Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-23
WHERE is THE LEADER?

Tor ponce conditions Eere. Inc voters
themselves are responsible for them.
They have consented TO the exploitation
OF the city by group Of men whose god
is their bank account. Government, ac-
cording TO their theory, exists for the
benefit of the men who can control the
patronage. Only such homage is paid
to decency as is forced by the knowledge
that there is limit beyond which the
exploiters cannot go and still retain their
hol. { government.
The whole city consented to the election
of Mayor Smith. 1t was known at the
tine why he was nominated. Yet the
broad-minded, influential citizens neglect
ed to get together and demand the nomi-
nation of high-class candidate of recog-
nized ability who would perforce COM
mand the public confidence. The men
who should have led loitered in the camps
of ease and they and the rest of US have
got what we deserved.
We are told now that the way to i'm
prove conditions is to get new law
pas cd, as though few words printed on
a piece of paper could change the pur-
pose of this community. A newspaper,
which was silent during the adminstra-
tions of Reyburn and Ashbridge and
raised no protest against the scandalous
Police conditions then, is now saying that
all the present scandal is caused because
the police are in politics and that there
can be no improvement till they are
taken out. 1t says:
Captain Mills. we have no doubt. will
make good. But the political machine re-
mains, The nOliCe its product, While
the roots OF n tree are alive the tree
itself is alive. The looping off of a few
branches does not kill it. And the roots
of a vicious police-in- politics sy stem are
stll firmly embedded.
But these roots can be torn up, and they
must be. How? By demanding Of the
next Legislature the adoption of District
Attorney Rotan's bill creating a metropoli-
tan police system. No Mayor could inter-
fere with that system. There would be no
Director Wilson, no Assistant Director
Davis, no Superintendent Robinson. There
would be, i'm fact, a complete severance of
the police from politics And that is what
we must have.
This sort of flapdoodle is not likely to
deceive any one. In the first place, who
ever has given any serious thought to
the subject knows that the root of the
trouble does not lie in the connection of
the police with politics, but in the in
difference of the mass of the voters to
the decent government of their own city.
Indifference? Yes, they are Indifferent
so long as no adequate alternative to the
present machine rule is offered to them.
We have confidence enough in our fellow
men to believe that the moment there is
any prospect of putting the right sort of
men in City Hall the voters will rally
in support of the movement.
In the second place, the police cannot
be taken out of politics by transferring
their control from Penn Square to Har-
risburg. There is just as crooked politics
in Harrisburg as here. If we had met
ropolitan police force now, with its head
appointed by Governor Brumbaugh, does
any one doubt that that man would have
been Director Wilson? The men who die
tate the Governors appointments die
tated the appointment of Wilson. And if,
the Governor happened to belong to
faction which did not control the Mayor
the police head would be a political ap-
pointee, whose chief duty would be to
weaken the power of the faction domi-
nant here. We should have a Penrose
Director of Public Safety fighting Ware
Mayor, or a Penrose Mayor fighting a
Ware Director of Public Safety, accord
ing to the dominance of one faction or
another here and in the State capital
We do not need to change the laws but
to change the kind of men elected to ad-
minister them. A police ripper bill at
Harrisburg would only embed the police
in politics so firmly that it would be i'm
possible for a local political unheaval to
break it loose.
The people are in no mood to be fooled
by any such fraudulent reform. They
prefer the ills we suffer to the greater
ills they know to be inherent in the sug-
gested change. Indeed, the whole ten
dency of municipal reform is in the di-
rection of home rule for the cities, with
fixed responsibility upon officials readily
reached by public opinion. What we need
is more home rule and not less. But
what we need above all is an aroused and
alert leadership prepared at any cost
to give the people a choice between the
things we now have ard the things we
ought to have. They will choose right, if
they have the opportunity.
But the men who ought to point the
way are Indifferent. Will they go to
the primaries next month and vote for
clean, decent, honest, four-square candi-
dates for all offices, or will they sit in
their clubs and counting rooms bewail-
ing the disgrace which has fallen on the
city, and failing to perceive that a
greater disgrace has fallen on them?
The forces of righteousness are ready.
Where, oh, where, is the man to lead
them?