St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-11-30
The MAYOR WEAKENS
He Realizes the Necessity Of
Braeing Up the Detective
Force,
And Follows the Course Laid
Down for Him by the
Globe.
The Scalp of Chief Detective
Mason Hangs on the
Ridge Pole,
And Now Capt. John MeGinn
will Yauk in the
Crooks.

1t now seems possible that the reign
of terror in ST. Paul will be terminated
Since the Inauguration of the reform"
administration thugs, burglars and
garroters have pursued their course
without the slightest interruption. The
detective force selected by Mayor
Wright and his imported chief
of police has been of the
most impotent sort Hold-ups
have been of nightly occurrence, but
none of the highwaymen have been ap-
pretended. What is the result? Chief
Detective John II. Mason has resigned,
and John McGinn, the Superintendent
of the Pinkerton agency in st. Paul, is
appointed. Mr.. Mason is good fell
low" and all that, and tolerable de-
tective in certain lines, but when
it comes TO coping with professional
crooks of the more clever order,
as John J. VConnor and the old de-
tective for Under the old regime kne W
them. Mason was utterly pOWerlesS.
Outrages were committed under his
aesthetic nose and he was perfectly in
uocent of the occurrences. Mayor
Wright concluded a month ago that
something had to be done to protect his
reform" administration. and Detective
Mason was at once drawn in the lottery
as the victim that must be inundated
on the altar of reform" Then the
reform mayor cast about for successor.
He could not confess that he had COM
mitted such an egregiOuS error or judy
ment as to allow the old detective force
to go and place in Office lot of green
horns, so he chooses another outside
man. But he has engaged shrewd and
cunning detective who has thrown about
his acceptance
A Coat of Mail.
as it were and Mr.. McGiDn would not
accept the appointment with restric-
tons and handicaps attached. If he
becomes the executive of the detective
department he is to be the executive de-
iure as we'll as defacto. He is to be in
absolute control. He is to name
all his subordinates, and, if he
uses his discretion in this respect
that he is ordinarily given credit for,
he will meet with success in his crusade
against the invasion of crooks that has
been invited by the incompetency of
the reform" control. Ii he chooses sub
ordinates that know thief when they
see him instead of choosing lot of al
innocent citizens than Wrong-doers, he
will make a record, and everybody who
knows John McGinn must give him the
credit of possessing that amount of
common sense. He will. reOrganiZe the
detective force throughout, and several
ward politicians who are now drawing
detectives salaries because of supposed
services conferred during the Wright
campaign will soon be looking for a
job. They will no longer be needed,
and genuine detectives will Supplant
them. 1t is due, in other words, to the
known Sagacity OF Mr. McGlnn to prom
Use that he will appoint real live de-
tecuves, who will work as detectives
rather than go about the city f1ouriShing
flags and trying to ID Ike glorious repu-
tatons as Republican partiSanS.
Mr.. McGlnn refused to be interviewed
upon the subject, and Nh. Mason could
not be found last evening. He was in
the city, and that was all that could be
aScertained. There was rumOr that
the resignation
Came Voluntarily
on his part, and for this reason he was
looked for, but the more reliable infor-
nation points to compulsory course.
Mayor Wright knows that he committed
an error In recognizing the police de-
partment. He knows that strangers are
not effective, and he unQuestionably re-
penis appointing an imported man as
chief of poliee-a man who scarcely
knew the difference between jackson
aud Wabasha streets when he quail
fed, took his oath Of office and
filed his bond. He knows now that a
man may be success as state prison
warden and an abject failure as chief
of police. He knows this just as well
as he knows that a man accus-
toned to an entirely different line
OF work must make an eXecra-
BILE botch of running detective
department in metropolitan city. He
knows that his erring course has paid a
premium TO thugs and robbers to come
to st. Paul to ply their vocation, and
that they really have come in such num-
berS and that they have conducted their
trade" with such persistency and bold
ness that citizens were about TO organ
ize a citizens protective league and
employ detectives that could actually
detect. Everybody expects better
things now.