Waterbury Democrat., 1901-12-18
ITINERANT VENDORS.
Committee From Merchants Associa-
 tion Looking Up the Law.


 The Merchants association. repre- scented by committee of which E. w. Mooring is chairman. called upon Chief of Police Egan this morning and after complaining to him of evident delinquency i'll the performance of duty by the police demanded of the chief that the business houses of the city be given the protection that is due them, which the law has granted them and which to the committees mind has not been seen to by the police de- partment. All this the committee, ill the person of Mir Mooring, attributed to the chief of police.
 The difficulty of dealing as the law requires with itinerant vendors seems to have been of long standing with the Merchants association. Business men have been complaining for some time at the meetings of the organization and finally they were at last obliged to appoint q committee to take the mat ter in hand and see that lhe protection which the law allows them was en- forced by the police department. It is not difficult to imagine to what ex- tremities they were driven, what an noyance they have been subjected and the extent to which the law relating to itinerant vendors had been violated be- fore the Merchants association felt compelled to take active measures.
 Accordingly letter complaining of this condition of affairs was written to the prosecuting attorney. 1t also re- minded him of his duty, as the com mittee saw it. and that body considered it part of his duty to procure evil dence and accordingly prosecute cases of this kind. The prosecuting attor- ney did not see the matter in this light He thought he knew his duty better than did the committee from the com plaining organization and he paid no more attention to it. He was not Chief Egan, nor police officer, and therefore it was not his duty to go around the city seeking up eases of it. inerant store Keepers and boomers of fire sales. Of course he could do this kind of work if he were so in- clined. but he did not care to consti- tute himself the whole police force and throw lot of men out of q job. Moreover he did not wish to offend Chief Egan. as he would necessarily do by assuming such n role
 
 getting in his work and the law which gives protection to tax-paying business houses was going to the dogs. The committee from the Merchants asso- ciation saw poor prospect of having the law enforced and their rights main tained by the police deDartment. The situation grew worse with the ap- proach of the holidays and at last one apparent itinerant vendor became dar- ing enough to associate himself with a business house on Bank street. This appeared like defiance. It irritated the committee already mentioned De- yond endurance and the resnlt was a stormy interview this morning in the police station between MT Mooring, the chief of police and the prosecuting attorney. Between the two criminal officials the ball of responsibility was tossed for over quarter of an hour. Each dodrad the liability of evident ne- glect of duty. but it seemed to finally settle with the chief of police as he promised to see to the matter. The prosecuting attorney claimed he could not do police duty with clear con- science. He was not paid for work of that kind. He was ever ready to take LID any case of violating any law provided he had the evidence to back it up. But here. no complaint had been made to him of any individual violating the law relating to itlnerant vendors. It was not his place to in- form the chief of police what his duty was.
 Any party found booming q fire sale could very well afford to have his iii- tentions regarding permanent citizen ship in this city inquired into by the judge of the police court. Any stran- ger associating himself to the extent of a window. or half window, in or with any well known established business house would bear investigation. The natural intelligence of properly in- structed policeman would prompt him where to suspect violation of the itinerant vendors law. Therefore 1t was essentially the duty of the police department to look into cases of this kind and let the judge of the city court interpret the law. That was point not for the prosecuting attorney nor the chief of police to decide, but the iudge of the city court. So ran the interview until the chief of police promised he would look into the mat ter.