New-York tribune., 1908-04-23
4LDEBvFy And COuuissIONER.

Police Commissioner Bingham never received
\ finer compliment for his work in Mulberry
street than IL" one which the Board of Alder
men handed him last Tuesday afternoon, when.
b., a vote of 81 TO i. that body refused TO give
him $4,000 for establishing a secret detective
bureau The ballot itself contains only hint
of fattery: it was in the remarks made by
various city fathers that the public will find an
unstfnted flow of praise for General Bing-
ham and his aggressive policy. To be sure.
most of the compliments We're backhanded or
worse: but if you know how 10 take that kind
it is often sweeter than the DETER sort. In
spite of momentary chagrin over his failure to
secure much needed money General Bingham
must be pleasantly conscious of the aldermen'S
explicit admission that he is altogether too
competent and too honest to be intrusted with
secret service fund.
That the board is for some mysterious rea-
son. afraid 10 give the Commissioner any real
power is made evident by the f1imsy objections
raised against the appropriation. When over
come by fear men babbe incoherently and lose
all reasoning power just General Bingham's
leading opponents on the board did when they
INDUCED volubly In empty and irrelevant protest
against A secret detective force. One mighty
thinker declared that he would never vote 10
give the money 10 a man who had been unable
to check THE crime wave" and several states
men thunderousIy echoed this sentiment. Could
anything but terror provoke such piece of non
sense: Another distinguished dialectican.
voting in favor Of the appropriation for parla-
mentary reasons only. exclaimed: What sort
of :; man IS this Commissioner who gets up
and says: I wish that forty of my captains
would drop dead? What kind of a heart can
such man have?" And he added that Gen
eral Bingham was "blufing' in asking for the
money and that the cash ought to be given him
Just TO call his bluff" AS the orator knew
perfectly well that there was no chance of the
resolution passing he could talk about calling
General Bnghams bluff, fixing this bunc0'
and showing up this four finsher' Just
boldly as Il monkey might throw peanut shells
at Il tiger in the next cage But for all his
temporary security this great statesman be-
trayed a deep seated fear by waling over the
heartlessness of man who wishes forty subor-
dinates might drop dead for the sake of good
government. This reminds us of the nature
takers story about the monkeys holding con
ventlon and denouncng the astronomical
views Of certain python which hankered IN
ordinately after succulent simians
The bad effect Of fear upon the brain was
shown still more clearly. however, in the qnes-
tion raised by several aldermen: "If General
Bingham wants TO accomplish something it
ran. why doesn't he ask for more policemen"
In their great anguish the interrOGators tran
silently forgot the many futile attempts that
General Bingham has made to secure the num-
her of patrolmen which he deems necessary.
They also forcot-most conveniently, tOo-that
chain cannot he stronger than its weakest
link. Anybody whom nameless dread has not
reduced TO imbeclitv knows that a million
patrolmen could not do the work Of one secret
detective any more than a million cobblers could
make clock or million Tammanytes reduce
the city debt. Plainly. some aldermen are
being robbed Of their wits by the black hag
Fear. As "A matter Of psychology, many tax
payers would like tO know more al bout the ideas
upon which the phobia is based. Will not the