Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-03-29
MEEKLY ADMITS
PAST FAILURE
Does the Union TO Knox's Police
Control, But Offers No
Remedy.
EXCEPTION OF FREE TALKING
Confessions and Promises Held
Out as Equivalent to Pub
lie Pledge.

Hardly second in its humiliating
nature to the excuse it has repeatedly
made for the denomination of b F.
Knox for mayor, is the abject apology
which the Union of this morning Of
fers for Andy Etzel's management of
police affairs under the Knox regime.
As if to make the task more comforta-
BILE the Union approaches it with an
attack upon the manner in which the
force was run under Chief Brennan.
1t ought not to be necessary to re-
fresh the Unions memory on the fact
that it was the republican mem bers on
that force continued in their
positions as an experiment on the
part of the mayor in the interest of
civil service reform who cut up the
worst capers and brought disgrace
upon it. But, to the Unions
apology for the unfortunate Andy,
who was the Knox mainstay through h.
out his term. Here it is: John
Brennan was a sorry specimen of a
city marshal, much sorrier than An
drew Etzel ever was, for. though pain
fully lacking in conception of executive
authority, Andrew was ever a clean
and wholesome man, and Mayor Knox
kept him in place through genuine
personal regard when it would have
been better for the police force had he
chosen instead an officer who pos
sessed the faculty of enforcing disci-
pline without effort-the faculty that
MIR. Etzel did not have. Mr.. Knox
freely confessed this error of kindly
feeling while yet working for the
present republican nomination and
declared his intention, if nominated
and elected, to seek for marshal a
man of education and ability fitted
for the work he has to do. He has
talked freely on this subject and pro-
poses to meet this requirement in a
manner that will show his sincerity
and earnestness.
We do not know that it is neces sary
to go any further on the subject of
Andy. The Union has cleared the
question up so thoroughly that the
task of carrying further expression of
admitted fact to the point of cruelty
may well be avoided.
still Avoids Frank Expression.
1t is gratifying TO know that of the
confessed weaknesses of his former
administration, Mr.. Knox, in his zeal
to get another term as mayor, has
talked so freely, but the most signif-
can't part of it all is that for one who
has been given to discussing with
such freedom the inequalities for
which he has been responsible in
the past, should have hesitated to
publicly declare himself on the all
absorbing topic before the peo-
pie. 1t is just two weeks today since
Mr.. Knox was nominated, and it will
be two weeks tomorrow since Mr..
Banding, on accepting his nomina-
ton, took the advance ground on the
burning question of the city's present
moral condition. Yet today, for the
first time in the two weeks that have
elapsed, tackled On to the end of it's
third apology for the former Knox
and so that it will
be apt TO catch the attention of
those it ought to hit, without
arousing the other side, the Union
says: "He expects the license ordi-
to be observed and he does not
propose that women shall be harbored
in saloons" That is the nearest APP
proach that has come to indicating
Mr.. Knox's attitude on the issue on
which Mr.. Banding has irrevocably
declared himself. But yet, so far as
Mr.. Knox is personally concerned, he
is still silent.
The Question for FaIrmInded People.
Whatever may have been said by him
and to what extent and with what free
dom he has discussed how far he failed
before. and what he may do if elected
again. the people have for two weeks
waited for him to express himself
publicly on the issue on which his
defined himself in terms
frank and explicit. And he has not
done it.