Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-22
NO RIPPER OR FORCE BILLS
CAN HELP REAL REFORM HERE
Senator Penrose's MeddIne With the
Citizens Revision Program lmp.rls
Its Chief Object, Home
Rule in City
r. SENATOR PENROsE had set out

| r. SENATOR PENROSE had set out
maiciously to wreck the plans of the
citizens charter revision committee for
honest reform of this city's government
he could not have adopted any course
more effective than his present one at
Harrisburg.
With the senator's appearar &c at the
state capital yesterday came the first
fruits of those sinister schemes to per-
vert charter revision to factonal ends of
which warning was sounded in these col
umns several weeks ago.
Under cloak of sincerity as represented
by the citizens committee and its many
months of conscientious efforts, the po-
litical chicftain Of Pennsylvania at large
seeks to strangle Senator Ware. the po-
litical chicftan of Philadelphia. The
situation is interesting, amusing from
some angles and even dramatic But to
the true reformers it must be regarded
as potentially serious and perhaps even
tually tragic, since it plunges the whole
discussion Of municipal reform into the
realm of peanut partisanshp, where it
ought not to be.
There may be some earnest citizens
who will applaud the denouement, re-
membeling that when professional poll
ticians fall out honest men sometimes
come into their due. But they are mis-
taken in this instance, for whatever the
end to be served, they cannot afford to
countenance resort to such methods as
the senior senator now seems bent upon
using to win control of the next city ad-
minstration. If the real independents
will only insist that the charter-revision
program be passed as originally planned,
without concessions to either faction,
they can keep control in the public at
large and there need be no vicious,
precedent-making "rippers."
Fortunately, Governor Sproul is not
losing his head. He is not a neophyte in
this business of factionalism He has
seen a lot of it during his long career
in the Legislature and kept singularly
free of entangling alliances. That is the
state and his prestige with all lines in
the Republican party. AS he emphati-
caly indicated in his comprehensive in
terview with representative of this
newspaper at Hot Springs yesterday, he
is on the side of sensible and practical
reforms as embodied in the charter
revision program for smaller Council,
financial improvements, better civil serv-
ice restrictions and the separation of the
police from politics, but without the aid
of "rippers' in any style, however sugar
coated with reform.
AS we have repeatedly pointed out,
home rule is the essence of reform for
Philadelphias government. We want
less interference from Harrisburg and
more freedom to construct or change ac-
cording to the needs and growth of the
city. Yet Senator Penrose would stutify
this purpose in the very beginning by en-
larging instead Of diminishing the power
of the state authority to interfere.
Governor Sproul hit the situation
neatly on the head when he said that the
bait dangled before him was meant to be
tempting, since it would expand his
power of appointment though at present
it might only be confined to naming
commissioner who would be the actual
head of the local police, superseding or
hamstringing local authority. "The peo-
ple should not be deprived of their right
to elect their officials" said the Gov
ernor, and he is entirely right
If the people of Philadelphia are not
competent to select proper officials for
their government they can make no COM
plaint. We believe they are, but Senator
Penrose evidently does not, and his i'm
piled suggestion is an insult to the in
telligence of the public.
Of course, it is obvious that Senator
Penrose has in mind control of the Phla-
deIphia police during the campaigns
before the mayoralty primary and gen
eral election next fall. He wishes to
render the present administration power
less to use or abuse the police power at
that time. He probably would disavow
anything more, although his opl onents
will charge that he would not be averse
to using the force on the other side.
The senator can be alluring in argu-
ment. He and his friends are adopts at
reform-in theory if not in practice.
There is even reason to believe that
some ardent but impetuous spirits among
the Independents already have lent will
ing ears to such seductive reasoning.
But they ought to beware. No good
thing was ever obtained in wrong way
A metropolitan police commission"
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