The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-10-22

liSuleu Stfeet. lie gets the roll and
then the police reporter, with nose
for news on a "dry" night, pipes" up
big story of a bold highway robbery
The trouble is that the vagrancy law
is not good enough to allow the police
judge to conscientiously send these
fellows to the rock pile on the evidence
of the officers that they have been seen
lettering on their beats. The hobo
says he's a workingman, and unless
caught in the act of robbing; unless an
habitual loiterer on an officers beat, it
is sometimes hard matter to prove a
case of vagrancy in court.
Under the short Jones' Waite admin
istration things were the same. The
porch climber made his nightly hauls;
the highway robber held many VIC
tins up; two killed an unknown man
in Prospect Park; that latter district
was terrorized by daylight and night
burglars. Mr.. Waite was an honest,
energetic man, inexperienced, it is true,
but nevertheless doing the best he
knew how.
But here has been Chief Conroy's
success. Waite did not have the friend
ly cooperation of the st. Paul chief of
police. Not that John O'Connor knew
the men who We're doing the work
But st. Paul is a liberal, conservative
city, literally and conservatively gov.
erned, and during the Jones admin.
istration-well, all who were here then
need not be told.
When Chief Conroy came into the
position Of chief of police he, too, was
inexperienced But he had been a pub
lie man for years; he had mixed
and knew all classes. He knew and
had personal acquaintance with
Cardinal" O'Connor and his brother
the chief. John O'Connor told him al
the outset that he could look for the
friendliest cooperation. A fellow who
cannot live in st. Paul cannot jump
over to Minneapolis and live here. And
vice versa. The two departments have
worked hand-in-hand, so to speak, in
police matters and in the control of
crime. A good thief, if he happened
to drop into st. Paul, would not bother
the town; and when he learned "out
on the road" that the two ''big fell
lows" were friendly and working to-
gether, if he came to Minneapolis, he
came to visit his folks or "just passed
through
The same conditions will exist and
continue if Mayor Haynes and Chief
of Police Conroy continue to handle
the affairs Of their respective offices.
If the people of St. Paul classed the
.Jones-Waite administration as tight
laced and puritanical, will they be apt
to change their opinion if they assume
control again? Or, on the other hand.
will thieves when they meet on the
road say. "Well, they got new lot of
officers in Minneapolis and new chief
of police, and we tore up the town
once before and let's do it again." The
winter months drive the desperate
highwayman. the burglar, the lodging
house thieves, the lap robe thief, the
porch climber, to get money or the
equivalent, to get in out of the WIN
ter's blasts; to procure warm and COM
Portable clothing, ETC. He won't work.
He's stole so long he can't conscien-
t1ously do otherwise. He reads in the
local papers that Minneapolis is short
of requisite number of policemen to
properly police it's SO square miles of
territory. He knows lot of people
are travelling; he knows the theatre
season is on and he can work while
they sit and enjoy the show, and the
policeman is blocks away. And so he
does work. The chief of police knows
that under the vicious political system
that there are lot of old, incompetent
officers, incapacitated by long service,
and those who depend upon political
pull to hold on. The patrolman must
be pulled in, dressed in plain clothes,
leave his beat to be covered by the
officer on the adjoining beat, while he
looks after this class of criminals with
the regular detectives or regulates the
social evil. Minneapolis won't change
its mayor of chief of police this year
and for the above reasons. Because
Republicans as we'll as Democrats
have sense and know conditions we'll