Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-06

best of them that they seemed to have 8
fife sense of obedience, and were sticklers
for doing their duty. They are consci-
entious and very faithful. One man in
Guatemala deserves nothing but praise
His name is Solorzano, and he was the
inspector general of the force while / was
down there in Guatemala.
discipline? Well that is one point
where the work of police chief in WASH
ington and in that little tropical country
is greatly at variance. The methods tn 1t
We use here are entirely out of place
down there. Here, you know, about the
greatest punishment that can be inflicted
upon a member of the force is to dis
miss MIN. In Guatemala, due to the
fact that the pay of the force was really
very low even after 1t had been increased
at my solicitation. in comparison with
did not feel the loss Of his job as keenly
as is necessary to have dismissal as a
punishment. No; and then, too. those
poor chaps got such very low salaries.
as I have said, that one could not have
much stomach for infiicting fines upon
them.
'When I first went down there ] was
distinctly opposed to corporal punish
ment, although 1 knew that it was used
in the military establishments OF those
countries. / thought that it would be
possible to maintain a good degree Of
discipline without resorting to corporal
punishment but / am sorry to say that
/ was forced to come to it before very
long. I believe that it is due to the auto
cratic form of government under which
the people have lived in Guatemala for
so long, that it is necessary to resort
to force In maintaining discipline. The
people are so used to being treated with
the greatest severity that any display Of
kindness or even of what we up here call
white treatment, is considered as an in
dication of weakness and the man who
SO treats them is considered as a no
account executive by his subordinates.
"Take the case Of the police lold-ups.
for instance. Under the old regime down
there before 1 took hold it was nothing
out of the way for a pedestrian to be
stopped on the street late at night by
policeman who would demand money as
the alternative for taking the belated
wayfarer to the station house I guess
there were a good many more hold-ups
by the police than there ever were by
professional highwaymen. OF course, L
went to work to put end to any such
practices by the men of the force just as
soon as / took hold. Before long we
caught several of these official bandits
and determined to make an example of
them to deter any more from following
in their footsteps. They were duly tried
and convicted. They were sentenced to
receive twenty-five lashes on the bare
back and to a long term in the peniten-
tiary at hard labor after being dismissed
from the force. That had. a most salu-
tary effect, let ME tell you, on the rest
of the men, and those crimes were very
seldom heard of afterward. Later on at
long intervals 1t was necessary to inflict
a few severe penalties as an example to
the force that discipline was going to
be maintained at all hazards
The absolutism OF the government of
Guatemala is reflected In the almost linn
itless power that Lamb had over the men
under HIM He was responsible only to
Cabrera, the president. To him Lamb
reported twice a day--at II in the morn
ing and at at night. Everything of spe-
cial Importance that had occurred since
the last report was carefully gone over
in detail. The reports of the secret po-