Omaha daily bee., 1909-08-23

the pennies, and so she cannot keep her
eye on the dishonest merchant. Yet she Is
the housewife who most needs protection.
Swindling hurts most when IL is petty.
It is the poor who must pay the highest
prices for the smallest quantity and the
poorest quality. But at least the quantity
should be honest. Take not from them
even the little that they have. A judicial
institution of Jail sentences, following
more efficient inspection, might work some
good in the markets of Gotham and else
where.
General Theodore Bingham, until re-
Gently chief OF police, writing In Hamp-
toms Magazine, expresses the belief that
graft and blackmail In New York City
amounts to 800, 100000 annually. He says;
During my first year at the head of the
police department 1t would have been an
easy matter for me to have made SeOO, 900
in bride money, and 1900, 900 would not
have been an excessive figure at all.
THE power of Tammany hall rests, and
has rested for forty years, upon Its ability
to control the police by fair means or
foul. A strong, honest, fearless police
commissioner, supported by police magis-
trates Of ability and integrity, and a
mayor big enough to conduct his office
without fear or favor, can sap and utterly
destroy Tammany Influence in ten years
or even less, provided he is empowered
to dismiss and transfer his subordinates
for cause, without recourse to the courts.
II do not believe 1 am unfair in estimat-
ing that from 1900 to 1000 members of the
force are INSCRIPTIONS grafters, whose
hands are always out for easy money.
THAT this is known by the head of
the department and apparently ignored is
because the commissioner is only nominal
head of the force, while a policeman has
office for life. Discipline and the ques-
ton Of vested interests should be kept
separate. Graft is hidden in most city
ordinances, which were enacted to be
broken SO that some one could make
money from them.
lone day, shortly after my arrival al
police headquarters, an acquaintance
dropped into my office.
Commissioner he said, there is g
house at No. - West Thirty-third street
run very quietly. It will be worth SO, COX
a month to you But the sentence was
never finished to my knowledge.
GAS a matter Of fact, the place had
never been opened, and the man had been
used as an agent to feel out the depart
ment.
"A few months later / was offered Sc, COX
in cash and $500 a month merely to be
seen shaking hands with the proprietor OF
an upper Broadway cafe"
The want columns OF New York news.
papers brlstle In these summer days with
calls on st~enosraphers to come and take
positions waiting for them. The demand
temporarily, seems to be in excess of thC
supply. '
A perusal Of these wants dispels the
idea that all a stenographer needs is &
notebook and al ability to distinguish thC
keys of a typewriting machine. Several ad
vertisers demand accuracy, above al
things. Others make these Specifications
Experience in commercial work" Mus
spell correctly and be a good gramma,
rian." "A Christian, over 49," Good a
figures" Willing to work occasionally
Sunday mornings, Sc a week" Must b,
able to make out bills on machine" Aver
age wages, IS a week.
II wasn't sick enough to need a nurse,
said the woman who lives alone, yet
was in something of a predicament. TIL,
doctor had prescribed a medicine which h,
wanted me to take four times In the night
1 said l was afraid 1 should not wake III
at the proper time.
oh, I'll fix that for you, all right sale
he, I will instruct the telephone company t.
call you at 10, II, 2, and 4 O'Clock and t.
keep on ringing till you answer. 1t is yer.
simple
Apparently 1t was. He gave his instruc
tons, the girl called me at the specified
hours. 1 took my medicine and so a new
use for the telephone was born"
Talk of an increase in the dividend rat
Of the Consolidated Gas company Of New
York is rife in Wall street. This is tn,
concern that was to be ruined by SO-cen
gas, which spent a vast SUM of money IL
fighting the reduction only to win from
the United States supreme court a verde
that experience would afford the most con
elusive test Of the -reasonableness or un
reasonableness of the S0-cent rate. Ant
by this test the rate is more likely to b,
shown unreasonably high than unreason
he. i will instruct the telephone company t
ably low, for consumption is increasing
greatly, as, Of course, was to be expected
1t is said that the management OF ex-Sec
rotary George b.. Cortelyou is proving yer!
satisfactory 20 the stockholders.
The bootblacks on the ferryboats tina
carry thousands of girls and young womel
into New York each morning to thei
days work drive a good trade in the pol
ishing Of eminin footgear. No one is sur
prised when he sees a young man on hi
knees before a girl. brushing away witt
great muscular activity.
Each carries with him a small stee
band which clasps the lower edge OF tn
dress to the ankle and holds 1t there Sc
cuTely until the job is complete.
A suggestive Thought Wave.
Chicago Tribune.
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