The evening times., 1895-11-30
FAVOR INCREASED FORCE
Continued From First Page.

Europe but Washington has the finest
streets of any city. Her street car sys'
TEN is growing better. There is room
for improvement, though This CITY
should have the best electricity, water
and sewer systems, street-cleanng de-
par.ment, police force and gas. This
last need should be enphas We
need better as well as cheaper gas, and
there is ne reason why we should not
have it. AS to the exact size OF the police
force and its proportion to territory and
population, as compared With other
cities, am not in Informed. From what
l learn IL is not adequate. however, and
/ would assuredly favor anything TO
increase 1t. I know that it lies mainly
in the hands of Congress to remedy these
things, and am in favor OF doing any
thing to make Washington finer. 1t
should be model city, from which every
visitor would go home to his native city
and sal that such and such a municipal
institution should be fashioned after
that in Washington.
GUIDED BY THE COMMITTEE.
Hon $. e. Payne, New York: II am in
favor OF an adequate police force for
this city. We haven't any too much
money, but 1 would be guided wholly
by the report OF the District Commit
tee on the matter in favoring or dis
1ayorffg an appropriation Ior an. au-
dition to the force
Hon. c. p. Taft, Ohio: 'I, of course,
know nothing about the present ade-
quacy Of the force. The Capital City
should have as good police force as
any other city Of the same size and l
would favor measures 10 make II equal
Many members have Just arrived, and
not having been in the city before know
absolutely nothing about the situation
here. AS a rule, however, they were dis
posed to favor an increase in the force If
it could be shown that the need existed
Almost all the members of the House,
while they did not care to express an
opinion one way or the other, seemed dis
posed to consider the question from 4 IA
vorable point, and il the fact that mere po-
licenen are needed within the District to
properly protect life and property, from
the expressions that were heard last night
there can be no doubt that the force will be
materially increased during the present
session of Congress.
Everyone knows that it takes II large
number of men to properly protect a city
that is spread out like this one, During the
past few years the suburbs have been built
up in such a manner that 1t is absolutely es-
'ential that they have police protection of
some kind.
As sho wn by the daily reports submitted to
the superintendent of police, at the time OF
night> when the greatest police protection
IS needed. there are only / 90 men on duty.
These patrolmen have to cover seventy
three square miles of territory. Statistics
will show that Washington has the smallest
force in the country in proportion to the
population and area. The fact that many
are reported daily and no one
arrested for them shows the absolute in
of the numerical strength Of
the present force.
The patrolmen OF Washington have the
longest beats in the United States to COW
ar. and then in some sections the tough
clement exists TO such an extent that an
officer cannot make an arrest without be-
ing resisted. In such localities two men
ID a beat are badly needed, but owing to
he present limited number OF patrolmen
AVAILABLE for duty this has been found in |
most cases impossible.