The police of Newtown and some of the Polish residents of a section in Maspeth known as “Polack Alley” were yesterday morning censured from the altar at all the masses in St. Adalbert's Polish Church in Prospect street, Newtown Heights, by the Rev. Casimir Cwiklinski.
Father Cwiklinski at the different masses said in part that he had repeatedly requested the police of Newtown to enforce the Sunday law in regard to certain dance halls and disorderly houses in Maspeth where the conditions were so bad among a class of Polish people that he could not describe them from his altar.
“I am trying single-handed now to take up the fight and will go out myself if I do not receive support” he said. “It is the Polish people at that place, and in time it will cause the loss of respect that the Polish people now receive as citizens of the United States. No one will respect us on account of those few evildoers and then the Polish people will have no standing.
“It is our duty as Christians and Catholics, bound by our conscience, to stop all evil, especially when we see that it means our future ruin. First, ruin as Catholics; second, ruin as citizens; third we have an inborn obligation to observe the law of the United States, which is very severe in this regard.
“I have asked repeatedly the police of Newtown for help and as yet have received none. Therefore, I in church ask all of you who will promise to support me in this fight to abolish the evils that exist at that place to raise their right hands.”
With great enthusiasm all promised to give their moral support to the rector who continued:
“I will see into it myself that we get police protection in that section so that the good citizens will not be molested by the evil. We are all taxpayers and have a perfect right to demand a quiet day on the Sabbath, whether we are Germans, English or Polish people.”
A petition is now being circulated in Maspeth requesting Captains Gardiner and O'Connor of the precincts which are included in Maspeth that they enforce the law on Sunday at the dance halls and saloons of that place and close up the disorderly houses that are alleged to be in operation there.