The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-07


oolfg the work that properly belongs
10 IT, tendency to rely upon the law
10 the exclusion of making each indi-
Vldual feel and do his duty has pene-
trated here as elsewhere. There is a.
constant effort to have city councils
pass restrictive regulations binding
upon the whole body of the commu-
hlty; so that the police, whose duty it
is TO maintain order, shall be relieved
! OF the necessity of watching for par
tlcular violations of it by sweeping or
uerS which are in themselves unwise,
unnecessary and an interference with
individual liberty. 1t is on this ground
that the decision of the municipal court
declaring the ordinance against hotel
runners improper and invalid is to
be justified
There is a legitimate business for the
MOTEL runner. 1t is perfectly proper for
the keeper Of place of public enter
talnment to solicit patronage as long
as he does it without annoying others.
agents to bring him business as
wholesale house has to employ travel
ing men to go over the country and
stir up trade. The trouble about it is
that this business has been so con-
quoted in this City as to become
public nuisance. 1t has been impossi-
ole for persons coming into the city
to leave the union depot without run
ming the gauntlet of a lot of hotel run
hefs, who assault them with a perfect
storm Of solicitations, and would grab
their handbags and even lay hold of
their persons in their eager desire to
secure business and earn their wages
Now the suppression of this is the
duty of the police force. Policemen are
appointed and paid to preserve public
order AS the judge properly says, the
actions of hotel runners, that have
been complained of in the past, fall
within the definition of disorderly con-
| duct A policeman stationed at the
union depot with orders to do his duty
and with the knowledge that his SUI
periors would hold him to a rigid ac
counting if complaint were made, could
regulate this matter perfectly. In
stead of that we have the assumption
on the part Of the city council, and
have always had it, that there was no
limit between the two extremes of
dealing with this question. Either the
hotel runner must be allowed to COM
nit practical assault upon a possible
patron, or he must be forbidden alto
gether by city ordinance to ply his
trade. We suppose that between those
two vicious policies we shall continue
until we get around to the idea that
police force is meant to do actual
police work, and not to depend upon
the power Of an ordinance to do it for
them.
1t is exactly the same situation that
we find with reference to the reguIa-
ton of Wheelmen. The only abuse of
the wheel and the whole series of
casualties that grow out of it remain
untouched. The remedy is perfectly
simple If officers were detailed to ston
reckless riding, take up the scorcher
whenever and wherever found and haul
him to the central station, there would
be no more COMPLAINT of danger from
the bicycle Pfhaff there is of danger
from the wheeHarrow. The trouble is
that the authPrtties feel that they must
rely not upon the work Of the police
department, but upon an ordinance.
They must either have an ordinance
that will take away from wheelmen
their rights and infiict upon the whole
body of them, law-abiding as well as
law-breaking, unjust hardship, or the
bicycle must remain without any regu-
lations, and the scorcher be allowed
to complete his perfect work accord
ing to his own evil will.
Nowhere is the tendency to get away
from individual liberty and to substi-
tute for an Intelligent protection Of
the rights of men a set of blind and
tyrannical regulations greater than in
the practical operation of the police de-
partment of every large city. The po-
lice are ceasing to be Individual
workers and constituting themselves
merely the engineers of a system
where they have only to stand with
their hands on the throttle valve Of
an ordinance, throw it wide open and
let her go The fate, of the ordinance
against hotel runners illustrates the
point perfectly. We shall watch the
result with much interest to see wheth-
er in ST Paul the good advice of the
municipal court will be followed, and
the police suppress a public nuisance
without interfering with legiti-
mate business, or whether they will
fold their hands and let pandemonium
reign at the union depot, declaring
their impotence unless they can get a
hard and fast ordinance,
The smoke nuisance the scorching
nuisance, the hotel runner nuisance
and all other nuisances are perfectly
within the control of any government
which feels that it's first business is not
the running Of political machine, or
the currying of favor with this class
or the other in the community, but the
maintenance in their integrity of all
the rights of all the people against pos
sible assault We need not add that