Los Angeles herald., 1910-06-05
ME most serious police problem in Los
Angeles today is the fact that every

about running the police department than do ana
wants it ruin his way ,,
around in his chair and raised an admonitory hnger
~ add ernnhasis to his remark. The question had
been fired at him, point blank. There had been
nothing to lead up to it, but he didn't hesitate.
That's no new discovery, he continued
"Doubt1ess nv predecessors experienced the same
thing long before came into the office, and doubt
less too NV successors will learn it in their turn
You might naturally suppose that there are diHi-
cuties to be met in ordering the AFFAIRS OF ponce
department the size we have here In Los Angeles.
Perhaps there are but the average man who calls
to give me advice doesn't believe it. He always
knows Just what to do and how to DO IT, VI
course he ought to be in the department instead OF
in business but he does the best he can in the
circumstances by calling around to give me the
benefit of his special knowledge. Now, don II mis-
understand me- | do not object to criticism.
Criticism, when it is honest is good thing for
a police department, but hate busybodles
There seems to be general idea in Los Angeles
that Alexander Galloway never had any expert
ence in police work before he was picked out OF
private life invited to don uniform and placed III
the chiefs chair at the central station mat is not
wholly true Galloway is an executive rather than
a thief-taker but he had police experience prior to
his appointment as chief-eXperience too, that has
proved of considerable advantage to him IN MS
present position.
Galloway was born a Scot and became Ameri-
can railroad man Now it is fact, though per
haps little realized that all American railway sys-
TENS maintain their own police departments-de-
partments in many instances numerically stronger
than that of Los Angeles and having quite as dllIl-
cult problems to handle.
The railway policemen work in uniform and in
plain clothes, just do those OF city. They
hold authority from state, county and city govern
ments They are rowing guardians of the peace.
It is their duty not merely to protect railroad
propertv-in other words, to walk beat-but to
protect the travelling public from robbery, the
operations of sharpers the schemes, one thousand
and one of them, devised by swlnders, big mltt
met and confidence men to separate the bucoHc
traveller from his roll before their fellow swindlers
in the big city to which he is going even catch
SIGHT of him These railroad police paid by
the railroad corporation work under chief and
report to the superintendent
AS superintendent of the old Cincinnati Ham1l-
ton & Dayton railroad, part OF the Baltl-
more & Ohio system, Alexander Galloway had his
first experience in police methods and police man
agement The things he learned then were I'M
portant and he has not had to learn them over
again.
Sartoricay and pictoria11y Los Angeles present
chief of police is by no means so imposing as his
immediate predecessors in office He doesn't try
to be- He wears uniform when there is a reason
for it, but civilian attire pleases h1m better than
blue broadcoth brass buttons and gold braid
Nobody has given him a diamond star yet, and
probably he wouldn't much about it If some
BODY should. He lacks the picturesque stage lead
mo man quality of Billy" Hammel and he is with
out the pompousness of Ed Kern. He is just
quiet unassuming man who knows what he wants
TO do and who does it without any great fanfare OF
trnnpets Perhaps it is natural that a uniform
makes small appeal to his Imagination They have
blue cloth and brass trappings on railroads, you
know, and Galloway grew up on the wheels that
run steel.
Beginning as an apprentice in the railroad shops
at Montreal he became locomotive fireman and
then engineer He has been busy man all his lite
and he never has staid long in any one place That
was because he Outgrew them one after the other.
He has been rolling stone, but the rolling stone
has been in one direction, upward and forward
From his engine cab Alexander Galloway lett
the railway service long enough to take charge
of a difficult piece of construction work tor hrm
of railway contractors. hen he was made master
mechanic and master carbu1lder on the PennSy-
vania SYSTEM in charge of that department on the
Cleveland and Marietta road, one of the Pennsy-
vania's subsidiary lines. From there he went to
the Michigan Central in a similar capacity, and
next was made superintendent of the old Clnc1n-
att, Hamilton & Dayton. In 1902 this road was
reorganized and Galloway resigned, as he exc
presses It, "just before the cyclone struck
With his family he came west. q had been out
here two years before on a trip with my wife, he
explained I'VE travelled up the coast from San
Diego to British Columbia visiting every city of
any importance en- route, and by the time we ar
rived bacl, home both Of us had made up our
minds to come to Los Angeles some day and to
stay here. You see, we knew a good thing when
we saw it."
Soon after his arrival here the Southern Pacific
created new position 1t wanted Galloway and it
didn't have place for him. so it made one. Per
haps "Uncle George" and his police commission
ers didn't know about this blot the Galloway
escutcheon when they made him police chief and
then, again, perhaps they did At any rate, Alex
ander Galloway went to work for the s. P (ral-
road-not machine) as inspector Of train and sta
tion service His headquarters were in San
Francisco. He was on the road most of the time
and reported direct to the general manager