The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-03-17
MILITARY MEN AS POLICE HEADS

New York is now passing through an
experience which is unhappily novel
with American cities. BY the appoint
ment of General Francis V. Greene to
Mayor Low has brought new type of
man to the front General Greene has
many claims to distinction. Educated
at West Point, he manifested high or
der of ability as an engineer. AS mill
tary attache to the American legation
at st. Petersburg, the young officer was
selected to follow the Cars armies in
the Turko Russian campaign of 1877;
and his report concerning the opera
tons in the Balkans Immediately be-
came a classic. Throughout the inter-
vening years, the reputation of this
| specialist has steadily risen, so that his
competence in all matters connected
with his art is to-day beyond dispute.
| Fortune has come to him through mar
rage, and the meaner temptations have
thus been relegated to the background.
| Commissioner Greene is doing battle
with the "grafters' who have clouded
guardians. The knife has been applied
to the cancer which was eating out the
heart of the metropolitan constabulary.
! Scores Of useless detectives have been
reduced to the ranks, and peCulating
! patrolmen have been removed from the
| field of their perniCious activity. Pro-
prietors of Illicit resorts have been Civ
en- to understand that the laws are not
made to be broken. Discipline has TAX
en- the place Of organized anarchy.
Such a revolution must cheer the hearts
of all who love the light.
| Municipal maladministration is the
most conspicuous blot on this country's
fair fame. 1t is a humiliating fact that
We have on the whole succeeded so well
in the larger, and so i'll in the smaller,
affairs which touch our national we'll
| being. Why is it that we keep fleets
and armies in the highest state of effl-
! cheney, and yet recoil in dismay from
the task of policing the cities in which,
as the years roll on, larger and larger
proportion of our toilers dwell? Plain
| ly, the answer must be sought in the
knowledge that the vast majority of
our military officers are typified by
General Greene, while the Devery style
of man is only too common among our
chiefs of police.
| 1t is mistake to suppose that the
head of a police department must be a
thief taker, pure and simple In Great
Britain, as in most European lands, the
rule is quite the other way. London,
for example, finds security beneath the
sway Of a soldier who has served the
crown beyond seas. Such a command
err gives moral backbone to every SUI
coordinate. Blackmail is impossible to
him who, through long career Of plain
living and high thinking, has come to
set the honor of his cloth above all
other earthly possessions. The whole
perspective is changed when one by
long association with the heroic breed is
impelled to put money last, instead of
first, in the catalogue of blessings The
criminal classes bow in instructive sub
mission to the law-officer who practices
what he breaches.
1t is high time that every American
city turned over a. new leaf in its
scheme of criminal justice. No COM
munity can hope for real prosperity If
it's police make evil their good. The
fountain, poisoned at the source, must
bring death to all who drink. The citi-
zens of New Orleans should ponder this
problem of problems well, and should
resolve that the old type give place to
the new in their midst. The execution
of this great reform will make all 9TH
ers easy enough. 1t is the first step
that costs. Let US hope that public
opinion will soon crystalline round this
point, so that our police may be a bull
wark instead of being an undeniable