The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-09-21

oision already rendered by the supreme
court OH the claims of Getchell would
have put en- end to the litigious folly
which has distinguished the Republican
politicians throughout the entire affair
The police commission is invested with
all the responsibility for police admins
tration, according to the express terms OF
the new charter. What these men have
contended for is the principle that re-
sponsihility might be imposed by law on
public body without implying the
necessary power to enable the response
bility to be intelIigently discharged.
Apart from the legal principles of the
matter that is the moral attitude as
sumed throughout.
The G o be has strenuously urged on
the police commission the most radical
! and complete exercise of It's power of
removal 1t reiterates the advice. That
body has shown the proper disposition in
that regard; but for some reason not
t'--~A-- ~ SHS CtllZGIly ndS SlOp
ped short. It removed some very often
sive specimens of the roustabout and
! loafer whom the era of local reform
brought to the surface in the police
service All, or most of the
criminals pals who have been
| drawing police pay for the past
four or six years have been removed,
just as a few decent members Of
the force seem to have met the same
fate ON purely political grounds. But
i there still remain on the force certain
! corrupt and brutal he1ots of the local
Republican bosses-men whose moral
| or intellectual caHber does not oualif,,
them to herd cattle. Until all such as
they are removed from the force the
; members of the police commission cannot
! be said to have fairly entered upon the
discharge of the duty which they sever
ally and collectively owe the people of
securing as nearly perfect police admin
| istration as the free hand which the
charter gives them enables them to fur
! nish.
1t may not be inappropriate here 10 call
attention to the expression of opinion
| on this general subject which the peonle
of St Paul eve to the Republican county
convention which met in this CITY ON
Wednesday last. 1t is as follows.
Resolved. That we condemn the adj
nln!strauon of local municipal affairs
! by the Democratic party, and particularly
! us abuse of the charter powers relative
| to the police cGmmiss. on
| Read in the light of the decision of
the supreme and district courts respec-
lively on the subject of the powers of
the police commission, this declaration IS
| quite as fully expressive of the spirit in
which the local reform politicians ar
/ proach the subject as it is of the highly
enlightened and dispassionate view
which has been presented on the same
subject by our Republican contempora-
ries. 1t reveals at their true value the
alleged opinions of those who seem never
! to have been able to regard the subject
from any other view point save the one
CT the pecuniary loss involved in having
to give up the offices they were united
to hold
We hope that the police commissioners
in all the criticism which has yet to
come from the same sources will be as
little influenced against the fearless dis
charge of their full duty as they ap-
! peared to have been when they took
their original action in removing a num-
Der of the most obnoxious of those who
| have prosdtuted the police service and
dtsgraced the city.
If the official ak is made to swing
in the near future with as much effect
as it did then. the people of St. Paul
will have little fault to find. Theirs
/ is the power and theirs must be the
! responsibility, whether or not they ex-
ercise that power. If they continue to
he guided, as they have been guided in
theIr past conduct by the sound official
and legal advice of Commissioner Iawler
there is little doubt that they will fulfill
the highest expectations of the people.