The Saint Paul globe., 1900-04-20
WHAT GOOD HAS BEEN DoNEr


During the entire period OF Republican
local administration prior to the removal
of Michael N Goss from the position OF
chief of police the, people of St. Paul
found grievous fault with the manage
ment of the police force. For some
months before that removal, covering a
good part of the term of Mayor Kiefer,
the Republican press felt compelled to
unite in the general denuncIation which
had prevailed for so long before. The
two Republican papers differed widely,
however, in their location of the blame
for the condition of affairs which was
then universally recognized as involving
carnival of unpublished crime. The
Pioneer Press, on the one hand, insisted
on charging the existing evils up to the
corrupt connivance with crime Of the
two police cbiefs-Goss and Schweitzer.
The Dispatch, on the other hard, MAIN
tained that MayoreK1efer was responsible
By Ills unworthy tnterfereneei with those
officials in the management Of their de-
partment
1t is no part of the duty of the G ob 9
to determine which OF It's Republican con.
temporaries, was, right In it's diagnosis OF
the disease, or whether either of them
was right. When Mayor Kiefer finally
decided to relieve the situation by remov-
ing Goss and Schweitzer and certain of
1,oHr
regarded as tainted by the prevailing In
competency and corruption. the assurance
was given to the people that thereafter
the citizen would be secure In his person
and property, and that the criminals
would no longer flaunt themselves in pub
lid places.
1t is now quite three months since Chief
Goss stepped down from his office, and
the Pioneer Press and Dispatch were de-
prived of the only explanation or pallla,
ton they had to offer of the shameful
state of things which had prevailed Is
1t not right to ask these two Republican
partisan papers at this time what in
their opinion has been done in that three
months to remedy the situation on whose
evils they agreed in their statement?
Is crime any less general? Is the citi-
zen any mere secure in his rights Of per-
son or property? Has the burglar, the
hold-up man. the confidence man, or the
,nsed prostitute been in that three
months any less freely in evidence than
before? Is there no professional gamb-
ling in the city? Has the wine room evil
ceased to exist? Has any larger propor-
ton of arrests or convictions been record
ed si1 ce the opening Of the month Of
February?
Our contemporaries should enIighten
the public on the subject matter Of these
inquiries. If they or either of them can
not truthfully say that police matters
have been bettered, what have they to say
of the failure Of the newly organized
police department to give the people any.
thing like an equivalent for the $1S5. 900 or
thereabouts which is annually expended
on its maintenance?
OF course, the GIobe e looks at this
matter with the eye of partisan-or, as
McCardy would put it, it seeks to create
political capital-and to that extent it's
views are liable to be discounted We
might be enlightened If our contemporar-
les looking at it from an opposite stand
point of partisanship could tell us whore,
in the situation has been bettered, if at
all, by the changes made
We wait patiently for such answer as
our contemporaries or either of them
have to offer.