, for the simple reason that these 
 larger and more influential gamblers have made the 
 laws for their own benefit and protection, it "can 
 and should be detected and prevented." 
 
 As to the saloons, the midnight ordinance is being 
 and will continue to be enforced strictly. And, 
 more than this, disorderly saloons the police reg- 
 ulate by that effective process referred to, namely, 
 the placing of a man in uniform at the door. In 
 many cases by these means such saloons have either 
 been forced to become orderly, to maintain quiet, 
 or have been put out of business. And experience 
 has shown that this Is perhaps the most effective 
 method that can be employed under the laws as 
 they exist to-day. You know, of course, that saloons 
 are not licensed In this state because the constitution 
 prohibits it, and, that, therefore, municipal au- 
 thorities have not the means which exist in other 
 states, by revoking licenses, to regulate these re- 
 sorts. The fathers, as they are called, who made 
 the constitution seem to have been opposed to the 
 saloon and so prohibited the state from entering 
 47
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 into partnership with it by licensing it, and such 
 has been the reverence for law in this state that that 
 constitutional provision has not been violated. In- 
 stead of collecting a certain amount of money from 
 each saloon, and giving the proprietor a piece of 
 paper called a "license," which would undoubtedly 
 violate the constitutional provision, the state col- 
 lects from each saloon a certain amount of money, 
 and gives the proprietor a piece of paper called 
 a "tax receipt." By this amazing achievement in 
 legal sophistr}', by thus making a bargain after 
 instead of before payment, by substituting one 
 noun for another, all parties seem to have been sat- 
 isfied, reverence for the constitution remains unim- 
 paired, and, above all, the state can continue its 
 partnership in a business it condemns and in our 
 pregnant modern phrase, "get the money." 
 
 I have shown that all the city ordinances bearing 
 upon the subjects you mention — and all other city 
 ordinances, for that matter — are being enforced ; at 
 least that we are earnestly, sincerely trying to en- 
 force them, and succeeding to a degree beyond that 
 48
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 hitherto achieved in this town. Coming now to tlie 
 statute in reference to Sunday closing — there be- 
 ing, as I shall show later, no municipal ordinance 
 on that subject — I might say with truth, that the 
 saloons probably obey the statutes as strictly as 
 the generality of men or of businesses do; that in 
 general the saloons give a formal observance to 
 this statute, which is as much as many statutes re- 
 ceive, and, indeed, is more than is required in most 
 large cities of this or other states. 
 
 But I do not wish to quibble or to be disingenu- 
 ous, nor do I claim that the ideal or theoretical 
 condition which was in the minds of those who 
 framed this statute has been achieved. In the 
 present divided state of public sentiment it could 
 not be achieved, and the officials therefore must 
 do the best they can under the circumstances. 
 This is one of the most difficult problems with 
 which municipal authorities have to deal and the 
 police have enforced this statute according to 
 the policy of administrative repression already 
 referred to. They have earnestly tried to repress 
 49
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 all open violations and all Indecencies, and in every 
 Instance where complaints have been made of, or 
 attention has been drawn to, disorderly or noto- 
 rious places, the police have acted promptly and 
 many such places have been entirely suppressed. 
 In cases where there have been disorder, or noise 
 or music or activity or even a display of lights, 
 officers have been posted at the door. When it Is 
 considered that at the time I came Into the mayor's 
 office there was little attempt at regulation of these 
 evils, and when that condition is compared with the 
 state of affairs to-day, I think it may be said that 
 an advance has been made. Certainly the peace 
 has been conserved, and Toledo has had quiet Sun- 
 days. This seems to meet the demands of public 
 sentiment, and of the statute itself, as far at least 
 as the responsibility of a conservator is involved. 
 
 But this subject warrants, I think, a more ex- 
 tended discussion than any of the other topics you 
 have broached, for the reason that it raises the 
 whole question of what is generally referred to as 
 the problem of law enforcement in cities. There 
 50
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 are certain statutes intended to compel observance 
 of the Sabbath. They were passed by state legis- 
 latures long ago in all states, and are enforced in 
 none. If there were only one city in the country 
 where they are not observed, the effect might be at- 
 tributed to the laxity of local officials, but the fact 
 is that they are observed and enforced in no large 
 cit}'^ for any length of time and the fact further is 
 that where it has been attempted to enforce them 
 such action has not had the support of the public. 
 I have been a rather close and interested student 
 of American municipal conditions, and I know of 
 no city where these laws have had any but a spas- 
 modic enforcement. I am aware that those who 
 contend that these laws should be enforced base 
 their faith on what seems to them to be logic. They 
 are committed to a syllogism, and they postulate 
 their argument thus: As a major premise, all laws 
 should be enforced ; as a minor premise, the statutes 
 relating to Sunday observance are laws, and as a 
 conclusion, the statutes providing for Sunday ob- 
 servance, therefore, should be enforced. j\Iany speak 
 51
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 as if this were accepted bj everybody and could not 
 be otherwise than accepted by everybody, as if it 
 were impossible that it should be controverted, that 
 all are agreed on this point, and that if any one 
 disputes it he is either hypocritical, cowardly, dis- 
 ingenuous or dishonest. Let us see. The first 
 premise, that all laws should be enforced, is un- 
 doubtedly correct ; the second, that the statutes re- 
 lating to Sunday observance are laws, contains in 
 it the possibilities, at least, of discussion. 
 
 We are led to inquire at this point just what a law 
 is. I shall try to avoid any purely academic treat- 
 ment of this question for I do not care to bore prac- 
 tical business men like yourselves and so shall not at- 
 tempt any review of the several definitions that have 
 been given by jurists and philosophers such as De- 
 mosthenes, Xenophon, Cicero, Hooker, Kant, Sa- 
 vigny, Austin, Hobbs, Bentham, Dernberg, Black- 
 stone and others. A course in their writings would 
 simply lead us to agree with Sir Frederick Pollock 
 in the statement that, "The greater a lawyer's op- 
 portunities of knowledge have been, and the more 
 52
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 time he has given to the study of legal principles, 
 the greater will be his hesitation in face of the ap- 
 parently simple question, 'What is law?' " Such 
 a discussion, while not altogether beside our pur- 
 pose, is unnecessary in this place. In a monarchy 
 the law is the will of the monarch, who used to 
 declare that it was also the will of God. In an 
 aristocracy, the law is the will of a select few — 
 selected, of course, by themselves. In a democracy 
 the law is, on theory, the will of the people or of a 
 majority of them, though even in democracies there 
 are continual attempts, frequently successful, to 
 substitute for the will of the people the will of a 
 very few of the people, who consider themselves 
 wiser, or morally better, or in some other manner 
 superior to other people. That is, the autocratic 
 sentiment strongly survives, and there are those 
 who feel that they themselves and they alone are 
 competent to judge and to say what is best for peo- 
 ple. When, as generally happens, their views are 
 not accepted, they seek to impose them on the people 
 by force — for the people's good, of course. "Man- 
 53
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 kind should be ruled by the good," they say, "and 
 we are the good, and the only superlatively good 
 among mankind." Like the elder monarchs, they 
 say that the will of God must prevail, and when 
 asked how that divine will is to be ascertained, they 
 modestly say, "Ask us, and we will tell you." Or, to 
 quote the sarcasms of Bastiat, who, in opposing the 
 idea that mankind sustains to the legislator the re- 
 lation of the clay to the potter, says, "Happily 
 there are some men, termed legislators, upon whom 
 Heaven has bestowed opposite tendencies [to those 
 of mankind] not for their own sake, but for the sake 
 of the rest of the world. Whilst mankind tends to 
 evil, they incline to good; whilst mankind is ad- 
 vancing toward darkness, they are aspiring to en- 
 lightenment ; whilst mankind is drawn toward vice, 
 they are attracted by virtue. And, this granted, 
 they demand the assistance of force, by means of 
 which they are to substitute their own tendencies for 
 those of the human race." 
 
 But never under any circumstances, do they pro- 
 hibit the acts they themselves wish to commit. It is 
 54.
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 just as Huckleberry Finn said of the Widow Doug- 
 las when she would not let him smoke: "And she 
 took snuff, too; of course that was all right, be- 
 cause she done it herself." 
 
 And yet, there is, after all, no human force greater 
 than this same public will, this mass intelligence, 
 and it prevails, where it knows what it wants, even 
 in monarchies and in aristocracies. It was upon a 
 recognition of this fact, and the principles to be de- 
 duced from it, and by the insistence of this most 
 tremendous of all forces, that democracies were 
 founded, and in America the law is, in theory, the 
 will of the people. 
 
 As we investigate this subject we inevitably come 
 to a point where we see a distinction between a law 
 and a statute, and while no doubt our good Mayor 
 Jones would have been amused to find himself in- 
 cluded among the profound jurists of the world, I 
 think that not one of them all could have given a 
 better definition of what law is in this country than 
 he did when he said, as he used to say frequently : 
 "The law in America is what the people will back 
 55
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 up." There are, I say, differences between laws and 
 statutes. The statute may say anything ; by polit- 
 ical tricks, by maneuvers, by chicanery, by con- 
 trolling party machines, by hiring political bosses, 
 or by bribery it can be induced to say this or that 
 thing, to say that one man or one set of men shall 
 have privileges that no one else enjoys. Sometimes 
 the statutes represent the public will, other times 
 they do not. When they do not represent the pub- 
 lic will, while most men would say that they should 
 be respected and observed as laws, as no doubt they 
 should, they are not, nevertheless, in themselves, 
 laws. Just as there are in nature certain eternal 
 and immutable laws, governing in the field of phys- 
 ics and biology, so are there laws which govern in 
 the field of sociology. We have advanced in the dis- 
 covery of these laws in the realm of physics and bi- 
 ology, but we have not made a similar advance in 
 discovering the laws of sociology, that is, those laws 
 which govern men in their human relations. And, 
 failing to discover these laws, we have attempted to 
 enact statutes, and some of these statutes, no doubt 
 56
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 in contravention of law, have wrought much woe 
 and mischief and have made poverty and vice and 
 crime in the world. 
 
 We have in the history of our country numerous 
 examples of tlic difference between a statute and a 
 law. For instance, before the Civil War a statute 
 was enacted known as "The Fugitive Slave Law," 
 with its several amendments, intended to operate in 
 the Northern states. But these were not laws be- 
 cause they did not represent the will of the people 
 and could not be enforced. People not only violated 
 them, but violated them with impunity, and even in 
 pride, and in the states, legislatures passed acts in 
 contravention and nullification of them, called "per- 
 sonal liberty laws." And it was no doubt a con- 
 sideration of their action that led Emerson, our 
 great philosopher who is so much admired and so 
 little read, to say that "good men must not obey the 
 laws too strictly." 
 
 At this distance of time, and considering the 
 progress of the species, men view that condition 
 with equanimity and complacency, and few could 
 57
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 be found who would condemn those men who placed 
 their faith in a higher law than human statutes. In- 
 deed we honor them and glory in their existence. 
 
 And yet there are other examples, not so lofty in 
 sentiment, which show this force similarly at work. 
 A current example is found in the enactment which 
 requires people to return for taxation their per- 
 sonal property at its full valuation. This is a stat- 
 ute that is universally violated — openly, flagrantly 
 and admittedly. I presume that I shall run little 
 danger of being disputed even if I should risk that 
 form of assertion most easily disproved, namely, the 
 general statement, and say that there is not a man 
 in all Ohio who returns his personalty to the as- 
 sessor at its full value. This is a common universal 
 practise, so generally followed that it does not con- 
 tent itself with the violation of one law, but involves 
 in each instance the infraction of another law, 
 namely, that against false swearing. For not only 
 does each man falsely return his personal property, 
 but he makes oath that this false statement is true. 
 This is the universal practise, so long followed and 
 58
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 so universally acquiesced in that it amounts to a 
 custom in society, and operates as a law in super- 
 session of the statute. And this is done, and not ob- 
 jected to or complained of or even criticized. It 
 would be a dangerous apothegm to assert that in all 
 instances such conduct, even when universal or gen- 
 eral, is justifiable, and I most emphatically do not 
 wish to be understood as asserting any such thing, 
 though I will say that tliis is indeed a foolish and 
 unwise law, based upon an absurd theory of taxa- 
 tion, and, in form, as it has been in fact, should be 
 repealed. 
 
 What I am trying to make clear is that a statute 
 can not be fully enforced in a community where the 
 public sentiment is opposed to it and that where it is 
 attempted to enforce it there oftentimes result more 
 evil than good, more harm than benefit, and that 
 all kinds of disorders and difficulties are brought 
 upon us by that attempt. "Law and order" is a fine 
 phrase, beloved by the Pharisee ; law and order in- 
 deed are loving sisters who present a beautiful spec- 
 tacle of harmony, but statute and order are not al- 
 59
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 ways synonymous, nor indeed compatible. The law 
 in any community is the will of that community and 
 according to my reason and my conscience and my 
 principles, I deem it my duty to be guided by the 
 will of the people whom I represent. 
 
 But let us examine a little further into this mat- 
 ter of law. Inasmuch as authority frequently ap- 
 peals more strongly than mere reasoning, let me re- 
 fer to a book Avith the title of Law: Its Origin, 
 Growth and Function, recently published by G. P. 
 Putnam's Sons. This book contains a course of lec- 
 tures prepared for delivery to the law school of 
 Harvard University and it was precisely the idea 
 that I am trying to present that the distinguished 
 author sought to teach the youth of that respect- 
 able, conservative and conventional institution of 
 learning. He was not a radical, or even a dreamer. 
 He was distinctly and preeminently a conservative 
 citizen, a distinguished gentleman, resident in New 
 York, an ornament of the bar of his own state and 
 of the nation, perhaps the leading corporation law- 
 yer of our times, the late James Coolidge Carter. 
 60
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 And from him let me quote just a few paragraphs 
 that I may give you the Hue of his argument and so 
 support the one I am trying to make. He says (p. 
 14), "The thing and the only thing, sought to be 
 affected by law Is human conduct. Of course in con- 
 nection with human conduct everything which di- 
 rectly bears upon it, including especially the nature 
 and constitution of man, and the environment in 
 which he is placed, becomes part of tlie field of fact 
 to be studied, for these are causes constantly oper- 
 ating upon conduct and affecting It. * * * It 
 may possibly be found that human conduct is In a 
 very large degree self-regulating, and that the ex- 
 tent to which it can be affected by the conscious in- 
 terference of man is much narrower than is com- 
 monly supposed." 
 
 He argues then, (p. 119) that "the conclusion 
 Is clear that habit and custom in each of these dif- 
 ferent conditions furnish the rules which govern 
 human conduct," and the principal function of leg- 
 islation "is to supplement and aid the operation of 
 custom and that It can never supplant It; * * * 
 61
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 its own efficiency Is dependent upon its conformity 
 to habit and custom. What has governed the con- 
 duct from the beginning of time will continue to 
 sovem it to the end of time. Human nature is not 
 likely to undergo a radical change, and, therefore, 
 that to wliicli we give the name of Law always has 
 been, still is, and will forever continue to be Custom. 
 * * * Les-al writers have at all times allowed 
 much weight to custom, viewing it as one, but only 
 one of the sources of law, as if there were some gov- 
 ernmental power standing above custom, the func- 
 tion of which was to pronounce judgment on the 
 wisdom of custom, and select from it the rules it 
 would enforce and reject the rest. * * * What 
 then is wrapped up and concealed in the word cus- 
 tom which we so often employ.? * * * That 
 thing which has held Imperious sway over the con- 
 duct of men of all races, whether savage or civilized, 
 and In all times, can not be low, trivial, or evil. 
 Where is the secret of its power? The simplest 
 definition of custom is that it is the uniformity of 
 62
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 conduct of all persons under like circumstances, but 
 this suggests the question — 'What is conduct and 
 what is its cause?' To answer this without indulg- 
 ing in speculation, but extending our attention to 
 all kno\ni truths ascertained by observation, 
 whether of the world of mind or of the external 
 world, we must avail ourselves of the teachings of 
 the science of Psychology. Conduct is some phys- 
 ical movement of the body and is invariably pre- 
 ceded by some thought or feeling which is its cause ; 
 and this thought or feeling is produced by some 
 operation of surrounding things — the environment 
 - — on the nervous constitution. Inasmuch as the con- 
 stitutions of men in the same society are similar and 
 the environment similar, the thought must be simi- 
 lar and the conduct consequently similar. Hence 
 human conduct necessarily presents itself in the 
 form of similarity — habits and customs." 
 
 The author presents his views in a series of 
 closely-reasoned paragraphs, thus (p. 129) : 
 
 "Law begins as the product of the automatic ac- 
 63
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 tion of society, and becomes in time a cause of the 
 continued growth and perfection of society. So- 
 ciety can not exist without it, or exist without pro- 
 ducing it. Ubi societas ibi lex. Law, therefore, is 
 self-created and self-existent. It is the form in 
 which human conduct — that is, human life, presents 
 itself under the necessary operation of the causes 
 which govern conduct. * * * Inasmuch as conduct 
 is necessarily controlled by previous thought, and 
 such thought is determined by individual constitu- 
 tion, that is, character, and the environment, noth- 
 ing can directly control conduct, which can not 
 control both character and environment. It is not 
 therefore, possible to make law by legislative action. 
 Its utmost power is to offer a reward or threaten a 
 punishment as a consequence of particular conduct, 
 and thus furnish an additional motive to influence 
 conduct. When such power is exerted to reinforce 
 custom and prevent violations of it, it may be ef- 
 fectual, and rules or commands thus enacted are 
 properly called laws ; but if aimed against estab- 
 lished custom they will be ineffectual. Law not only 
 64
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES ^^ 
 
 can not be directly made by human action, but can 
 not be abrogated or changed by such action." 
 
 I now present some further paragraphs from this 
 book, which show the spirit and force of the au- 
 thor's reasoning and commentary : 
 
 "The Written Law is victorious upon paper and 
 powerless elsewhere. The Attorney-General is sens- 
 ible of the feebleness of the command resting upon 
 him to enforce a law, the enforcement of which 
 would send a hundred of the most eminent citizens 
 to jail and throw the industry of the country into 
 confusion" (p. 213). 
 
 "The popular estimate of the possibilities for 
 good which may be realized through the enactment 
 of law is, in my opinion, greatly exaggerated. 
 Nothing is more attractive to the benevolent vanity 
 of men than the notion that they can effect great 
 improvement in society by the simple process of for- 
 bidding all wrong conduct, or conduct which they 
 think is wrong, by law, and of enjoining all good 
 conduct by the same means ; as if men could not 
 find out how to live until a book were placed in the 
 65
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 hands of every individual, in which the things to be 
 done and those not to be done were clearly set down" 
 (p. 221). 
 
 "The principal danger lies in the attempt often 
 made to convert into crimes acts regarded by large 
 numbers, perhaps a majority, as innocent — that is 
 to practise what is, in fact, tyranny. While all are 
 ready to agree that tyranny is a very mischievous 
 thing, there is not a right understanding equally 
 general of what tyranny is. Some think that tyr- 
 anny is a fault only of despots, and can not be 
 committed under a republican form of government ; 
 they think that the maxim that the majority must 
 govern justifies the majority in governing as it 
 pleases, and requires the minority to acquiesce with 
 cheerfulness in legislation of any character, as if 
 what is called self-government were a scheme by 
 which different parts of the community may alter- 
 nately enjoy the privilege of tyrannizing over each 
 other. The principal evils of legal tj'ranny aris6 
 from the instrumentality which it employs, which is 
 always force" (p. 246). 
 
 66
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 "When a law is made declaring conduct widely 
 practised and widely regarded as innocent to be a 
 crime, the evil consequences which arise upon at- 
 tempts to enforce it are apt to be viewed as the con- 
 sequences of the forbidden practise, and not of the 
 attempt to suppress it ; and it is believed that the 
 true method of avoiding, or doing away with, these 
 consequences is to press the efforts at enforcement 
 with increased energy. But when a mistake has 
 been made, its consequences can not be avoided by a 
 more vigorous persistence in it. The best means of 
 inculcating caution in this employment of criminal 
 legislation is to have clearly in mind its evil conse- 
 quences. The species of criminal legislation to 
 which sumptuary laws belong furnishes an apt il- 
 lustration of them. * * * Besides the desire 
 of doing good, the selfish determination is formed 
 of carrying out a purpose, and the purpose comes 
 to seem so important that no inquiry is made con- 
 cerning the means except to consider what will be 
 most effective. It suits the judgment of some and 
 the temper of others to convert the practises they 
 67
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 deem so mischievous into crimes and they think that 
 if nothing else will prevent indulgence in them, the 
 fear of heavy punishment will at least be effective, 
 and indeed many tliink that the force of law is so 
 great that the mere enactment of a prohibition will 
 accompany the desired end, and all are inclined to 
 believe that even if the laws are ineffective for the 
 purpose for which they were enacted, they will at 
 least do no harm. But men forget that their acts, 
 whether in enacting and attempting to enforce writ- 
 ten laws, or of whatever other nature, are subject 
 to the great law of causality and will draw after 
 them their inevitable consequences. The law when 
 enacted will not execute itself. It requires the active 
 interposition of man to put it in force. Evidence 
 must be found and prosecutions set in motion, and 
 as this is a task in which good men are commonly 
 found to be unwilling, or too indolent, to engage 
 voluntarily, others must be sought for who will 
 undertake it. The spy and informer are hired, but 
 their testimony is open to much impeachment, and 
 is met by opposing testimony often false and per- 
 68;
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES ^ 
 
 jured. The trials become scenes of perjury and 
 subornation of perjury and juries find abundant ex- 
 cuses for rendering verdicts of acquittal or persist- 
 ing in disagreements, contrary to their oaths. The 
 whole machinery of enforcement fails, or, if it suc- 
 ceeds at all, it is in particular places only, while in 
 others the law is violated with impunity. * * * 
 "An especially pernicious effect is that society be- 
 comes divided between the friends and the foes of 
 repressive laws, and the opposing parties become 
 animated with a hostility which prevents united ac- 
 tion for purposes considered beneficial by both. 
 Perhaps the worst of all is that the general regard 
 and reverence for law are impaired, a consequence 
 the mischief of which can scarcely be estimated. 
 * * * What a spectacle is thus afforded of the 
 impotence of man's conscious effort to overrule the 
 silent and irresistible forces of nature ! He wholly 
 fails to gain the object in view; but objects not in 
 view, and by no means desired, are brought about 
 on the largest scale * * * law and its admin- 
 istration brought into public contempt, * -* * 
 69
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 animosity created between different bodies of citi- 
 zens, rendering them incapable of acting together 
 for confessedly good objects!" (p. 247). 
 
 I shall conclude the quotations from Carter's 
 great work by the following (p. 251 ) : "I do not 
 hesitate to say that any legislation which bears the 
 characteristics of tyranny, as I have defined that 
 term, is vicious in theory and has never yet suc- 
 ceeded, and never will succeed, in gaining its 
 avowed end, or in having any other than an injuri- 
 ous effect ; and I venture to add that if the zeal and 
 labor which have been employed by what are called 
 the better classes of society in efforts to enact and 
 enforce laws repressive of liberty, had been ex- 
 pended in kindly and sympathetic efforts to change 
 and elevate the thoughts and desires of those less 
 fortunate than themselves, a benefit would have 
 been reaped in the diminution of misery and crime 
 which compulsory laws could never accomplish. 
 Moral ends can never be gained except by moral 
 means. All the advances in civilization and morality 
 which society has thus far made are due to the cul- 
 70
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 tivation and development of those moral sympathies 
 which find their activity in cooperation and mutual 
 aid." 
 
 This same theory has been set forth, more briefly, 
 and perhaps at a higher range of philosophic 
 thought, by Emerson, who, in the opening para- 
 graphs of his essay on "Politics" says : 
 
 "Republics abound in young civilians who be- 
 lieve that the laws make the city, that grave modi- 
 fications of the policy and modes of living and em- 
 ployments of the population, that commerce, educa- 
 tion and religion may be voted in or out ; and that 
 any measure, though it were absurd, may be im- 
 posed on a people if only you can get sufficient 
 voices to make it a law. But the wise know that 
 foolish legislation is a rope of sand which perishes 
 in the tw isting ; that the State must folloAV and not 
 lead the character and progress of the citizen ; the 
 strongest usurper is quickly got rid of; and they 
 only who build on Ideas, build for eternity ; and 
 that form of government which prevails is the ex- 
 pression of what cultivation exists in the population 
 71
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 which permits it. The law is only a memorandum. 
 We are superstitious, and esteem the statute some- 
 what ; so much life as it has in the character of liv- 
 ing men is its force," 
 
 It is difficult to resist the temptation to quote at 
 greater length, and from other writers on this sub- 
 ject, but I must forbear. I trust, however, that 
 enough has been said to set forth this theory, and 
 therefore, I shall pass to the practical application 
 of it to our present situation. 
 
 Bearing in mind, then, the distinction between a 
 law and a statute, we find that the basis of the stat- 
 ute for Sunday closing of saloons, is not, as will be 
 at once apparent, the saloon, nor is its chief object 
 the promotion of temperance. It was not conceived 
 in the belief that saloons are, in and of themselves, 
 bad. It was not primarily concerned with that prob- 
 lem, for saloons were allowed on other days of the 
 week. It was but one of several statutes, one pro- 
 hibiting "sporting, rioting, quarreling, hunting, 
 fishing, or shooting on Sunday," another "theatri- 
 cal or dramatic performances," or "any equestrian 
 72
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 or circus performance of jugglers, acrobats, rope 
 dancing, sparring exhibitions, variety shows, negro 
 minstrelsy, living statuary, ballooning, or any base- 
 ball playing, or any ten pins, or other games of 
 similar kind or kinds," another the engagement "in 
 common labor" or the opening of "any building or 
 place for the transaction of business," and still an- 
 other providing a punishment for any one "who 
 shall require any person in his employ or under his 
 control to engage in common labor," on Sunday, 
 and the only activities excepted are, according to 
 the statute, "works of mercy or necessity," and, ac- 
 cording to the courts, "intellectual labor," — the lat- 
 ter exception, no doubt, more likely than the for- 
 mer, inspired by the lawyers. The basis of all this 
 legislation was the contention that the Sabbath 
 should be observed, and its object was to enforce the 
 observance of the Sabbath, that is, to enforce an ob- 
 servance of the Sabbath in a certain way, devised 
 by the Puritans, brought by them to this country, 
 and handed down to and impressed upon their de- 
 scendants. In any community composed of people 
 73
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 among whom the Puritan Ideals and traditions pre- 
 vail, the enforcement of such statutes was easy, be- 
 cause there was a general wish to observe them, and 
 the other tendency was an exception ; they repre- 
 sented the will of the people, they were in conform- 
 ity with their customs and habits and employment, 
 they were, in a word, law. 
 
 But America was not for the Puritans or their 
 descendants alone, it was for all men, and there 
 came here others, of a different tradition, of other, 
 less severe, and In some respects, more cheerful 
 ideals, people of different customs and habits and 
 ways of viewing life. They wished to observe the 
 Sabbath in a different manner. So here, a first diffi- 
 culty arose. A second presents itself upon the ap- 
 pearance of another powerful factor, namely, the 
 economic aspect which the problem assumes. In 
 dealing with what are called moral problems, we are 
 only beginning to take Into consideration the influ- 
 ence of economic conditions In determining human 
 conduct. This mode of observing the Sabbath, and 
 the statutes enacted to enforce it found their rise 
 74
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES ^ 
 
 in purely agricultural communities. Men, accus- 
 tomed to work out-of-doors all the week, coming at 
 last wearily to a day of rest, were quite ready and 
 willing to spend that day indoors. For rest, pri- 
 marily, is change, and men who have been out-of- 
 doors all week find a change within doors. Conse- 
 quently the statutes relating to Sabbath observ- 
 ance were the more easily and readily accepted by 
 the people, because, aside from any considerations 
 of religion or piety, they were in conformity with 
 their impulses, their desires, and their necessities. 
 In the city, however, a different state exists. Here 
 the conditions of employment are such that men, 
 for the most part, are indoors all the week, and 
 when the day of rest comes, they, or at least those 
 to whom it does come, naturally as their country 
 cousins went indoors, seek recreation in the open 
 air. Again, when we reflect upon the Intensity of 
 the modern struggle for existence, the rigorous de- 
 mands made upon the vital forces of men in the eco- 
 nomic conflict, the long hours of toil In close and 
 often ill-ventilated shops, stores and factories, the 
 75
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 nervous strain, the risk and danger in operating 
 machines, it will be seen that some relaxation is nec- 
 essary, and this fact, more than any other, explains 
 the search for amusement, the theater, the ball game 
 and all that. These things become a necessity under 
 the economic conditions of to-day. The saloon, it Is 
 true, stands upon somewhat different grounds, yet, 
 where the resort to it can not be explained on the 
 ground of real or fancied social necessity, it being 
 the only public place where many men may meet 
 freely as equals and enjoy one another's society, It Is 
 found to be due to the necessity for stimulation de- 
 creed by this same insatiable machine, which, by 
 hausting men's bodies in the mad greed for profits, 
 drives them to stimulants in an impulsive effort to 
 restore their wasted forces and exhausted bodies. 
 And beyond all this, deeper, sadder, more pathetic 
 far than all this, is the fact that thousands by so- 
 ciety's grim machine are driven to drink by poverty, 
 quite as often as they are driven to poverty by 
 drink. Indeed, I think that Mr. Tom L. Johnson 
 spoke the truth when he said "that there are more 
 76
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 people wlio drink because tlicy are miserable, than 
 there are people who are miserable because they 
 drink." 
 
 The Sabbath realized by our Puritan ancestors 
 has been altered by the conditions of our economic 
 system. And if, as is often said and the fact de- 
 plored, the Sabbath has been destroyed it has been 
 commercialism that has destroyed it. I have al- 
 ready tried broadly to indicate how the necessities 
 of making a living under our present conditions 
 have affected the customs and habits of men. Spe- 
 cific instances might be given which show how di- 
 rectly and positively the Sabbath has been wrested 
 away from the people. It is a common thing in our 
 cities to see large stores closed on Sunday, the cur- 
 tains duly drawn, and the employees, some of them 
 at least, thus granted a day of rest and recreation. 
 But meanwhile all over the land there are freight 
 trains running, and engineers, firemen, conductors, 
 brakemen, switchmen, flagmen, despatchers, truck- 
 ers, and numerous other employees, toiling long 
 hours at hard and dangerous labor, to rush goods 
 77
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 to those emporiums by Monday morning. Now, it is 
 not fair to lay the blame of this condition on the 
 proprietors for they can not help it. They, like the 
 men and women working for them, are in the grip 
 of the commercial machine, and can not escape. All 
 they can do is to use their undoubted influence to 
 bring about conditions of toil less onerous to the 
 masses, and, abandoning the efforts to have statutes 
 passed and enforced to make men good by compel- 
 ling them to observe the Sabbath, see to it that more 
 fundamental statutes are so altered and amended 
 that every man will have the same chance, the same 
 opportunity, to be good that they have. Men can 
 not be forced to be good, but they will become good 
 if given the opportunity of enlightenment. I do not 
 wish to be understood, in what I have here said, as 
 saying that the Puritan method of observing the 
 Sabbath is the correct one, or that it is not the 
 correct one. How the Sabbath should be observed is, 
 I think, a question that should be left to the indi- 
 vidual conscience. I am speaking only of a fact, of 
 a condition that does actually exist, here and every- 
 78
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES -^ 
 
 where. Nor do I wish to be understood, or repre- 
 sented, as advocating any kind of nullification of 
 state statutes. I am simply trying to make clear the 
 human obstacles to an absolute enforcement of all 
 statutes that exist in these modern cities of ours. 
 
 There are on the statute books, federal, state and 
 local, something like sixteen thousand statutes, and 
 to enforce all of these, absolutely, all the time, is of 
 course, to any mind but that of the theorist and the 
 doctrinaire, absolutely impractical and impossible. 
 An executive must do the best he can, with the 
 means at his command, according to the light he 
 has. In doing this, he can not, of course, satisfy all 
 men ; if he could be imagined as absolutely enforc- 
 ing all these thousands of statutes all the time, he 
 would satisfy no one, but succeed only in dissatis- 
 fying and provoking all, for at some time or an- 
 other every man no doubt must violate some of these 
 statutes, and as no man ever, under any possible cir- 
 cumstances, wishes the law enforced against him or 
 his relatives or friends, it is clear that no man really 
 believes that all laws should be enforced all the time. 
 79
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 Even you, in your suggestions as to more rigorous 
 enforcement of the statutes relating to Sabbath ob- 
 servance, do not insist on the enforcement of them 
 all. You select out of the number, but one, namely, 
 that relating to the saloons. The others, those pro- 
 hibiting baseball, for instance, or sporting, or other 
 games, or keeping open stores, or the performance 
 of or profiting by common labor, you omit. You do 
 this, I venture to say, because you know from ex- 
 perience and observation, from your knowledge of 
 men and of the world, and above all, from your per- 
 ception and recognition of the custom and habits 
 and necessities of the community, that their enforce- 
 ment would be impractical, and indeed impossible, 
 without bringing on tumult, and riot, and a whole 
 train of evils much worse than the violation of these 
 statutory regulations could possibly be. That is to 
 say, you allow a certain discretion in the adminis- 
 tration of these statutes, measured by the state of 
 public sentiment and the degree of conformity 
 thereto by custom. You come to the very point at 
 which all who give deep consideration to the prob- 
 80
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 lem inevitably arrive, namely, that these statutes 
 can be made applicable to human conduct, only in 
 the way of auxiliary aids, they may guide it, to a 
 degree regulate it, and perhaps educate and influ- 
 ence it, but they can never control it. 
 
 We had a striking illustration of this whole truth 
 only recently when Judge Wachenheimer sought to 
 enfoi'ce certain laws against certain citizens. Do 
 you not remember the objection that Avas made, the 
 outcrj'- that was raised.'' And do you not remember 
 that when Judge Wachenheimer came up for re- 
 election he was defeated.^ This fact shows, I think, 
 first, that all men do not believe in the enforcement 
 of all laws all the time, and secondly, that a statute 
 is not law merely because it is on the statute books. 
 In the last few years, during a period of agitation 
 and searching criticism, numerous efforts have been 
 made by prosecutors to punish certain rich and re- 
 spectable men for their violations of statutes, and 
 yet, notwithstanding all the agitation, all the effort, 
 here and all over the land, there are few instances, 
 as far as I know, of a prosecutor who succeeded in 
 81
 
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 putting any of these men in prison, and not one sin- 
 gle instance in which the people sustained him for 
 doing so or for attempting to do so. It is undoubt- 
 edl}^ not 3'et a custom for society to punish the acts 
 which those statutes, that Wachenheimer, Heney 
 and Folk and the other brave prosecutors sought to 
 enforce, were enacted to punish, it is not a law; 
 these acts are inextricablj^ woven and interwoven 
 into the fabric of our industrial system, they can 
 not be separated from it, nor can their evils be 
 avoided, until the whole fabric is renovated and re- 
 newed. And until that is done it will continue to 
 be customar}^ to maintain one law for the rich, and 
 another for the poor, certain men will be let alone, 
 and certain men punished, and until another ideal 
 and another system shall prevail, courts and prose- 
 cutors will be powerless to convict. I would not have 
 you understand me as wishing to see these men, or 
 for that matter, any men, in prison ; for my wish 
 is the exact opposite to that. I do not pretend to 
 judge men; I am not wise enough to know what 
 justice is, in any case. I agree, indeed, with Mr. 
 82
 
 OF J. AW IN CITIES ^ 
 
 W'illiuiu Dean IIuwlH.s, in llie belief tliat : "It 
 seems best to be very careful liow we try to do jus- 
 tice in this world, and mostly to leave retribution 
 of all kinds to God, who really know\s aljout things; 
 and content oursolves as much as possible with 
 mercy, whose mistakes are not so irreparable." 
 
 I say all this merely in the attenijit to show you 
 some of the difficulties of my position, some of the 
 obstacles which an executive encounters, and to 
 make clear how very difficult it is to give to a statute 
 the vitality of a law unless the public sentiment, the 
 custom and habit of the people, run in the same di- 
 rection. And I seek also to make clear the fur- 
 ther fact that io me it seems to be my duty to be 
 guided ])y tiie will of tiu; pcoph; of Toledo. The 
 people elected me, I am responsible to them, and I 
 have tried to In* true to them. For me to employ 
 force to C(jiiib;i.l ihelr will would savor of tyranny, 
 and I ])av<; neither ih<; iiicliii;U,ion mjr the character 
 of a tyrant. 
 
 In l^'ebruary, 1898, Sanmel M. Jones was mayor 
 (jf Toledo. Then as since, there was criticism of 
 83
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 the mayor ; it was said by some that he did not en- 
 force stringently enough the sumptuary laws. In 
 order to test sentiment INIaj^or Jones ordered the 
 most rigid enforcement possible of all the statutes 
 and ordinances intended to compel Sunday observ- 
 ance. This was done for one, possibly two, Sun- 
 days. And this was the result : on the Monday 
 evening following, namely, on the 14 February, 
 1898, the council, the direct representatives of the 
 people, repealed every ordinance on the books of the 
 city providing for Sabbath observance. Those 
 ordinances have never been reenacted, and that vote 
 is the last legally recorded and authoritative expres- 
 sion of the representatives of the people of this 
 town on that subject. 
 
 I say that was the last expression of the people 
 of this town on that subject. It was not, perhaps, 
 strictly the last. Every time Mayor Jones ran for 
 mayor, that issue was raised. Every time I have 
 run, that issue has been raised. And every time 
 that issue was raised Mayor Jones was reelected; 
 every time that issue was raised, I have been elected. 
 84
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 Mayor Jones used to say that he thought he had 
 fairly represented pubhc sentiment in these matters, 
 and fairly administered the law in accordance with 
 that sentiment, and I think that I am perhaps fairly 
 representing the will of the people, fairly adminis- 
 trating the law here. 
 
 The city, as we arc slowly coming to understand, 
 is an elemental thing. Its densely compacted 
 masses take on some of the quahties of the hive, 
 displaying vast inherent differences from scattered 
 populations. The city has an individuality, a per- 
 sonality-, and its unique conditions, employments, 
 customs, habits, necessities, create a whole body of 
 problems which demand distinct study and separate 
 legislative treatment. While it has its part and its 
 interest in the state, it nevertheless has problems of 
 its own, and from the failure to recognize this fact, 
 have arisen most of the conditions which cause 
 many of us concern, and some, indeed, to despair. 
 While humanity in the cities is not fundamentally 
 diflferent from humanity elsewhere, it has the espe- 
 cial needs of a different environment. The large 
 85
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 body of the laws and statutes have the same appli- 
 cation, and find as ready observance in the city as 
 elsewhere. But that different localities require dif- 
 ferent regulations in certain small respects, I think 
 there is little doubt. We have had here, in our own 
 town, in the instance I have just cited, an illustra- 
 tion of this. There is an adage to the effect that 
 the way to repeal an obnoxious or unpopular law 
 is to enforce it ruthlessly. This is so when those 
 upon whom the obnoxious law is enforced, have the 
 power, through representatives they themselves 
 elect, to repeal it. When the case is otherwise, it 
 is not so. The state legislature passes certain statutes 
 that attempt to regulate the customs, diversions, 
 sports and appetites of people in the cities. If rigor- 
 ously enforced the people in the cities even if they 
 desired, could not repeal them, for they are repre- 
 sented by a minority in the legislature. Each at- 
 tempt of an executive to enforce those regulations 
 would be met only by renewed applause from those 
 who pass them and with whose habits of Hfe they do 
 not seriously interfere, but they would be Intoler- 
 86
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 able to those upon whom their penalties were visited, 
 those who had elected their executive to represent 
 them, and not others. And many instances could be 
 cited, in which city populations, resenting what to 
 them savors of tyranny, have defeated administra- 
 tions which were working out admitted reforms, of 
 larger character and more fundamental significance. 
 One of the cures for these ills, as I see it, is, first, 
 to give the cities the power of local self government, 
 or home rule, as it is usually called. Then the peo- 
 ple of cities, in the regulation of their affairs, can 
 on matters of purely local concern, make their own 
 police regulations. This would insure a more posi- 
 tive and uniform observance of the law, and would 
 do away with much of that disrespect of statutes 
 which now exists. 
 
 The city must afford wider opportunity for 
 rest and recreation ; it must replace evil by sub- 
 stituting good, by providing wholesome, enno- 
 bling and elevating entertainment. A beginning 
 has already been made in the parks, and to these 
 should be added comfort stations, branch libraries, 
 87
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 band concerts and other music, public baths and 
 swimming pools, playgrounds for the children and 
 the grown-up alike, with ample opportunity for 
 indoor and outdoor sports. The school buildings 
 should be freely used by all the people, and noble 
 public edifices should be erected, in which the peo- 
 ple could take pride and delight. Then shall we 
 have the beginnings of a healthy and an efficient de- 
 mocracy. And, of course, by methods of wider ap- 
 plication, as I have said so often in these pages, 
 we should do away with the causes of crime by an 
 improvement in industrial and economic conditions. 
 This can not be done by the mere enactment of stat- 
 utes, but, perhaps slowly, gradually, by the discov- 
 ery and application of juster principles, and by the 
 upward urge of humanity as it becomes more en- 
 lightened, this great good may be brought to pass. 
 The city is, indeed, the cradle of civilization. If it 
 has shown humanity at its worst, it has also shown 
 humanity at its best ; if it has shown the lowest des- 
 pair, it has also raised the highest hopes, and its 
 contributions to science and literature and art have 
 88
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 been the most noble and brilliant achievements of 
 men. It is to-day the hope of democracy, and if it 
 be set free, I am sure that by the harmonious proc- 
 esses of liberty, it will become the triumph of 
 democracy. 
 
 I am aware that this letter is already much too 
 long. It has been written in those moments which I 
 could find amid all the duties and the problems that 
 daily perplex me. I have written in all kindness 
 and in all sincerity. I respect your views and I 
 sympathize with your aims for I know that you 
 have no desire other than to make a city and a world 
 better for men to dwell in. I have tried to make it 
 clear that I desire no less than you, and according 
 to the light that has been given me, I have tried to 
 discharge my duties so that this good purpose may 
 be advanced. This whole problem has been one to 
 which I have given, I beg you to believe, not a little 
 study. Looking out over the world, I have seen 
 the sin, the poverty, the suffering, the shame of mil- 
 lions of wretched men and women, and little chil- 
 dren, living in darkness and squalor, and vice and 
 89
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 crime, with no light, no hope, no joy in hfe, and the 
 spectacle has been one inexpressibly sad. I have 
 wondered how it all came about. I have struggled 
 to comprehend it, sought to discover the cause of it. 
 And I have tried to find some life concept, some 
 light by which to be guided; and above all, some- 
 thing that I could do to make conditions a little 
 better. Religion teaches that all men are the chil- 
 dren of one common, all-loving Father, and therefore 
 brothers ; our nation has proclaimed to humanity 
 in its fundamental law that all men are equal. And, 
 as I have looked out upon the world, and witnessed 
 the spectacle of misery, heard the long sad litany 
 of human woe, I have seemed to see that it was all 
 because we had lost faith in these precepts, that we 
 are living lives, administering government, and all 
 that, in a manner that traversed the claim of human 
 brotherhood, and denied flatly the proposition of 
 human equality. Looking more deeply, I have seen 
 that our governments have abandoned the principle 
 that all men are endowed with equal rights, and have 
 adopted the theory that some are entitled to more 
 90
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES ^ 
 
 rights than others, and that accordingly, a few are 
 to be selected and favored by privileges, and that all 
 others are to be proscribed and compelled to toil, 
 and to give the proceeds of their toil to the few 
 privileged ones. As a result of all this, there have 
 been idleness and viciousness and crime in the priv- 
 ileged, and those who have been proscribed and 
 denied equal rights have been driven to poverty and 
 hunger, and despair, and thence have come, natur- 
 ally, logically, inevitably, vice and crime in them 
 and their children. Tliis condition is a blasphemous 
 denial of religion ; it is treason against our theory 
 of government. And it has seemed to me that there 
 was no other thing for me to do than to try, by 
 the use of such poor powers and such small talents 
 as I may possess, to aid and advance that cause 
 which seeks to do away with privilege in the land, 
 and to bring about equality and brotherhood. This 
 is the oldest, as it is ever the newest, cause in the 
 world. Those who have enlisted In it, even the most 
 obscure of them, have found that it demands sacri- 
 fice, and yet those sacrifices or any sacrifices are im- 
 91
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 measurably outweighed by the consolations that 
 come with the mere effort to serve humanity. They 
 find, indeed, a greater solace and a greater satis- 
 faction than any of which they had ever dreamed. 
 Life has a new meaning, existence a nobler aim, 
 for in this old cause men come into better and more 
 beautiful relations with their fellow men, especially 
 with those who are suffering and sinning in dark- 
 ness and misery, and they can look forward with 
 hope to that day when conditions will permit all 
 men to live equal and brotherly and beautiful lives. 
 In this cause, the one for which all the sacrifices 
 of the past have been made, the one in which all the 
 long line of prophets and martyrs and poets have 
 enlisted, the one in which the hope of the future 
 rests, men learn a new philosophy. In that philoso- 
 phy, all crime, all evil, all sin, are as abhorrent on 
 Monday, or on any other day of the week, as on Sun- 
 day. They are abhorrent by whomsoever commit- 
 ted, whether rich or poor, high or low. Drunken- 
 ness, be it in a squalid or in a luxurious environ- 
 ment, is abhorrent to it. The prostitution of a man 
 92
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES ^^ 
 
 wlio sells his talents as a lawyer, or preacher, or 
 editor, or cartoonist, or speaker, to a cause in which 
 privately he says he does not believe is found to be 
 not only as bad as, but even worse than, that form 
 which drives a girl into the street. Gambling re- 
 mains gambling whether in a low den or a drawing- 
 room, a swell club or a stock exchange, whether on 
 a large or small scale, whether It be for pennies or 
 for street-car franchises. In that philosophy. It Is 
 as great an offense to steal a railroad as It Is to 
 steal a ride, as great a crime to appropriate a coal 
 mine as it is to pick up coal along the tracks ; in that 
 philosophy public property Is as sacred as private 
 property. And those committed to that philosophy 
 are trying to put an end to these things, not by de- 
 nouncing others who do them, but by trying to live 
 lives that have no place for them, and by doing 
 their utmost, in every relation of life, to stop them, 
 and by doing away with the thing which very clear- 
 ly Is the cause of them, that is. Privilege. 
 
 That philosophy has no faith In the efficacy of 
 force In making people good. It teaches that peo- 
 93
 
 ON THE ENFORCEMENT 
 
 pie get better and improve, not by the destructive 
 processes of hatred and wrath, but by the construc- 
 tive method of love and reason. It teaches that 
 goodness comes from within, not from without, that 
 you can not beat goodness into people, or give them 
 a prescription for it, to be taken in doses, like 
 medicine, but that they must generate it out of 
 their own hearts ; and it believes that if we will only 
 make social and economic conditions that will give 
 all men, instead of a few men, a chance to live, they 
 will naturally and inevitably become good. It 
 teaches that you can not make people good by law, 
 nor by poHcemen's clubs, nor by guns and bayonets, 
 for it sees only hatred in these processes, and it 
 knows that "hatred ceaseth not by hatred; hatred 
 ceaseth but by love." 
 
 It discovered long ago that it Is the inequality 
 and the denial of brotherhood, resulting logically 
 and inevitably from legal privilege, that make all 
 the poverty, all the vice, all the crime in the world, 
 the crimes of the poor and the crimes of the rich. 
 This philosophy is one I am trying to apply in the 
 94
 
 OF LAW IN CITIES 
 
 discharge of my duties. In doing so, I am being 
 true to ray own principles, true to my own con- 
 science, true to "the light that lighteth every man 
 that cometh into the world." And I hope that I 
 may be given the strength to follow that light unto 
 the end. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 BRAND WHITLOCK. 
 Toledo, 2 May, 1910.
 
 Hr 
 
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