The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-10-14
"BILLY" EDWARDS, THE "BIe NIT"
MAN, DISCUSSES POLICE OF
THE TWIN CITIES
PAYS A HIGH TRIBUTE
TO ST. PAUL'S CHIEF
Says That Capt. John Clark Is Az
quainted With All the Crooks, and
They Are Compelled to Behave
Themselves in the Sanity City
Praises Detective James Doyle.

William Moore, alias Edwards, for
merly king of the Minneapolis grafters,
snd his co-partner, Cheerful Charlie"
Howard, were sentenced yesterday by
Judge A. M. Harrison, of Minneapolis,
ito ten days in jail.
The men were highly elated at re-
ceiVing SO light a sentence. Edwards
demeanor in court was, as during the
trials in which he figured as a witness,
that of a man of culture reduced to
severe straits by career of vice. He
listened with an air of deferential salts
faction to the remarks of eX-Assistant
Attorney Smith in his behalf, and then
faced the court for sentence without a
trace of braVado and still without ner-
Vousness.
Edwards attention was called yester-
day to the controversy that has aris-
en- concerning the relative merits of
st. Paul and Minneapolis methods of
city government.
'T do not care to go into these mat
ters," said Edwards IT have been in
terested, however, in articles that have
been printed concerning Minneapolis
double-headed police administration.
notably in the fact that it is regarded
in some directions as a sociological
experiment rather than practical sys-
tenn.
Praises Detective Doyle.
at is impossible to tell what will be
the result of q new idea in govern
ment until it has been tried, and there
may be something that will reftt m
the worlds police methods in dealing
with vice, behind the plan now being
tried in Minneapolis Certainly there
is no ADLER man as a policeman than
Jim Doyle, and he may be depended
on to do what is possible toward keep
ing matters right here with the men
at his command The changes made
in the Minneapolis police force of late
were very necessary changes. You
can't have a decent city government
with crooks in the police department.
Every member of the under world
of any experience at all is more or less
a student of city government, usual
ly for strict unitarian reasons.
have looked into the governments of
good many cities, and where possible
l have favored residence in towns that
gave me license to live on my prom
Use to do no work. 1t is the custom to
give thieves immunity in many of the
large cities of this country on their
promising not to conduct operations
in the town where such immunity is
granted. 1t is also fact that the po-
lice in these cities do not bother their
heads about what a man does in an
other town provided he keeps his word
with them.
O'Connor Knows the Crooks.
'fBut when anybody says this system
is pursued in st. Paul, I think they
are mistaken. O'Connor, the ST. Paul
chief of police, doesn't need to make
terms with crooks. I tell you that
there is not regular man in any line
of crooked work in this country that
O'Connor doesn't know, and Clark is
just as well acquainted.
when a crook falls into st. Paul,
he knows that he may live there so
long as he behaves himself, but it is
cinch that there, is no agreement
with him as to where or how he may
work. The fact is that the men who
go to st. Paul know that if John runs
across them by accident or finds out
they are in town, they will have to go
on the carpet mighty quick. The re-
suit is that they so UP to headquarters
and report. What makes ST. Paul
safer than most cities from thieves is
that the police there have them down
pretty fine, and they know that if any
trick should happen to be turned while
they are in the city 1t will be charged
to them unless they have reported and
given their words to be straight.
Mayor Jones Has Delicate Job,
'Of course it is not up to me to talk
about the new administration in Min
neapolis. In the first place, I have
been in Jail all the while this police
government has been active, but it
seems to me that if the guardianship
of public morals can be separated
from ordinary police work, it will be a
triumph for Minneapolis. The gentle
men who are trying to introduce this
system here ought to have every en-
couragement from the public, for it is
a delicate job and one that requires
patience on the part of the public as
well as on the part of the administra-
ton.
Il know a great deal about the hor-
rors of existence for women of the
town under such a system of fines and
grating as existed under the late city
government. l know, too, that the
great cities of the world have tried all
sorts of sociological experiments in
the hope Of finding something to take
the place of the ordinary brutal sys-
tenn, and if there is a solution of the
problem, / don't see why they shouldn't
- find it in Minneapolis as easily as in
= New York or London. The Mime
apolis plan is a novel one, but it need
not be a failure for that reason. AT
all events, it possesses the elements of
humanity and decency.
when I go out of this place I'm 60
ing to work. I won't say where, but
it will be honest work, and I'll make
good. Charlie Howard is going to
work, too. I'm through with grating
for good. There never was dollar in
it that a man could call his own. So
far as we are now concerno1, neither