St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-19
Paul and the result. 1t was the obser-
yation of our force that secured them.

| Paul and the result. 1t was the obser-
vation of our force that secured them.
| The police force must be honest.
| They can't protect crooks and the public
too. The mayor must know the art of
| selecting the right men for the right
| place. Bad men on the force should not
| be tolerated for moment; there must
be no compromising with crime. The
police must be absolutely reliable; ever
on the alert; ever watchful.
If had my way there would be no
| saloons. But they are with us and we
must meet the difficulties they bring in
a practical way. Theory is all the good
one man can think of; practice is all the
| good one man can do. Here is the diff
ference; we can't govern by theory, but
We can be practical. Mayors have nearly
all been sacrificed on the altar of duty
expect 10 be slaughtered. | expected
to be when | accepted the position, but
L do not know OF any reason why n
good citizen should shirk any call of
duty. He should Try to do his best.
Everybody can pick at him and criticiSe
him and misrepresent his motives, but
he can only do his best. He should try
| to do what is right.
We have the SalooniSt and the eX-
tremlst. On one side he who would go
to impractical extremes in closing and
regulating; on the other the wide open
policy. Regarding his oath of Office the
mayor must be absolutely fair and just.
The saloon man has paid his license
under the law and is entitled to tae
protection of the law the same as any
other citizen. The mayor in dealing
with him should approach him in he
same Split that he approaches any
other citizen who offends under the
laws or ordinances. They should not
be clasSed as outlaws or treated as such.
Some are good men and good citizens;
most of them are. l said to myself Os-
wald, sBarge, Orth, Heinrich and others
dealing i'll intoxicating liquors are fair
minded men; l will talk with them and
see If we can't arrange policy
that will correct some of the most glar-
ing evils OF the liquor ira ffic. I'll see if
we cannot show the saloon men that it
IS not to their interest to be instru-
mental in making convicts and drunk
ards, and we adopted a system of blanks
for use in reporting upon the character
of each saloon. These covered informa-
ton as to character of the man and of
his patrons, whether his place was fre-
quented by crooks, whether they closed
according 20 the regulations, whether
they sold to minors, whether tn ey were
accustomed to give free drinks and as
to whether the customers bought by the
drink or bottle. They have gathered
a vast amount of valuable and in
teresting information. Acting OH this
information and their general knowl-
edge of men and things they had tried
TO 10 the best they could, not for the
millennium, but for today. He insisted
that he would rather have the active ir-
f1uence and cooperation of a saloon
keeper or bartender in the work of
remedying the evils Of the liquor traffic
than the help of dozen prohibition
orators. He spoke of the Englishman
who was robbed in connection wit h two
saloons at minneapolis last summer, of
the trial and its results, and of his col
lecting the money from the two saloon
keepers, and the adoption OF rule
since then that saloonkeepers must
make good losses occurring in their
places under similar circumstances.
The result has been that there have
been no more offenses of that class.
One-third of all the drunks result
from free drinks. and another third get
drunk on a little money, aud yet it is
this class of people who give the busi-
ness of selling liquor black eye, while
it brings no compensating returns. Their
business is damage. He learned the
character of these people, and got ac-
counts of their situation as to family
and means, and asked the saloonkeep-
erS TO help him check the evil of in
temperance so far as they were con-
cerned, and they did. Among all the
$500 drunks he found but one taxpayer.
He asked the saloon men to tone up
their business, and found them ready
and anxious to do it. II tell you," he
said, ''you can do most for humanity by
making friends with the better class of
saloonkeepers, encouraging them to
build up sentiment among themselves
that will result in correcting the grosSer
evils of the saloon business than you
can by attacking them and CHASING
them with everything that is vile.
81 don't ask the preachers to make
friends with them; they can go on de-
nouncing them and the traffic as much
as they like, but don't interfere with
the really good work the authorities are
trying to do; encourage them rather. 1t
may not be hard to run a church, but it
is hard to run city. The city embraces
the good and the bad, the Jew and the
Gentle, the white and the black, the
weak and the strong. and each have
equal rights. The object of government
is to give the greatest happiness to men
of all classes, not the greatest to few
of one class.
"Select the right man for mayor, elect
him without regard to party, and then
be fair with him. The government of a
city is matter of business; make a
business matter of it and hold your
mayor-elect strictly to business
DIR. SMITHS ADDRESS.
"A Roast on the Saloon in Poll
itics.