The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-01-12
CHANGE OF CITY GOVERNMENT.

NAnLVA VI NAk WV ANAAANAs
Last Monday afternoon Mayor Gray
vacated the executive chair of the
city of Minneapolis after serving the
public faithfully, efficiently and hon
estly during the past two years. AS
was truly said by President Jones OF
the new city council, Mayor Gray re
tired from the Office che had so honor
ably and acccptably filed with the
esteem Of the entire community. In
his valedictory address Mayor Gray
dwelt at length upon municipal mat
tiers and made several excellent recon
mendations. He spoke highly of Pc
lice Superintendent Doyle and paid
Il well-merited tribute to the men un
der his supervision. He said that thu
patrolmen should be protected In theil
places until found inefficient or COR
rupt, and during his term he had re
moved less than ten per cent of them
and generally for specific causes.
The inaugural address of Mayor
Ames was surprisingly brief, but t,
the point. After his garrulous utter
nnces in the Tribune since his cleo
ton, many believed that his message
would equal in 'words Of learned
length and laundering sound the lasl
message Of Mckinley to congress OIL
his policy in Cuba, Porto Rico and til,
Philippines. But he boiled things dow
in fine shape and made good i'm
preston by the brevity Of his re
marks, the only one worthy of note
being that "the developing tendency
of the age is that special or class legis
lation should be avoided"
Then came the sensational event Of
the day. Mayor Ames handed in a re-
vised roster of the police department.
showing that he had reduced the old
force fifty per cent, thus throwing 105
men out of employment in the begin
ming Of winter. OF the discharged
men, about half are called "Irish,"
though many Of them are the sons of
Minnesota pioneers and never saw
Ireland or the sky over it. Others of
them are natives Of different states,
while some of them hail from the
Canadian provinces.
1t is said by some that Mayor
Ames decapitated the Irish" because
they resented his gratuitous insult to
their nationality and creed after his
return from Europe in 1880, but this
he denies in an Interview in his Off
cial organ as follows: "Now, here are
the facts. have made my appoint
ments in accordance with the ratio of
population Of each nationality. Thus
you will find that the police force is
composed of 05 Americans, 40 Irish,
80 Scandinavians, Is Germans, II
French and Canadians, and Is men OF
mixed races such as Slavs, Jews
Poles. etc. So you see that after the
Americans there are more Irish than
any other nationality on the force
What, then, becomes of the crusade
against Catholics?"
If Mayor Ames has made appoint
ments according to nationality, the
''Irish' have no cause to kick, hui
the Scandinavians certainly have
What is properly called Americans
are the descendants of Europeans
born in America who are citizens OF
! the United States, and men of al
races come under that category
Mayor Ames uses Americans" in +,
restrictive sense and includes in tina,
designation only men of New Eng
land birth and their descendants. Ir
other words, all bearing Anglo-Saxor
names are Americans; while all the
rest are Irish, Scandinavians, Ger
mans, French, Canadians, Slavs, Jews
and Poles. For instance, the colored
patrolman of the third precinct, Mack
Brady, who was born in Dixie's land
was made Irish" by Mayor Ames
and bounced; while Charles A. Foster
was appointed by him because he has
an american" cognomen.
The fact is that every man of every
nationality who was so arbitrarily de.
prived of employment by Mayor
Ames is as good an American ms he