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New York Exposed: The Gilded Age Police Scandal that Launched the Progressive Era
On a Sunday morning in early 1892, Reverend Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst ascended to his pulpit at the Madison Square Presbyterian Church in New York and delivered one of the most explosive sermons in the city's history. Municipal life, he charged, was morally corrupt. Vice was rampant. And the city's police force and its Tammany Hall politicians were "a lying, perjured, rum-soaked, and libidinous lot." Denounced by city and police officials as a self-righteous "blatherskite," Parkhurst resolved to prove his case. The bespectacled minister descended his pulpit and in disguise visited gin joints and brothels, taking notes and gathering evidence. Two years later, his findings forced the New York State Senate to investigate the New York Police Department. The Lexow Committee heard testimony from nearly 700 witnesses, who revealed in shocking-and headline-dominating-detail just how deeply the NYPD was involved in, and benefited from, the vice economy. Parkhurst's campaign had
kick-started the Progressive Movement.
New York Exposed offers a narrative history of the first major crusade to clean up Gotham. Daniel Czitrom does full justice to this spellbinding story by telling it within the larger contexts of national politics, poverty, patronage, vote fraud and vote suppression, and police violence. The effort to root out corrupt cops and crooked politicians morphed into something much more a public reckoning over what New York--and the American city--had become since the Civil War.
Animated by as vivid a cast as New York has ever produced, the book's key characters include Police Superintendent Thomas Byrnes and Inspector Alexander "Clubber" Williams, the nation's most famous cops, as well as anarchist revolutionary Emma Goldman, the zealous prosecutor John W. Goff, and an array of politicos, immigrant leaders, labor bosses, prostitutes, show-business entrepreneurs, counterfeiters, and reformers and muckrakers determined to change business as usual. New York Exposed offers an unforgettable portrait of a city in a truly transformative moment.
kick-started the Progressive Movement.
New York Exposed offers a narrative history of the first major crusade to clean up Gotham. Daniel Czitrom does full justice to this spellbinding story by telling it within the larger contexts of national politics, poverty, patronage, vote fraud and vote suppression, and police violence. The effort to root out corrupt cops and crooked politicians morphed into something much more a public reckoning over what New York--and the American city--had become since the Civil War.
Animated by as vivid a cast as New York has ever produced, the book's key characters include Police Superintendent Thomas Byrnes and Inspector Alexander "Clubber" Williams, the nation's most famous cops, as well as anarchist revolutionary Emma Goldman, the zealous prosecutor John W. Goff, and an array of politicos, immigrant leaders, labor bosses, prostitutes, show-business entrepreneurs, counterfeiters, and reformers and muckrakers determined to change business as usual. New York Exposed offers an unforgettable portrait of a city in a truly transformative moment.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2016
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April 11, 2016
You know that book that you just picked up that coincidentally seems to address everything that's been swirling through your head recently, that is somehow connected to everything else you've been reading? Of course, it's no coincidence, there is no such thing - only opportunities to learn, born of interest and active pursuit.
New York has been on my mind recently, specifically 19th century NYC. I've been into an excellent historical fiction series on the founding of the police force (see Lyndsay Faye's Gods of Gotham ) and have been watching Gotham on Netflix, although I am informed by others that the show has something to do with Batman, and that it's not set in NYC (well, whatever, I'm pop-culture illiterate but for me, it's a close enough approximation of Faye's aesthetic).
In general I'm a big fan of the 19th century - it is the time period, after all, of not only the Civil War and women's suffrage but also of the industrial revolution, and of the "birth" of the modern era. Trains, Einstein, contemporary dance, modern ills and questions - all hail from that time.
Additionally, I am as addicted to politics as one can be without actively being a politician or paid activist (you know, typical engaged citizen stuff, I vote, I go to rallies, I read the news 247, comment on Politico forums, donate to political campaigns, sign petitions, and the like).
What I didn't realize before New York Exposed was how these three foci - NYC, politics, the 19th century - are inextricably linked in history and in the formation of our current political climate in the United States. Basically, this scholarly work details, through meticulous research, the birth of modern politics, current debates, accusations, psychoses, etc. It's a fascinating journey, brimming with real-life characters stranger than fiction will ever be, told in a lively, engaging way, for all audiences to enjoy (even though technically this is an academic book written by a real historian, not a "pop-history").
I was blown away by this book, especially as I came to realize the complexity of issues that have been boiled down to mere slogans something like 200 years later. We make accusations today, for example, of voter fraud; the GOP insists we must protect against it, while Dems cry foul, because no proof of voter-fraud exists. But guess what? In 19th century NYC, in perhaps the most corrupt political era we have witnessed in American history, Democrats did commit massive voter fraud - offering fraudulent certificates of naturalization to immigrants in order to get their vote (sound like a familiar accusation?), encouraging people to vote more than once, counting ballots illegally, and the like.
My Conclusion: both parties are at fault for not educating voters: YES, voter fraud did exist - here is its history; NO, there is no evidence it still does. BUT: here is the real story of the legend behind the asinine accusations we throw around without knowing what we are saying. Here is the context, because it's not that simple.*
[Examples: yes, Dems engaged in voter fraud, but that was a different Democratic party. And it's not even as simple as saying the parties "switched", because, back then, the Dems supported immigrants while abolitionists were mostly Republican; today, obviously, large majorities of both immigrants and non-whites vote Democrat. Another: while Democrats were busy corrupting themselves into public office, it was a Christian minister, in his fight against corruption - the main character in Czitrom's story, whose actions evolved into the Progressive movement. Who would have thought - you know, "Christian values", now the mantra of the GOP.]
This is why I love history: it explains pretty much everything, in such nuanced ways. Nothing is as simple as its distillation through time, and the journey into our collective memory always provides illumination for our current predicaments. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the modern political climate in the US, and would make it mandatory reading for all politicians if I could somehow do this.
* Voter fraud is only one of MANY issues described and explained by Czitrom - I am using it as an example that struck me particularly, but this book is about MUCH, much more - think politics today as a whole - immigration, who gets to vote, what is the role of the state in providing for the less fortunate, you name it.
** Thank you to Oxford University Press and Netgally for the ARC copy.
New York has been on my mind recently, specifically 19th century NYC. I've been into an excellent historical fiction series on the founding of the police force (see Lyndsay Faye's Gods of Gotham ) and have been watching Gotham on Netflix, although I am informed by others that the show has something to do with Batman, and that it's not set in NYC (well, whatever, I'm pop-culture illiterate but for me, it's a close enough approximation of Faye's aesthetic).
In general I'm a big fan of the 19th century - it is the time period, after all, of not only the Civil War and women's suffrage but also of the industrial revolution, and of the "birth" of the modern era. Trains, Einstein, contemporary dance, modern ills and questions - all hail from that time.
Additionally, I am as addicted to politics as one can be without actively being a politician or paid activist (you know, typical engaged citizen stuff, I vote, I go to rallies, I read the news 247, comment on Politico forums, donate to political campaigns, sign petitions, and the like).
What I didn't realize before New York Exposed was how these three foci - NYC, politics, the 19th century - are inextricably linked in history and in the formation of our current political climate in the United States. Basically, this scholarly work details, through meticulous research, the birth of modern politics, current debates, accusations, psychoses, etc. It's a fascinating journey, brimming with real-life characters stranger than fiction will ever be, told in a lively, engaging way, for all audiences to enjoy (even though technically this is an academic book written by a real historian, not a "pop-history").
I was blown away by this book, especially as I came to realize the complexity of issues that have been boiled down to mere slogans something like 200 years later. We make accusations today, for example, of voter fraud; the GOP insists we must protect against it, while Dems cry foul, because no proof of voter-fraud exists. But guess what? In 19th century NYC, in perhaps the most corrupt political era we have witnessed in American history, Democrats did commit massive voter fraud - offering fraudulent certificates of naturalization to immigrants in order to get their vote (sound like a familiar accusation?), encouraging people to vote more than once, counting ballots illegally, and the like.
My Conclusion: both parties are at fault for not educating voters: YES, voter fraud did exist - here is its history; NO, there is no evidence it still does. BUT: here is the real story of the legend behind the asinine accusations we throw around without knowing what we are saying. Here is the context, because it's not that simple.*
[Examples: yes, Dems engaged in voter fraud, but that was a different Democratic party. And it's not even as simple as saying the parties "switched", because, back then, the Dems supported immigrants while abolitionists were mostly Republican; today, obviously, large majorities of both immigrants and non-whites vote Democrat. Another: while Democrats were busy corrupting themselves into public office, it was a Christian minister, in his fight against corruption - the main character in Czitrom's story, whose actions evolved into the Progressive movement. Who would have thought - you know, "Christian values", now the mantra of the GOP.]
This is why I love history: it explains pretty much everything, in such nuanced ways. Nothing is as simple as its distillation through time, and the journey into our collective memory always provides illumination for our current predicaments. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the modern political climate in the US, and would make it mandatory reading for all politicians if I could somehow do this.
* Voter fraud is only one of MANY issues described and explained by Czitrom - I am using it as an example that struck me particularly, but this book is about MUCH, much more - think politics today as a whole - immigration, who gets to vote, what is the role of the state in providing for the less fortunate, you name it.
** Thank you to Oxford University Press and Netgally for the ARC copy.
dnf
August 28, 2018How could anyone make a book about the Gilded Age, the Tenderloin District, and police corruption in 1890s NYC dry as dust and boring as hell? Czitrom managed. I have read insurance policies more entertaining than this. It is a DNF for me, after reading most of the first chapter and skimming ahead to see if it improved. It didn't.
December 31, 2022
This book, a gift from my youngest daughter’s boyfriend, was a perfect combination of NYC spirit, turn of the century history, labor battles from over a hundred years ago, and government reform via the police corruption; he gave it to me as a Christmas gift since we plan to live in NYC for about a year, but it was on the mark in all ways.
The complicated story with plenty of twists and curves was covered in a simple, understandable manner by the author. There are many characters, all rich in personality, spirit, and purpose. Czitrom carefully and judicially treated the various people and their organizations throughout the book. This book best explained how Tammany Hall operated, sharing how complicated the politics of NYC were – and probably still are today. Tammany Hall was already a century old by the time this story opens. The author points out that to win elections for such a long period of time, the group specialized in strategic alliances giving reason for changing demographics to support their candidates. While it started as a “patriotic and fraternal organization” named for the Delaware Indian, it started to move into politics by supporting, of all people, Aaron Burr. The word Hall was added since that is the name of the building where they held their meetings and events. Their growth was highlighted by the Irish emigrants coming to America to escape the Great Famine – and the organization wanted to assure they were all Democrats.
The book jumps off in 1892 with Madison Square Presbyterian Church Pastor Parkhurst giving a feisty sermon to his 1,200 parishioners about the vice in town of one and a half million people. Parkhurst gave this speech after an election, setting it aside from a short-term goal of Election Day. He squarely focused on Tammany – even listing people and crimes. The author expressed by seriousness of this sermon by stating “the sermon that transformed his personal squabble with District Attorney Nicoll into a movement.” The rest of the book speaks to what happened during that incredible movement and the offshoot creating the progressive movement.
Pastor Parkhurst just started with that original sermon. Three months later, he spoke before 4,000 New Yorkers at Cooper Union Great Hall. People took their politics serious back then, with the pastor not taking the microphone until 11 pm. And this was a Wednesday night!
This interesting, well written and researched book outlines how Pastor Parkhurst built an organization, called Society for the Prevention of Crime, that was supposed to be bipartisan without specific political aims but clearly targeting the Democratic Tammany Hall with considerable Republican funding and support. He even outlined building an organization that would mirror his opposition, ironically. His group combed the neighborhood, taking down stories of how vice was impacting others, finding violations, and recruiting more supporters that would later be used in an election.
The pastor and his new organization made progress when a State Representative started an investigation committee named after the politician – the Lexow Committee, with it’s first meeting on March 9, 1894. The grassroots work of the competing organizations, newspaper coverage, courtroom battles, and personal ambition of politicians fueled the work of this committee for the next year. Throughout the deliberations, the scandals of the police force and some politicians came to light including:
The cost of brothels doing business included a $500 initiation fee and $50 a month paid to police captains and plainclothes detectives.
A complicated scheme for police to make money off of the “green goods” business, counterfeiting money.
The Bohemian Liquor Dealers Association’s 35 members paying Campbell $100 each month along with gifts to allow them to routinely violate the Sunday excise law.
Produce vendors providing $25 to $50 every month to ward men to be permitted to block sidewalks with their barrels, boxes, and hand carts while selling their products.
Police paying various costs for appointment to patrolmen and later larger amounts to be promoted within the department.
Residents who suffered violence at the hands the police testified but the Lexow Committee refused to listen to the Central Labor Union and allow even one striker to testify.
Bribes of upwards $15,000 (about $400,000 today) were paid for appointments for higher level positions.
Regular payments of 20% of funds from liquor dealers and disorderly houses to the top brace, resulting in illegal incomes of what is now $13,000+ a month.
National financiers like Jay Gould and the Vanderbilt’s paying huge amounts to police leadership and having them invest the funds, yielding wealthy returns to take the side of wealth over workers.
All this added up. While exaggerated, the Morning Advertiser estimated that police pulled in $600,000 in bribes – an amount of $196 million a year in today’s dollars.
Ironically, while Pastor Parkhurst’s wife was a major draw at events and had considerable political skills, neither of them supported the right of women to vote. A group called Woman’s Municipal League was started by Josephine Shaw Lowell at the urging of Pastor Parkhurst to recruit more women into their effort. While suffragists were fighting for the vote, women who wanted the vote and those who opposed it worked together to fight police corruption. Settlement house pioneer Lillian Wald, Margaret Drier, who later became president of the Women’s Trade Union League, and the future president of the National Consumers League, Maud Nathan, all worked on this campaign as their first stop to a lifetime of political activism. At one large rally at the Cooper Union, over 100 women were on stage while all women – except for the speakers and police – filled the hall. They held house parties and went directly to voters, all males.
Many elements were playing off one another at the same time to try to cover their tracks, reach agreement to move this crisis forward, and press for more reform. Some admitted to violating the law. Others had a hard time explaining huge assets while serving in the police forces, and the politicians were moved by all the coverage in the various newspapers. During this time, there was also a mayoral election, rotating coverage of the committee and mayor’s campaign. Parkhurst put forward a business leader connected with a person on the other side of the aisle, promoting a bipartisan race although the Republicans would have the top position. Businessman, William Strong won the election but his support from the Parkhurst broke when the new mayor put Republican politics over cleaning up the police department and accepted a bill that was not supported by those who pushed for reform. Parkhurst also learned that once a politician won and election and became a public official, they often turn the other way for advice. Yet, when Strong appointed a strong slate to fill the new police commission (eldest son of Ulysses Grant and former minister to Austria-Hungary Frederick Grant, a Democrat not allied with Tammany and a former assistant district attorney, and Teddy Roosevelt, a former state representative and losing mayoral candidate. Roosevelt was especially strong and used his aggressive leadership to push for change and reform under the new civil service protections. He also worked closely with Parkhurst, creating an alliance.
Like today, policing is complicated. While the pastor was attacking the leaders of the police for incompetence and corruption, the business elite in the city were pleased with how the police protected property and were especially tough on using violence to hold down labor strikes. But the police were set up as a political operation with members of the force appointed to one-year terms nominated by the city council members where they served. Politicians soon used these well-paying jobs (at a salary of $1,200 a year plus pensions in 1875, twice the amount of unskilled workers and roughly equal to skilled workers such as printers or butchers) to win political campaigns by attracting the growing immigrant vote. A 1886 survey showed that at least a third of the police were born in Ireland and 60% were of Irish heritage.
The people who were being questioned for their ethics were not low-ranking police or unknown bureaucrats. People included Chief Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes who published a book in 1885 called Professional Criminals of America, a well-received book that highlighted his police work. But, as the story unfolds, Byrnes utilized the “third degree” treatment of prisoners by beating them and engaging them to psychological torture. Byrnes’ unjust treatment of poor New Yorkers lead to convictions and even executions of innocent men.
The book also highlighted to journey of Alexander Williams, a businessperson who had immigrated from Nova Scotia as a child who was successful except when a carpenters’ strike caused his ship building business to go under, an event “that may well have influenced his later violent behavior against picketers and union activists.” Williams was so arrogant he once said he was so well-known that “car horses nod at me mornings.” Repeatedly, Williams was brought up on charges for violations being a police officer but intimidation and strong support from prominent New Yorkers and businesspeople provided his on-going assaults and unfair profits. Williams most likely termed the Tenderloin district – at least according to NYC folklore. He spoke about living on rump stake in the Fourth precinct but “I will have some tenderloin now.” After his acquittal in one major trail, 500 prominent local businesspeople and wealthy residents held a testimonial dinner in his honor. Ironically, after leaving the force in 1895, Williams ran for the state senate and despite strong support from the establishment loss when the Central Labor Union did an all-out attack on him. He worked in the insurance industry until he died at age 75 in 1917.
The book shared much about NYC at the turn of two centuries ago, especially the “Tenderloin” district between 23rd and 42nd Streets and Fifth and Eighth Avenue. Before the Civil War, developers created a stylish suburb for wealthier New Yorkers, completed with sophisticated brownstones, theaters, classy hotels and department stores. The residents could enjoy a vibrant nightlife including attending events at the original Madison Square Garden, an abandoned passenger rail station that reopened in 1879. Czitrom speaks about how Manhattan’s simple grid system, that started in 1811, was about 2/3rds finished by 1880. Elevated railroads cut down the commute and allowed people to travel efficiently to downtown and some to move further out to Harlem than they could with horse-drawn streetcars. He also mentions that NYC created the country’s first full-time police force in 1845.
A special treat of the book was the author’s inclusion of organized labor and their connection with desire for police reform. A labor town, NYC’s Central Labor Union organized the first Labor Day parade in our country when they marched up Broadway in 1882. Like the struggle still today, while the pastor spoke about the vice, CLU leader George Lloyd wanted the pastor and his movement to speak to the link between poverty wages and vice.
The NYPD has long protected business interests against those of organized labor. The book details the work of the police to fight against the “great railroad strike” of 1877 that swept through various cities including NYC. 1,000 police surrounded Tompkins Square with even more in reserves when unionist and the Workingmen’s Party held a demonstration there. They even went to the steps of deputizing 200 employees of New York Central Railroad a “special police,” despite the obvious conflict. While the demonstration was peaceful, two hours after the gathering split up, Captain Byrnes charged in and clubbed everyone in sight. And, again, in 1894, in the middle of the hearings on police corruption, the New York city police rallied when the national Pullman Strike threatened to also impact NYC despite Samuel Gompers opposition to sympathy strikes.
During the Gilded age, with a larger department, the NYPD increased their attack on strikes and work to protect scabs when a dispute took place. By March 1886, when the drivers and conductors on the Dry Dock streetcar line fight for just 12-hour days, nearly a quarter of the police force was dispatched to fight against the strikers. The police charged the strikers, with the beatings and street fighting continuing for over two hours to allow the company to complete a symbolic round trip with an empty car. Despite that 15,000 drivers engaged in a sympathy strike, the police helped the company in winning the strike and defeating the union. The police played the same role in 1889 when, on January 29th, 7,000 streetcar workers went on strike. Inspector Williams called for his forces to “use your clubs if you have to, and make the blows tell. Don’t bother about making arrests.” Again, Byrnes was his co-leader against the unionists, guarding the Italians and other strike breakers. Despite the plea from the Central Labor Council to Mayor Hugh Grant that the violence against the strikers was worse than other civilized counties would allow, they were dismissed, and the attacks continued. The business community rewarded the police leadership with a “sumptuous affair held at Delmonico’s where as many as 600 bottles of wine might be drained.”
A side story that was very interesting was how people from different angles helped the poor during the economic downturn. This was a time before Social Security kept seniors out of poverty and unemployment or welfare existed. A few stronger labor unions, including the typographers (now members of CWA), cigar makers, and carpenters provided a relief check of $5 a week in mutual help. Many faith groups worked with the newly formed New York Charity Organization Society (COS) including the Catholic Charities and the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society, a settlement house, providing support for menial jobs that could be done. Nathan R. Status, owner of both of the largest department stores (Macy’s and Abraham & Status) and later a candidate for Mayor, provided over 2 million five-cent tickets allowing poor people to buy coal or groceries, offered four lodging houses for the unemployed and homeless, and provided a laboratory and depot for poor children to receive healthy milk. But with the 1893 downturn, with 67,000 unemployed and 20,000 homeless, it was not enough. The growing Jewish population organized under the Jewish trade unionist and combined with unemployed, broke into a riot with 5,000 on the streets. It was a perfect time for the police who were under the gun for corruption to crack down on workers to the joy of capitalists and those who were well off.
Finally, as in other books of history during this period, the author highlights the importance of the growing newspaper industry in New York. There were many of them and increasingly they were turning from politically aligned organizations and those whose journalism was of low quality, siding with sensationalism to sell papers. NYC became a major national player with the alliance with the Western Union Company and development of the Associated Press in 1846. Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst both took an interest with their new technologies and money in NYC. Pulitzer built an alliance with the poor and labor when he bought the New York World in 1883, making it a widely read paper. This was at a time when many public and political meetings were widely covered in the press, with even full – and long – speeches reported in the paper.
Czitrom also emphasized how the Republicans continued to attack Democrats in NYC and other big cities with rigging the elections and thus, putting forward laws making it harder for them to vote. Clearly, this is not a new tactics of the GOP. He writes about how the Republicans held hearings protesting immigrant votes following a successful election of the Tammany, showing no widespread corruption but with the GOP still coming out with sweeping election and immigration reforms. He speaks about how a new federal election law in the 1870’s targeting cities with more than 20,000 people, Democratic bases.
Many books on Roosevelt, including one I am now ironically reading by Doris Kearns Goodwin, speak about Roosevelt’s engagement cleaning up the NYC police and how it propelled his career. This book gives the foundation of that fight and allowed him to make progress in cleaning up a long-term problem. It’s well worth the read on so many levels – police reform, role of religious leaders in politics, the role of labor unions, how reform movements work, journalism, NYC development, and the woman’s movement.
The complicated story with plenty of twists and curves was covered in a simple, understandable manner by the author. There are many characters, all rich in personality, spirit, and purpose. Czitrom carefully and judicially treated the various people and their organizations throughout the book. This book best explained how Tammany Hall operated, sharing how complicated the politics of NYC were – and probably still are today. Tammany Hall was already a century old by the time this story opens. The author points out that to win elections for such a long period of time, the group specialized in strategic alliances giving reason for changing demographics to support their candidates. While it started as a “patriotic and fraternal organization” named for the Delaware Indian, it started to move into politics by supporting, of all people, Aaron Burr. The word Hall was added since that is the name of the building where they held their meetings and events. Their growth was highlighted by the Irish emigrants coming to America to escape the Great Famine – and the organization wanted to assure they were all Democrats.
The book jumps off in 1892 with Madison Square Presbyterian Church Pastor Parkhurst giving a feisty sermon to his 1,200 parishioners about the vice in town of one and a half million people. Parkhurst gave this speech after an election, setting it aside from a short-term goal of Election Day. He squarely focused on Tammany – even listing people and crimes. The author expressed by seriousness of this sermon by stating “the sermon that transformed his personal squabble with District Attorney Nicoll into a movement.” The rest of the book speaks to what happened during that incredible movement and the offshoot creating the progressive movement.
Pastor Parkhurst just started with that original sermon. Three months later, he spoke before 4,000 New Yorkers at Cooper Union Great Hall. People took their politics serious back then, with the pastor not taking the microphone until 11 pm. And this was a Wednesday night!
This interesting, well written and researched book outlines how Pastor Parkhurst built an organization, called Society for the Prevention of Crime, that was supposed to be bipartisan without specific political aims but clearly targeting the Democratic Tammany Hall with considerable Republican funding and support. He even outlined building an organization that would mirror his opposition, ironically. His group combed the neighborhood, taking down stories of how vice was impacting others, finding violations, and recruiting more supporters that would later be used in an election.
The pastor and his new organization made progress when a State Representative started an investigation committee named after the politician – the Lexow Committee, with it’s first meeting on March 9, 1894. The grassroots work of the competing organizations, newspaper coverage, courtroom battles, and personal ambition of politicians fueled the work of this committee for the next year. Throughout the deliberations, the scandals of the police force and some politicians came to light including:
The cost of brothels doing business included a $500 initiation fee and $50 a month paid to police captains and plainclothes detectives.
A complicated scheme for police to make money off of the “green goods” business, counterfeiting money.
The Bohemian Liquor Dealers Association’s 35 members paying Campbell $100 each month along with gifts to allow them to routinely violate the Sunday excise law.
Produce vendors providing $25 to $50 every month to ward men to be permitted to block sidewalks with their barrels, boxes, and hand carts while selling their products.
Police paying various costs for appointment to patrolmen and later larger amounts to be promoted within the department.
Residents who suffered violence at the hands the police testified but the Lexow Committee refused to listen to the Central Labor Union and allow even one striker to testify.
Bribes of upwards $15,000 (about $400,000 today) were paid for appointments for higher level positions.
Regular payments of 20% of funds from liquor dealers and disorderly houses to the top brace, resulting in illegal incomes of what is now $13,000+ a month.
National financiers like Jay Gould and the Vanderbilt’s paying huge amounts to police leadership and having them invest the funds, yielding wealthy returns to take the side of wealth over workers.
All this added up. While exaggerated, the Morning Advertiser estimated that police pulled in $600,000 in bribes – an amount of $196 million a year in today’s dollars.
Ironically, while Pastor Parkhurst’s wife was a major draw at events and had considerable political skills, neither of them supported the right of women to vote. A group called Woman’s Municipal League was started by Josephine Shaw Lowell at the urging of Pastor Parkhurst to recruit more women into their effort. While suffragists were fighting for the vote, women who wanted the vote and those who opposed it worked together to fight police corruption. Settlement house pioneer Lillian Wald, Margaret Drier, who later became president of the Women’s Trade Union League, and the future president of the National Consumers League, Maud Nathan, all worked on this campaign as their first stop to a lifetime of political activism. At one large rally at the Cooper Union, over 100 women were on stage while all women – except for the speakers and police – filled the hall. They held house parties and went directly to voters, all males.
Many elements were playing off one another at the same time to try to cover their tracks, reach agreement to move this crisis forward, and press for more reform. Some admitted to violating the law. Others had a hard time explaining huge assets while serving in the police forces, and the politicians were moved by all the coverage in the various newspapers. During this time, there was also a mayoral election, rotating coverage of the committee and mayor’s campaign. Parkhurst put forward a business leader connected with a person on the other side of the aisle, promoting a bipartisan race although the Republicans would have the top position. Businessman, William Strong won the election but his support from the Parkhurst broke when the new mayor put Republican politics over cleaning up the police department and accepted a bill that was not supported by those who pushed for reform. Parkhurst also learned that once a politician won and election and became a public official, they often turn the other way for advice. Yet, when Strong appointed a strong slate to fill the new police commission (eldest son of Ulysses Grant and former minister to Austria-Hungary Frederick Grant, a Democrat not allied with Tammany and a former assistant district attorney, and Teddy Roosevelt, a former state representative and losing mayoral candidate. Roosevelt was especially strong and used his aggressive leadership to push for change and reform under the new civil service protections. He also worked closely with Parkhurst, creating an alliance.
Like today, policing is complicated. While the pastor was attacking the leaders of the police for incompetence and corruption, the business elite in the city were pleased with how the police protected property and were especially tough on using violence to hold down labor strikes. But the police were set up as a political operation with members of the force appointed to one-year terms nominated by the city council members where they served. Politicians soon used these well-paying jobs (at a salary of $1,200 a year plus pensions in 1875, twice the amount of unskilled workers and roughly equal to skilled workers such as printers or butchers) to win political campaigns by attracting the growing immigrant vote. A 1886 survey showed that at least a third of the police were born in Ireland and 60% were of Irish heritage.
The people who were being questioned for their ethics were not low-ranking police or unknown bureaucrats. People included Chief Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes who published a book in 1885 called Professional Criminals of America, a well-received book that highlighted his police work. But, as the story unfolds, Byrnes utilized the “third degree” treatment of prisoners by beating them and engaging them to psychological torture. Byrnes’ unjust treatment of poor New Yorkers lead to convictions and even executions of innocent men.
The book also highlighted to journey of Alexander Williams, a businessperson who had immigrated from Nova Scotia as a child who was successful except when a carpenters’ strike caused his ship building business to go under, an event “that may well have influenced his later violent behavior against picketers and union activists.” Williams was so arrogant he once said he was so well-known that “car horses nod at me mornings.” Repeatedly, Williams was brought up on charges for violations being a police officer but intimidation and strong support from prominent New Yorkers and businesspeople provided his on-going assaults and unfair profits. Williams most likely termed the Tenderloin district – at least according to NYC folklore. He spoke about living on rump stake in the Fourth precinct but “I will have some tenderloin now.” After his acquittal in one major trail, 500 prominent local businesspeople and wealthy residents held a testimonial dinner in his honor. Ironically, after leaving the force in 1895, Williams ran for the state senate and despite strong support from the establishment loss when the Central Labor Union did an all-out attack on him. He worked in the insurance industry until he died at age 75 in 1917.
The book shared much about NYC at the turn of two centuries ago, especially the “Tenderloin” district between 23rd and 42nd Streets and Fifth and Eighth Avenue. Before the Civil War, developers created a stylish suburb for wealthier New Yorkers, completed with sophisticated brownstones, theaters, classy hotels and department stores. The residents could enjoy a vibrant nightlife including attending events at the original Madison Square Garden, an abandoned passenger rail station that reopened in 1879. Czitrom speaks about how Manhattan’s simple grid system, that started in 1811, was about 2/3rds finished by 1880. Elevated railroads cut down the commute and allowed people to travel efficiently to downtown and some to move further out to Harlem than they could with horse-drawn streetcars. He also mentions that NYC created the country’s first full-time police force in 1845.
A special treat of the book was the author’s inclusion of organized labor and their connection with desire for police reform. A labor town, NYC’s Central Labor Union organized the first Labor Day parade in our country when they marched up Broadway in 1882. Like the struggle still today, while the pastor spoke about the vice, CLU leader George Lloyd wanted the pastor and his movement to speak to the link between poverty wages and vice.
The NYPD has long protected business interests against those of organized labor. The book details the work of the police to fight against the “great railroad strike” of 1877 that swept through various cities including NYC. 1,000 police surrounded Tompkins Square with even more in reserves when unionist and the Workingmen’s Party held a demonstration there. They even went to the steps of deputizing 200 employees of New York Central Railroad a “special police,” despite the obvious conflict. While the demonstration was peaceful, two hours after the gathering split up, Captain Byrnes charged in and clubbed everyone in sight. And, again, in 1894, in the middle of the hearings on police corruption, the New York city police rallied when the national Pullman Strike threatened to also impact NYC despite Samuel Gompers opposition to sympathy strikes.
During the Gilded age, with a larger department, the NYPD increased their attack on strikes and work to protect scabs when a dispute took place. By March 1886, when the drivers and conductors on the Dry Dock streetcar line fight for just 12-hour days, nearly a quarter of the police force was dispatched to fight against the strikers. The police charged the strikers, with the beatings and street fighting continuing for over two hours to allow the company to complete a symbolic round trip with an empty car. Despite that 15,000 drivers engaged in a sympathy strike, the police helped the company in winning the strike and defeating the union. The police played the same role in 1889 when, on January 29th, 7,000 streetcar workers went on strike. Inspector Williams called for his forces to “use your clubs if you have to, and make the blows tell. Don’t bother about making arrests.” Again, Byrnes was his co-leader against the unionists, guarding the Italians and other strike breakers. Despite the plea from the Central Labor Council to Mayor Hugh Grant that the violence against the strikers was worse than other civilized counties would allow, they were dismissed, and the attacks continued. The business community rewarded the police leadership with a “sumptuous affair held at Delmonico’s where as many as 600 bottles of wine might be drained.”
A side story that was very interesting was how people from different angles helped the poor during the economic downturn. This was a time before Social Security kept seniors out of poverty and unemployment or welfare existed. A few stronger labor unions, including the typographers (now members of CWA), cigar makers, and carpenters provided a relief check of $5 a week in mutual help. Many faith groups worked with the newly formed New York Charity Organization Society (COS) including the Catholic Charities and the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society, a settlement house, providing support for menial jobs that could be done. Nathan R. Status, owner of both of the largest department stores (Macy’s and Abraham & Status) and later a candidate for Mayor, provided over 2 million five-cent tickets allowing poor people to buy coal or groceries, offered four lodging houses for the unemployed and homeless, and provided a laboratory and depot for poor children to receive healthy milk. But with the 1893 downturn, with 67,000 unemployed and 20,000 homeless, it was not enough. The growing Jewish population organized under the Jewish trade unionist and combined with unemployed, broke into a riot with 5,000 on the streets. It was a perfect time for the police who were under the gun for corruption to crack down on workers to the joy of capitalists and those who were well off.
Finally, as in other books of history during this period, the author highlights the importance of the growing newspaper industry in New York. There were many of them and increasingly they were turning from politically aligned organizations and those whose journalism was of low quality, siding with sensationalism to sell papers. NYC became a major national player with the alliance with the Western Union Company and development of the Associated Press in 1846. Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst both took an interest with their new technologies and money in NYC. Pulitzer built an alliance with the poor and labor when he bought the New York World in 1883, making it a widely read paper. This was at a time when many public and political meetings were widely covered in the press, with even full – and long – speeches reported in the paper.
Czitrom also emphasized how the Republicans continued to attack Democrats in NYC and other big cities with rigging the elections and thus, putting forward laws making it harder for them to vote. Clearly, this is not a new tactics of the GOP. He writes about how the Republicans held hearings protesting immigrant votes following a successful election of the Tammany, showing no widespread corruption but with the GOP still coming out with sweeping election and immigration reforms. He speaks about how a new federal election law in the 1870’s targeting cities with more than 20,000 people, Democratic bases.
Many books on Roosevelt, including one I am now ironically reading by Doris Kearns Goodwin, speak about Roosevelt’s engagement cleaning up the NYC police and how it propelled his career. This book gives the foundation of that fight and allowed him to make progress in cleaning up a long-term problem. It’s well worth the read on so many levels – police reform, role of religious leaders in politics, the role of labor unions, how reform movements work, journalism, NYC development, and the woman’s movement.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2016
This is a long and detailed account of Rev. Pankhurst's campaign for political and social reform in New York City circa 1900. Vignettes describe others involved in the history. There are lots of details about the city and the growing pains it suffered.
The story is an important one, since the campaign ignited the Progressive Era, the U.S. era that set the country on the road to first-world status. Those countries today who languish in third and second-world status would benefit from reforms that ensure better rule of law, much less corruption, greater social justice. Most importantly, however, there have to be systems put in place for the enforcement of hard-won improvements, and for the continual improvement of civil systems. That is a work in progress...
The account in this book shows that political and social stresses in the U.S. today are not unique to our era, but have existed since the country was formed. Actually, they have existed since the beginning of time, and many of the social and political issues we address today were suffered by the Ancient Romans. Urban verses rural, voting rights verses voting fraud, economic freedoms and equality verses crime and corruption.
I find history fascinating and revealing. If you feel the same and are interested in New York City and the history of the United States, you should enjoy this book. You'll benefit from having a good grounding in US history especially in NY history before reading this book. I received a review-copy of this book. This is my honest review.
The story is an important one, since the campaign ignited the Progressive Era, the U.S. era that set the country on the road to first-world status. Those countries today who languish in third and second-world status would benefit from reforms that ensure better rule of law, much less corruption, greater social justice. Most importantly, however, there have to be systems put in place for the enforcement of hard-won improvements, and for the continual improvement of civil systems. That is a work in progress...
The account in this book shows that political and social stresses in the U.S. today are not unique to our era, but have existed since the country was formed. Actually, they have existed since the beginning of time, and many of the social and political issues we address today were suffered by the Ancient Romans. Urban verses rural, voting rights verses voting fraud, economic freedoms and equality verses crime and corruption.
I find history fascinating and revealing. If you feel the same and are interested in New York City and the history of the United States, you should enjoy this book. You'll benefit from having a good grounding in US history especially in NY history before reading this book. I received a review-copy of this book. This is my honest review.
April 16, 2020
The actual investigation was interesting, but it took so long to get there.
April 19, 2021
Juicy stuff. Extremely in-depth treatment of just three years that is also surprisingly quite engaging. Also, Czitrom makes illuminating links about police corruption across time.
December 9, 2021
This was a good read. It took me a bit to get into it .
March 3, 2024
OK, I guess. This is such a fascinating topic, but it's really slow.
June 17, 2016
(Note: I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads.)
The story of a New York police scandal that captured America's attention in 1894. A committee appointed by the state government- the Lexow Committee- spent months hearing testimony from hundreds of people (including policemen themselves) about corruption in the NYPD. Regular payments to the police from thieves, criminals, prostitutes, and the like; protection money from honest businessmen; harassment and assault of people unwilling to play along; large payments to higher-ups to be promoted... the list is shocking, yet familiar.
Much of the first half of the book is rather boring, recounting the events leading up to the Lexow Committee; a chronicle of political maneuverings, moral crusading, accusations, counter-accusations, and so forth. Once the Committee starts its hearings, though, and the author starts recounting the stories of witnesses who had been maltreated by the police, the book becomes much more gripping.
And what was the effect of it all? Well, the hearings contributed to landslide victories for Republicans in the 1894 elections. The aftermath helped increase the prestige of future president Teddy Roosevelt, who was appointed to the police board afterwards with a mandate to clean up the department (he did have some limited successes there).
Mostly, though, not much changed. Every policeman who was removed from duty as a result of Lexow testimony was reinstated by the courts-with full back pay- within a few years. (After all, one couldn't take the word of criminals and prostitutes against a respectable policeman.) As the author points out, the Lexow Committee began a pattern of high-profile investigations into NYPD corruption, repeated every 20 years or so, right to the present day. In the end, the whole story stands as a case study of how hard it really is to reform a corrupt, insular organization.
The story of a New York police scandal that captured America's attention in 1894. A committee appointed by the state government- the Lexow Committee- spent months hearing testimony from hundreds of people (including policemen themselves) about corruption in the NYPD. Regular payments to the police from thieves, criminals, prostitutes, and the like; protection money from honest businessmen; harassment and assault of people unwilling to play along; large payments to higher-ups to be promoted... the list is shocking, yet familiar.
Much of the first half of the book is rather boring, recounting the events leading up to the Lexow Committee; a chronicle of political maneuverings, moral crusading, accusations, counter-accusations, and so forth. Once the Committee starts its hearings, though, and the author starts recounting the stories of witnesses who had been maltreated by the police, the book becomes much more gripping.
And what was the effect of it all? Well, the hearings contributed to landslide victories for Republicans in the 1894 elections. The aftermath helped increase the prestige of future president Teddy Roosevelt, who was appointed to the police board afterwards with a mandate to clean up the department (he did have some limited successes there).
Mostly, though, not much changed. Every policeman who was removed from duty as a result of Lexow testimony was reinstated by the courts-with full back pay- within a few years. (After all, one couldn't take the word of criminals and prostitutes against a respectable policeman.) As the author points out, the Lexow Committee began a pattern of high-profile investigations into NYPD corruption, repeated every 20 years or so, right to the present day. In the end, the whole story stands as a case study of how hard it really is to reform a corrupt, insular organization.
April 16, 2016
The author deserves a lot of credit for all the research that went into writing this book. That alone must have been a daunting task.
I wish I could say that I loved the book, but as a whole it felt cumbersome. The writing is far more textbook than narrative nonfiction. We're given what feels like a string of facts that overshadow the story aspect of the main players involved.
The content is heavier on politics than I expected, and lighter on the criminal aspects than I expected. Also, there are a whole lot of people I'd never heard of popping in and out of the timeline, and keeping track of them became an effort. I just didn't have that connection to pull me in and hold my attention.
I found the subject matter fascinating, and I learned some interesting tidbits along the way. But this book is definitely more suited to readers with a strong interest in New York politics during the 1800s.
*I was provided with an advance ebook copy by the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.*
I wish I could say that I loved the book, but as a whole it felt cumbersome. The writing is far more textbook than narrative nonfiction. We're given what feels like a string of facts that overshadow the story aspect of the main players involved.
The content is heavier on politics than I expected, and lighter on the criminal aspects than I expected. Also, there are a whole lot of people I'd never heard of popping in and out of the timeline, and keeping track of them became an effort. I just didn't have that connection to pull me in and hold my attention.
I found the subject matter fascinating, and I learned some interesting tidbits along the way. But this book is definitely more suited to readers with a strong interest in New York politics during the 1800s.
*I was provided with an advance ebook copy by the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.*
June 16, 2016
Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge for a honest and unbiased review.
I took my time reading this book mostly because of work commitments. At first I was wondering why I decided to ask for this book to review. After I started reading I no longer wondered and started enjoying it. IT gave me a lot of information that I really didn't expect. Daniel Czitrom made this subject interesting and entertaining. I usually find history stories dry and uninteresting. Not so much for this one. It was worth the time I took in reading it. It gave me some insight in to New York's History. I recommend this book to anyone who likes history or a backstory on Police corruption in New York.
I took my time reading this book mostly because of work commitments. At first I was wondering why I decided to ask for this book to review. After I started reading I no longer wondered and started enjoying it. IT gave me a lot of information that I really didn't expect. Daniel Czitrom made this subject interesting and entertaining. I usually find history stories dry and uninteresting. Not so much for this one. It was worth the time I took in reading it. It gave me some insight in to New York's History. I recommend this book to anyone who likes history or a backstory on Police corruption in New York.
May 31, 2016
Won this in a Goodreads Giveaway !! Awesome !! Thank you Oxford University Press, gorgeous hard-copy of the book arrived - Will review soon (27 April 2016).
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