THE GIRL THAT DISAPPEARS
education, it is regarded as necessary that these raids and fines be made with systematic regularity. Can any good and respectable citizen explain the difference between regular and systematic fining and the license system?
It is true that if the fining system were given up a large masculine population would suffer severe financial loss. The fining system is the most prolific source of police graft in existence. Magistrates, be it known, are of two varieties, hard and easy. The police know, and the women know, that a hard magistrate is sitting, and the women are willing to pay a pretty heavy graft in order to avoid arrest. I firmly believe that fully eighty-five per cent. of the police of New York City are honest men, but the honest policeman, like other honest men, are more or less quiescent. The fifteen per cent. who are grafters, are active. They arc always on the alert. The grafters are men powerful in politics and they are able to do a terrific amount
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