Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-12-14
TAKING THE POLICE
OUT OF POLITICS
1t Is Up to You, Gentle Reader, and Not 10
Senator Ware or the General Assembly,
10 Do II

ing the law of gravity resumes its opera
ton and the water sinks to its natural
level
One of the laws of society is that gov
ernment is never better than the govern
ors. 1t can be forced above their moral
level for time under pressure of the
Indignation of minority, but when that
indignation burns out, as it always does,
government sinks back to its natural
level.
Phladelphians have seen this law
operate time after time. The latest in
stance was when Rudolph B!ankenburg
was elected to the mayoralty. But
within two years the people elected
Councils opposed to him and to all that
he stood for. And within four years it
elected the present Mayor. There is
widespread dissatisfaction with him and
his administration, but the dissatisfied
are more noisy than numerous. He
knows it. The Republican city commit
tee knows it. But those who believe that
the administration is bad, wasteful of
the public funds and moved by low moral
standards are hoping that they may be
able during the next few months to stir
up sufficient realization CT these facts to
induce the voters to repeat the expert
ment when they elected Mr.. Blanken-
burg.
The Republican city committee is
aware of what is going on and it has set
out to "pander to the moral sense of the
community" to use the phrase invented
by Tammany leaders when they were
confronted by a popular uprising. The
committee has commissioned Colonel
Sheldon Potter and Edwin 0. Lewis to
draft a bill which will "take the police
and firemen out of politics" Senator
Ware has reminded the charter revisers
Of the existence of this committee and
has announced that the bill will be in
troduced in the General Assembly at
Harrisburg this winter.
But Senator Ware, Mr.. Lewis, Colonel
Potter and the members of the city COM
mittee know that the bill now drafting
will not take the police and firemen out
the Mayor is wish them to be taken out
of politics. They were not in politics
during the administration of Mayor
Blankenburg. When Colonel Roosevelt
was Police Commissioner in New York
the police were not in politics. When
ever in any city man has been in con-
troll of the police who sought only to
make the police force an efficient instru-
ment for preserving order and protect
ing the lives and property of the people,
the police force has not been in politics
and its members have breathed freely
and stood erect with the consciousness
that faithful performance of their duty
as peace officers was sufficient to warrant
the approval of their superiors.
Nothing Uould please the rank and file
of the police and fremen in this city bet
ter than to be assured that the only thing
required or expected of them is attention
to their duty.
Director Wilson, of the Department of
Public Safety, began his administration
with the announcement that the police
and firemen were to be taken out of
politics. But the men who controlled
him and who controlled the city admin
istraton did not want any such thing
to happen. They had been brought up
in the same school as that which taught
"Blue-eyed Billy" Sheehan, of Buffalo,
who became Lieutenant Governor of New
York, that the men who controlled the
police need not care how the votes were
cast. They could swing elections to suit
themselves. They were determined to
use the policemen as political agents.
They have done it repeatedly. Officers
who have refused to obey political orders
have been transferred to districts a long
way from their homes and have been
subject to consistent persecution. When
these men read that the Organization is
planning to take the police out of politics
they say that this is tale which must
be told to the submarines, for no marine
will believe it.
The police are in politics because the
Organization puts themothere and forces
them to stay there. 1t could take them
out of politics tomorrow if it wanted to,
without asking the General Assembly to
pass any laws. And no law that the
General Assembly is likely to pass will
of itself prevent the present organiza-
tion from using the police for political
ends when it controls the Mayor and
desires to use them for this purpose.
The law may be strengthened and i'm
proved, but it requires honest and sim
cere observance and enforcement.
We may have metropolitan Police
Commission appointed from Harrisburg
or we may have Police Commission
appointed from the City Hall, but each