The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1905-09-11
ASININE AND INSULTING.

So accustomed are citizens of Providence to spasmodic and sense
less displays of police activity since the department was placed under
the control of a state appointed commission that they have come to
accept such explorations as evils that must be borne until the iniqui-
tols law under which that commission exists has been repealed or
radically amended. However, it may be said their patience w never
more soreiy tried by the present mBft police administration than it
was yesterday when, by al asinine order, it invaded the rights of the
proprietors of reputable hotels, interfered with the liberty of their
legitimate guests and offered a gratuitous insult to organized labor.
Assuredly the limit of stupidity was reached when the command
went forth from the body that wields the usurped powers of the citi-
gems of Providence, that neither wine nor any other alcoholic beverage
should be served to any guest in any hotel in the city. The habby
reason given for the issuing of this fatuous order was that because of
the parade of labor organizations it was feared there might be such
general indulgence in liquor as to bring about a serious dissertation
of the Sabbath.
An Illuminating thought this, especially when conceived by the
same mind that granted the unusual privilege of a Sunday parade.
If the police commission feared, IS it now pretends it did, that the
labor parade might be an Indictment to a saturnaia of inebriety, why
in the name of all that is reasonable did it give authority for the
demonstration and thus provide the very means for the realization of
its fear' Was it seeking another opportunity 70 exploit the powers
conferred upon it by a designing political ring for sinister partisan
purposes Or was it simply another of those manifestations of utter
incapacity and unftness that have characterized the board since a
supne and servile legislature brought it into being?
The assumption of the police commission that either members
OF labor unions or the thousands of citizens who would naturally tes-
ty their sympathy for organized labor by witnessing the parade,
would, after the demonstration was over, become besotted and dan
gerous to the Sabbath peace, is simply contemplate. 1t ii al unwar-
ranted insult to the workingmen and their friends, who ar among the
most orderly, peace loving and law-abidng members of this COM
munity. None but minds encorpassed by the narrowest of horizons
could for a moment entertain the odious thought that when organized
labor is given the opportunity for a public demonstration it must
necessarily follow II W1tha drunken debauch; yet Just such a degen-
crate thought must have prompted the order given hotel keepers yes
terday as well as the command that placed policemen in front of
hotels to see that the order was obeyed.
Nor is it to be forgotten that the men who marched in vester-
days worthy and imposing procession and those who witnessed lit
with gratihed interest and manifest sympathy are not the sort who
turn TIN Sabbath into a day for carousing or who induce hotel keepers
to become lawbreakers in order that a depraved appetite NAV be fed
to safety. These men are intelligent, reputable and decent citizene;
they are neither drunkards by habit nor jewellers even by chance.
ihey are the brain and Drawn of our Industries; the builders of homes
and the chief reliance of the community for its progress, its prosperity,
its decency and its safety.
IL insult such a large potential and honorable class OF the cii-
zenshp IS the police commission did yesterday, simply emphasizes
anew the imperative need of the aid of every man deserving the name
:" american d IN a crusade that will wipe the monstrous police
commission law from the statutes and save Providence from, f,-,he-
manifestations OF impudence. ineffciency and asininity in tn: direction
OF its police department.