The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-03-15
The Need Of State
Police Emphasized
From the Philadelphia Press


~ HERIFF MARTIN was able to dis
NO perse riotous mob and restore or
~ der in Luzerne county because he
WI had the backing of an exceptionally
courageous and loyal posse COM
itatus. 1t must be admitted that av-
erage citizens, taken at random and alb
ruptly pressed into the service Of the
sheriff, cannot be relied upon for sus-
tanned effort of difficult and dangerous
character. Neither can they be trusted
to give their chief the required moral and
material support in critical emergency.
1t requires preparation and schooling to
enable most men to meet q crisis in the
right spirit. Sheriff Martin says he never
again would sumomn deputies of the class
that served him last time, because it is
asking too much of responsible citizens
to call on them to undergo what these
men did in the police service. Such duties
should not deYolve on chance conscripts.
The entire state should have It's police
force, charged with the duty of enforcing
the law and preserving the peace. We
recognize and meet this need in cities.
We recognize the need too, i'll the coun-
try but owing to a stupid conservatism
we have not thus far provided for 1t
there.
The small towns, the villages and the
rural districts need the care of the state
ter consultation, cooperation and combi-
nation are easy, and the people can read
lily look out for themselves. 1t Is quite
otherwise in the sparsely settled regions.
The ordinary expenditures fall heavily
upon the scattered populations. whose
wealth is very limited. The governor of
Pennsylvania, in his annual message,
recommended that good public schools
should be maintained by the state In
towns not able to provide them. A SINH
lar principle applies to the construction
of bridges and to the making and repair
ing of roads Pre-eminently all this ap-
plies to the establishment of a state po-
lice, which shall extend its care over ev-
cry country lane and every isolated dwell
ing.
There was once a tradition that the
country was the abode of domestic peace
| and security; but as things now are, no.
| where is crime committed with more i'm
| punity. A riotous mob may terrify a
whole township. The solitary dwelling
| may be invaded and the occupants tor
tured until they give up their little pos
| sessions. The children on their way TO
| school, women passing through unfre-
| quented lanes, are exposed to the violence
of the tramp and the criminal, who has
no places of resort and who cannot we'll
| be traced, may be In another county be-
fore the body of his victim is seen. One
result of all this is the tendency of the
| villager. of the farmer and his family, to
| leave their quiet but insecure homes and
| to crowd the already congested cities,
where the husband and father knows that
| while he is absent at his daily work his
| family are not exposed to imminent peril.
| o
| There should be a department of public
safety at Harrisburg charged with the
oversight of a police covering the entire
state. Every road should be patrolled at
least once a day. Encampments of tramps
should be broken up. Menaces of disor-
der, violations of sanitary laws, causes
| threatening fire should be reported Cat
| tie going at large should be restrained
The members of this police should be per-
sons above the average intelligence, able
to impart information, and they should
be persons of calm disposition, fitted tc
exercise something of judgment, and not
only to arrest offenders. but often by q
timely counsel to prevent offense. Mobs
could be restrained and dispersed by suci
a force. The central authority should
have power to transfer the members OF
this force from one locality to another
and to promote them for merit and ef1-
cheney only.
OF course. such a department would
involve some expense Everything worth
having costs; but this expense would b,
more than balanced by the added value
given to all farms, by the better security
given TO life and property in the mining
regions and by the increased tranquility
and happiness of a rural life. In all thi
matter we can derive very useful lesson
from the experience of the older countrie
of Europe. where the rural police ha
| long been an established Institution,