New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-03-07
TINE FOR 4 CHANGE.

1t is hard to take seriously the arguments
made at Albany on Tuesday by the opponents
of the Bingham Police bill The lawyers who
appeared for the protesting inspectors must have
been driven to desperation for material when
they insisted so pathetcaily on the "humila-
ton" which would be inflicted on the inspec
tors if they were made actually subject to the
Commissioners will. 1t is humiliation" of
course. when a subordinate who has succeeded
in shaking off the control of a superior and
settling up for himself as an Independent agent
is suddenly confronted with the painful neceS
sity of taking in his sign and renOuncing his
pretensiOns. The police inspectors have been
acting for 10! these many years on the com
Portable theory that they were administering
a trust in their own right They regarded them
selves as permanent, self-regulatng and self
perpetuating bureaucracy. Mayors and commits
sioners might come and go. but their monopoly
must run on forever. 1t is painful TO wake up
and find this theory rudely challenged. Accord
ing 10 Mr.. Mcclure and Assembyman VOSs
the inspectors are dumfounded that any one
should question their Inherent authority. They
are overwhelmed with honest shame by the
suggestion that they are accOuntab e-and should
be held accountable-tO the municipal admin
istration under which they serve.
The cry was also raised by the special plead
ers for the old system that TO make the in
force would involve the introduction Of politics
into police management If introducing poll
tics means the restoration of undivided respOn-
sibility and the fixing of that responsibility on
the Mayor and his appontee, the Police Com
missioner, then we cannot have too much poll
ties injected into the police service. Under the
present city charter we have tried 10 concen-
trate authority and to emphasize accountability
The voters elect a Mayor and look to him to
business Of the municipality. They pass upon
his administration at the polls and they can
also reach him through the pressure of popu-
Lar opinion. He cannot run away and cannot
hide behind others. But to intrust the most
important municipal functiOn-that OF preserv
ing peace and Order-nOt to the Mayor his
appOintee but to an Irresponsible irremovable
body of civil servants, far beyond the control
Of the voters or Of public sentiment is TO vio-
late the first principle of the city charter and
70 negative belief in our own capacity for local
self-government Power TO operate the police
machinery must he lodged somewhere The
only practical choice presented is between lodg-
ing it in the hands of a single official chosen at
the polls or IN the hands Of a close corpora
ton Of under officials, with no mandate what
ever from the voters.
The police is a semi-military body. 1t can
be made efficient only through discipline and
subordinaCon. But these essential military
virtues are fOuted in an organization In which
every higher officer is a power unto himself
What would happen in the army If the major
generals and brigadier generals could set at
naught the authority of the commander In chief?
The inspectors may have moral and constitu-
tiOnal rights" But these rights do not include
INSTRUMENTATION and notification. In the inter
est Of good government the police Emporium in
inperiO should be overthrown