New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-12-09
New ORLEANS, December 3. ISL.
EDITOR REPUBLICAN,:
REFORM OUACKERy.

A suggestion that is increasingly made
by all the reformers, who think and say
they know how to run the government OF
New Orleans cheaper than anybody else,
is, that the police department is not sub
Jet to the control Of the city authorities.
This is the stumbling block that every
man sees in his own way, and which he
insists on kicking out of the path before
he will consent that any advance can be
made. With the police subjected to the
control Of the corporate authorities all
would be well, And Yet when the city
did control her police, she selected such
an inferior article that one-half of the
people stood more decidedly in dread of
their protectors than they did of the pri-
vate criminals. If New Orleans could
only get her eyeslgLt once so
that she might see the truth
As II really exists. SIG would
he most curiously IerpIexei AMI aston
l,hed at what she would discover If
she lad not as>aiIed tie Convention in
lsb6, and murdered is members and
their friends as she did, through her
own police. who knows but what Monroe
might have been Mayor vet. and the Demo-
Gratis IN possession Of the State. That
riot sealed the fate of the city. and gave
i. to the Republicans: AID Yet the very
men who .nfamed the people 20 the COM
mission Of that crime which disgraced
the community, and changed the political
complexion entirely, are still pushing
themselves forward as the very men to
give advice to the people whom they
have never ceased to lead into trouble
and confusion. They are quachs to-day
as they ever were and Will be. or else
they are deliberate prisoners, for they
continue to give such medicine to the
body polite as must destroy Us if it is
taken. What We want is reliable police
force that viii protect all the people, and
it makes but little difference whether the
city controls it or not so it is of the best
and is run upon the best system.
And we need never expect neither per
feet police nor perfect government I'M
til the people that make and support them
are perfect. Tie fault is not in the au-
thorlties that bad government prevails,
but it is in the people themselves who !
elect bad rulers. We have more COM
oetent men N charge of the city at pres
INT than the citizens would elect. if they
aad the opportunity. and public affairs
Ire better taken care of to-day than
hey have been for years. And yet
here Is constant demand for
;hanSe. Men of respectable business
qualifications want to modify the entire
government, because the bitches in front
If their houses are not cleaned out: and
mother set would pitch everybody over
BOARD because a goose has been i'm
pounded and stolen by rascallv pound
,eeper. The fact is, we make childs
LAY of government, setting up an organ
zation and then tearing our hands in the
tempt to pull it down again. Uutil We
earn that the fault is i'll the people, who
nsist on electlnS all their offers, aud then
alf attend to the work which they will
impose upon themselves, it will not make
luch difference where the power to recu-
,te the police resides. The present force
) probably cheaper and a better one
han We will get from the reformers. if
ley ever have the chance to govern Us.