The Washington times., 1910-03-03
HAS
UNIQUE FUNCTIONS
Pennsylvania Troopers Com
bine Duties of Soldier
and Policeman.

PHILADELPHIA. Pa. March st
was a wholly characterizing thing that
q trooper of the Pennsylvania State
Constabulary did in Bethlehem the other
day when a striker flung a barrel be-
meath the boots OF his mount and IN
horsed hin
The trooper, II may be remembered,
picked himself Up with a smile, ell
bowed his way into the crowd that had
been devoutly hoping he had broken his
neck, arrested his man, locked him UP,
and then came back 20 his pony and
his patrol. Since the ConsJa bulary was
organized its service has been Of lust
that debOn2lr sort. and 1t has compelled
admiration. even friendship, in quarters
that were distinctly hostile IN the be-
ginning.
The Pennsylvania Constabularly IS
physically more like some part Of the
British establishment than any organ
ization IN America today. In the char
actsr OF its work It is really very like
the Northwest Mounted Police, for
when there IS no such trouble as that
at Philadelphia and Bethlehem twOof its
four troops are stationed IN the anthra-
cits coal fields Of the eastern end Of the
State. and Two are In the bitumInous
fields OF the western.
DstschmentS are placed here and there
untn It's fewer than 200 men cover an
astonishingly large territory. The men
do patrol duty sometimes; sometimes
they act IN specific Instances Of law
breaking: sometimes their work Is no
more than moral A day in the con-
staoulaTly could hardly be more like g
day IN the r. n. II. P.
Thoroughly American Troop.
But IN fact the constabuIary. is Arneri-
can IN its every fiber. It was organized
by q man who Is American In that
picturesque way typtfled by the Rough
Riders, fo.. Captain Croome IS still an
oEncer in the city troop Of Philadelphia
and Is quite as fond as he ever was
% the admixture OF the social and the
military which that troop represents.
The men themselves are, almost without
exception, veterans OF the regular army,
and mos Of them are veterans of or
eign- service. Applicants who offer regu-
Ia= army discharge papers as crtden-
ials have the preference IN enlistIng,
and the discipline is strictly that OF the
regular establishment
New officers and new barracks. differ
ent uniforms and different equipment,
are the only novelties 10 which they
have to accustom themselves. The. con-
stabulary is four years Old but if it
was forty it could not have been
brought to a higher efficiency. The
loyalty ard eagerness Of the men have
been the chief factors in this. perhaps,
and the fact that these qualities exist
in spite of the curious circumstance
which MAKES them practically soldiers
without d flag is the most American
thing about them
For a generation Pennsylvania has
had an odd institution known as the coal
end iron police. They were really only
watchncn, for they were wholly under
the control and the pay Of the corpora
ttOns for which they worked. but under
the law which created them they en-
50yed every right, and every privilege,
belonging to municipal police,
Industrial conditions seemed 10 lusti-
fy the establishment Cf such a body OF
men, but no disinterestod student of
these conditions ever believed them
good. Abuses, even outrag ges, were con-
stantly pTacuced by them, as was TO
have heen expected, perhaps. when the
broadness OF the phrase protection of
property" is taken into consideration.
Justified by Conditions.
II is probably not an exaggeration 10
say that nothing has ever provoked so
much bitterness between labor and cap
ital As the right capital had 10 main
tain its own police while labor had not
even the right to protest. Every time
this bitterness brought about clash
there was the CUSTOMARY appeal TO the
sheriff. and then TO the governor. and
there was not even actual service when
property really did need 10 be pro-
tectcd to be entered to the credit of the
coal ard iron police.
In the course OF time no one even
tried 10 disguise this fact. and Il
came the constabulary. II does not en-
tirely supplant the coal and iron police
and labor has found that a State po-
uceman differs chiefly in personal type
from the city policeman. No institution
Of course ever existed without its on
ponents. but Pennsylvania would no.
allow the consta blary 10 be done away
with AZ the last session Of the gen
eral assembly a bill was introduced fol
that very purpose, but IL old not even
get to a point where IL was acted upOT
IN committee.
And this IS the most striking ,P.nz
about the Pennsylvania consta bulsiv-
they are soldiers doing soldiers TolN
with none of the frills,-