The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Lexow, Clarence

LEXOW, lĕk'sow, Clarence, American lawyer and politician: b. Brooklyn, N. Y., 16 Sept. 1852; d. 1910. He studied abroad and at the Columbia Law School, where he was graduated in 1872. He was admitted to the bar and established practice in New York city, receiving a large German-American patronage and engaging in many important litigations. In 1882 he became a resident of Nyack and was active in the Republican party there. In 1890 he was an unsuccessful nominee for Congress, but lowered the usual Democratic majority. In 1893 he was elected to the State senate where he served till 1898. Here he at once became a leader, was chairman of the committee on internal affairs and introduced the bi-partisan police bill calling for an investigation of the New York city police. This led to the appointment of the so-called “Lexow Committee,” of which he was head; the investigations of this committee brought to light the system of protection of vice by the police in New York and were the direct cause of the reform campaign and the election of Mayor Strong. Lexow was also the introducer of the bill creating the city of Greater New York, was chairman of the joint legislative committee for the investigation of trusts and unlawful combinations, of the committee on primary elections reform and of the judiciary committee. In 1896 he was chairman of the committee on resolutions at the Republican State convention and introduced the gold standard plank in the platform; in 1900 he was a presidential elector. He is author of reports on ‘Municipal Government’ (5 vols., 1895) and on ‘Trusts and Unlawful Combinations’ (1895).