The Coeur d'Alene press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1906-1907, 1907-04-29

his surprise, when he arrived In New
York the mayor offered him the polio,
Il commissIonership- that autocratic of
nce once held by the other Theodore
now In the White House.
About the hFst thing Commissioners
Bingham did after he took the oath Of
odice was to abolish the "ahoo dy'
squad established some years before
By Commissioner Roosevelt to SPY up
on policemen and see IL they were do.
Ing their duty.
Then he called together the police In.
spectors, captains and other command.
Ing officers and made little impromp-
tn speech which would go down to his.
tory as classic of common sense were
1t not for the fact that 1t contains q
stinker's dam and several stronger ex-
pletives which render 1t unfit for repro
duotion In any great religious journal.
Stripped of most of its epIthetical
yerblage, this speech runs about thus:
Men, I'm glad to meet you. You
/ look Ike manly lot of officers. love
| a man. try to be a man myself I've
/ been sent for to come here and do a
certain piece Of work, and I'm going to
do 1t If can and IL I've the strength
| want to talk to you heart to heart.
We are strangers now, and come here
with nothing against you, no sus-
picions. and we start on the level; but.
by the nine gods of war, you've got to
deal with me on the level, as shall
deal with you. You know what that
means. / don't care a tlnkers dam for
pull. shall treat you on the square.
Any promotions will depend on your
selves. If you do your work you'll get
along with me, but you've got to be on
the square with me. Any man who
sends man, woman or child to me for
him knocks himself That settles that
right here. That's q straight tip. You
have fine, manly men among you. You
look manly, and I'll treat you as you
appear Count on that. We won't
start out snspectlng you. There will
be no spying on you. If you are manly
men, sportsmanllke men, treat me the
same. 1t does me good to look at you.
Men, II you only show up as you look
this town will get what 1t wants and
pays for See to 1t that you do your
work, and don't go back on the hand
I've stretched out to you"
There was no whipping the devil |
around the stump In that little grafton.
1t was straight cut from the clavicle.
Il went bifr, bang, Bingham.
The men understood it without asking
for an explanatory diagram. They
knew what 1t meant And it startled
them, honest man and CRATER alike.
Here was new sort of head on the
police department He was no orator.
as Brutus was, or McAdoo, his i'm
mediate predecessor, but only a plain.
blunt man-yes, exceedingly blunt.
And every police commander in that
group knew that each of those nine
gods Of war thus invoked, whoever
they might be, would stand by the
man OF war who was now their abso
lutte commander
The Verb ITO Bingham"
For time the newspapers had fun
with Bingham because of the cuss
words In his inaugural address. They
coined new verb, ito Bingham"
which means to talk as IL you mean Ii
Commissioner Bingham appointed
New York police reporter. Daniel Stat
terry, as his private secretary. He new,
or had seen Slattery until the new Sec
rotary reported for duty. He wanted
man who knew something about the
police force, which he himself did not.
The new commissioner was so reticent
as to his plans that one of the news
papers announced that his favorite
motto was, Tread softly and carry
big gag"
General Bingham now has had a lit
tie more than year In his new role.
He had neither friends nor enemies In
New York when he arrived there. Now
he has plenty of both and probably
some to spare In each class. But he
still has nearly three years to serve.
and circle of observers vastly larger
than New York Is watching with inter.
est the novel experiment Of putting a
Yorker, nonpolitician, an
ex-soldler and an ex-society autocrat
at the head of the metropolitan police
force.
General Bingham is a graduate of
both Yale and West Point He has
been military attache of our legations :
ut Berlin and Rome. He has seen
years of service on the plains. particu.
larly In Arizona, Of which territory he
made a minute and remarkable map.
He married Miss Lucille Rutherford OF
St. Louis In 1881 and has one son. He
Is Yankee from Connecticut. but uses
the you all" language of the south In
his ordinary conversation and smokes
a big bulldog pipe that looks like an
Arizona pocket gun. He has etiquette
On tap for any function from camp to
court, and we have seen that he can
make a speech when he has something
to say.