The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-09-10

II the president during the past
few days, the opinion quoted be-
low from the experience of Jacob ltiis,
is interesting reading, 1t will be re-
mcmbered that Mr.. Riis performed his
most valuable work in police reform
in New York city when Mr., Roosevelt
was on the Police Board.
1--WE were not strangers" writes Mr..
Riis in last weeks outlook. 1T could
not have been long after | wrote How
the Other Half Lives that he came to
the Evening sun Office one day looking
for me. | was out, and he left his
card. merely writing on the back of it
that he had read my book and had
come to help That was all and it
tells the whole story of the man. l
loved him from the first day | saw
him; nor ever in the years that have
passed has he failed of the promise
made then. No one ever helped as he
did. For two years we were brothers
in Mulberry street. When he left | had
seen its golden age. l knew too we'll
the evil day that was coming back, to
have any heart in it after that.
mot that we were carried heaven
ward on howery beds of ease, while it
lasted. There is very little ease where
Theodore Roosevelt leads. as we all
of us found out. The lawbreakcr found
it out who predicted scornfully that he
would 'knuckle down to politics the
way they all did and lived to respect
him, though he sworc at him, as the
null. The peace loving citizen who
hastened to Police Headquarters with
anxious cntreaties to use discretion
| in the enforcement of unpopular laws
found it out and went away with a
new and breathless notion yelling up in
| him of an officials sworn duty.
| Roosevelt had the true philosophers
| stone that turns drosS tn gold, in his
own sturdy faith in his fcllowman.
| Men became good because he thought
| them 50. BY which / am not to be un-
derstood as meaning that he Just voted
| them Good-the police for instance
and sat by waiting to sec the wings
| grow. No, but he helped them sprout
! had at last found one who was will
| ing to get up when other people slept
including too often the police, and
see what the town looked like then.
| II never saw Theodore Roosevelt tC
better advantage than when he con-
fronted the labor men at their meet
| ing place. Clarendon Hall. The police
were all the time having trouble Will
the strikers and their pickets. ROose'
welt saw that it was because neither
party understood fully the position OF
the other and with his usual direct
ness sent word 10 the labor organiza
tion that he would like to talk it ovel
with them. 1t developed almost imme
diatcly that the labor men had tdker
wrong measure of the man. They
met him as a politician playing 70
points and limited at trouble unless
their demands We're met. Mr.. Roose
welt broke them off short:
Gentlemen" he said, with tina
snap of the jaws that always mad
people listen, 1 asked to meet yol
hoping that We might come To under
stand one another. Remember, please
that the worst injury any one of yOr
can do the cause of labor Is to Coun
sci violence. 1t will also he worse 10
himself. Understand distinctly tina
order will he kept, The police wi
keep it, Now we can proceed
II was never so proud and please
; as when they applauded him to tn
echo. He Redeemed with pleasure. 70
he saw that the best in them had com
out on top as he expected it would.
Roosevelt struck no blow belo,
2 the belt. In the governors chair after
) ward he gave the politicians whom h
) fought and who fought him, the sam
! terms They tried their best to ups6
! | him, for they had nothing to expeC
y from him, But they knew aud owne
r that he fought fair, Their backs WEI
e secure. lie never tricked them to gai
4 an advantage, A promise given by hin
e was always kept 10 the letter"
, In no emergency has Theodore Roos'
g welt been tried and found wanting.
k The base bali pennants do not seel
to attract as much attention this sea
5 son as last years weather flag,