Word: mayors
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Dates: during 1900-1909
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Barron, who made the first rebuttal for Princeton said that Mayor Low had sworn to be vigilant and active in the detection and punishment of every violation of every law, and hence that he had no choice but to strictly enforce this particular law. The question of Mayor Low's ability to enforce the law does not enter into this discussion; we must simply decide what should be Mayor Low's subjective attitude toward this law. If he connives at a simple violation of the law he is breaking his oath. Our government is a government of laws...
Blair, the second speaker for the affirmative, further developed the affirmative position and said that they stood for the enforcement of the excise law as one of the general body of laws and that Mayor Low's duty of enforcing this law was mandatory, unless he had received by statute some especial discretionary power with regard to it. He then quoted from a speech of Daniel Webster in 1832, showing that an executive officer has no more license to construe the laws which he is to enforce than a private citizen whose only duty is to obey them, and further...
...strict enforcement of the excise law and the closing of the saloons brought about violations of the law in a co-ordinate form which are just as illegal and even more pernicious in their nature than those which it is attempted to suppress. But, on the other hand, Mayor Low's policy of judicious enforcement, recognizing that the law is not enforceable strictly, is made necessary by forces actually at work in New York life. The first of them is the increased temptation to blackmail which strict enforcement would hold out to the police. According to the Committee of Fifteen...
Anthony was the third speaker for the affirmative. He first established the fact that the strict enforcement of the excise law can do much to aid the respect for and observance of all laws, and in doing so established the fact that Mayor Low has sufficient power to enforce the excise law and that Mr. Roosevelt, when police commissioner, succeeded in accomplishing a more difficult task and proved this statement by quotations from Mr. Roosevelt himself, Mr. Riis and by citing the resolution passed by the Liquor Dealers' Association at that time. He then cited some of the beneficial results...
...enforce this law. If the people of New York could be brought to respect and obey the law the case would be entirely different, but now if you try to enforce this law and utterly fail, you will accomplish nothing. It is said that if we allow the Mayor to exercise discretion we shall have despotism; but we are willing to trust to the good sense of the American people to choose mayors who are capable of using discretion. With frequent elections there can be no despotism. Mayor Low is using discretion, and he is using it to save...