Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-12-07
.CAYN0R TELLS
OF new YORK
Continued from page ~

had been caught in the recent up
heaval, and hopes and rather expects
some will yet be landed in the net.
Instead of considering Becker a
type of CRATER the mayor declared
the lieutenant was the most remark
able criminal of his day if all that is
charged against him Is true, but with
characteristic forbearance refused to
deal with this subject at length be-
cause Becker's appeal from his con-
viction is still undecided by the high
est court.
The mayor insisted that three
things contributed to graft-the en-
forcement of the liquor regulation,
anti-gambling and anti-prostitution
laws. But taking the enforcement of
these out of the hands of the general
run of police and making a squad
under the immediate direction of the
commissioner responsible, the graft
question is solved, he said. The
mayor minced nothing, evaded moth
ing, and made it very plain that, so
far as he is concerned, he believes
that he has solved the problem of
how a city should be run.
you ask me how l regard the
New York police force today, as a
whole, for efficiency and effective
ness?" began the mayor. 1.-The best
in the world. | say that advisedly.
1t is not generally known that COM
pared with other cities our police
population of 5000, 900, and only
10000 policemen. What do you
think of that? Our full complement
compared with the other large cities
would be $4,000. But deficient in
numbers as the force is, it does excel
lent work. 1t is capable of any work
put up to it. Every one who
here to the city sees what excellent
outward order and decency is pre-
served. 1t is also a fact that our
secret service force does the very
best kind Of work. 1t is very sell
dom baffled. 1t is, in a large sense,
the secret service force of the whole
country. We in fact do work for the
whole country.
I'VE recently had two cases here
which illustrate what | mean. One
was the robbery of the bank messen-
ger by the so-called taxicab thieves.
The police had very little to go by,
and yet they arrested them all. One
| think they found In Memphis, one
in some other western city and n l
think in Cuba, or on the way to or
from Cuba. By the way, when a
criminal here gets outside of the city
they are able to catch him easier
than If he went into some hole here
in the city and kept still.
The more recent case is the MUIR
der of Rosenthal, the gambler. Thos.
who did that deed also came in an
automobile to the place of the MUIR
der, and got away in the same way.
1t was all done in a moment, and off
they went. Conflicting numbers of
taxicabs were given by citizen on
lockers. With very little to go by
the detective force Of the city within
a few hours had the cab brought to
the station house and in a short
time several arrests of those con-
cerned were made. 1t took some
weeks to make the two final arrests.
These two young murderers went in
to a house in a remote part of the
city and stayed there. But they were
found. And yet, owing to the sensa-
tlonal statements of newspapers and
some public officials, the notion was
sent abroad that the police tried to
shield these criminals. Nothing
more unjust was ever said of the
force here. The criminals were all
promptly found. The district attor-
ney vas furnished with a complete
case. Then the ones who hired the
murderers turned states evidence
against Becker, and showed that he
instigated them to do the murder,
and thus he was indicted and convict
ed of the murder.
"In place of standing in the way
to shield their fellow officer, the
police did their whole duty in the
matter. l could go on multiplying
instances to show the efficiency of
our detective force. They do fine
things every day. Of course | am a
novice in such matters and | suppose
would make a very poor detector of
crime, but l cannot help sometimes
being greatly interested in the work
of the police in this line. Of course
they come to tell me about it, and l
like to listen to it, to make them feel
good, and to encourage them, if for
no other reason.
81 should not leave the subject
without saying that we have a SPLEEN
did police commissioner, Mr.. Rhine
lander Waldo. Up to the time of the
Rosenthal murder the entire press of
the city were saying that we never
had his equal as q police commission
er. Their the degenerate press began
to attack him. ] sympathized with
him all the more because l knew that
they attacked him only to attack me.
And since h a a great many have
been talking at random against Com
missioner Waldo, but he is the same
fore the Rosenthal murder. 1t is
true that Becker was under his i'm
mediate orders in the suppression of
gambling and other vices, and that
he was grossly deceived by Becker.
But that might have happened to any
of us. Many other men have been
grossly deceived by employees or sub
ordinates. In the commercial and
banking world it is happening every
week. And the notion which some
people have of what a police com
missioner should be is contemplate.
only last night a gentleman said
to me: You must remember, Mr..
Mayor, that it takes a crook to catch
a crook, and what you want as police
commissioner is that kind of a man.
You want a man like the late Byrnes,
who was head of the detective force.
/ acknowledge hat he was a CRATER,
and that he did not scruple to make
up perjured cases to convict individ-