Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1902-12-27
Citizens from Many Parts Of Town Write
Of Men and Events Of the
Day.
Pointed Questions Asked Regarding the Trans
actions Of Public Bodies and Of
Political Leaders.
Gossip Of the City and Of the Country
Forms the Subject Of Com.
munications.

Dec. 30.
To the Editor Chicago Eagle:
Dear Sir--As u member of the Chi
for the excellent service you have rem
lered the members of the department
In your fight for freedom In the pur.
chase OF our uniforms. The Eagle was
the solitary paper which started and
maintained u fight against the system
by which both police and Hrcii,en were
compelled to buy the material for their
uniforms through II purchasing agent
In the employ of the city admlnistrn-
tion. and am glad to say It won ont.
as the members of both departments
were sick and tired of this outrageous
plan. As you no doubt know, II was
announced early this week and the
information conveyed to all stations
and fire houses that policemen ana
flremcn will In future be allowed to
buy cloth for their uniforms In the
open market II the Council follows the
recommendation of the Police Commit
tee for the repeal of the existing or
dinance. The ordinance now cOmpels
the men to buy the cloth from the city
purchasing agent, who sells II to them
mt cost price.
| Chief O'Neill spoke the truth when
he said regarding the matter that the
American citizen likes to buy his cloth
ing where he pleascs. There IN too
much pnternalism about the city fur
nlshing cloth. no matter what the
cost II. l repeat that for nll OF
this your paper il to he thanked.
The blue coats. by the way. get few
special favOrs from present day munic-
ipal authorities. ana when common jus
tice IL meted out to them they should
duly appreciate the source through
which II has been advocated ana OBJ
tained. Yours sincerely.
POLICEMAN.
To the Editor Chicago Eagle.
Slr-In u recent edition of one OF the
morning papers there was published
nm editorial article which believe to
he In line with your general policy In
municipal affairs ana which perhaps
| sou iVIppuVNV Sout
spOndence column for the benefit of
your readers.
If there Is anything the city admins.
tratlOn has not left undOne that II
ought to have done I would like to
know 1t, ana the enclosed clipping. !
think, will illustrate what ! am drlv-
ing ut. Il. d. Il.
December ~.
The clipping referred to IL from the
Chicago Tribune, and IL as follows:
"Small reforms, they keep telling us.
are the enemies of big reforms. While
we spend our time mOpplng up minor
evils the sources from which those
minor evils flow are allowed to con-
tinue unstanched. What We need TO
do IL to proceed to the sources and
dam them up once for nll.
"This IL an attractive idea and holds
out such large prospect Of universal
regeneration that one feels abashed on
coming forward to suggest u reform
which will not regenerate anything.
Nevertheless. this reform now about to
he suggested will have its use, Its
small use. 1t Is II small reform ana n
modest one. 1t does not claim much
for itself. Yet, IN deprecating kind
of way, Il asks for attention.
"Why Is 1t that the street names on
corner electric lights are so placed that
ut night they cannot he read? The
electric light globe II In most cases
just below the metal strips on which
the names are printed. Consequently
when one looks for the name one gets
only binding glare. Can there not
he IN arrangement of light ana name
which will be less of u mOckery? 1t
Is ut night, when there are few per-
sons about of whom inquiries can be
made, that one particularly needs the
help of the corner signs. Yet 1t Is at
night that these signs become particu-
larly useless. Let there be change.
Society will not be affected In its vital
parts by that change. but many u be-
willered and eXasperated traveller will
be cheered and blessed ana sent on his
way rejoicing. Give the small reform
a chance to do a little good In its own
humble way"
The Eagle desires to add to this that
it is well known fact to most of the
travelling public that there Is hardly
one street sign out of every six cross
lngs outside of the business district,
and those that are up are either so
placed or twisted out of place as to be
misleading instead of guides to the
unwary pedestrlan.-Ed.)