The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-03-20
(continued frum page Is

paper thruout thea state, there appear
editorials, special articles, cooked-up
news stories," all tending to convey
the idea that Illinois needs state po-
lice to preserve its people in peace
and security. g.
Are workers people? The whole in
spired agitation behind the Dunlap
police bill shows that its capitalist
sponsors do not think so.
What Is the Dunlap Bill?
Workers will want to know just
what this Dunlap bill is. 1t bears
the same stamp as similar bills being
urged in Missouri, Rhode Island, Ohio
and other states. 1t provides for the
establishment of military police
force entirely removed from all local
responsibility and with power to
swpop down upon and invade any
community in the state, even against
the protest of local. authorities.
The force is to be organized on
strictly military lines in from three
to seven troops Differed by captains,
lieutenants, sergeants and corporals.
The commanding officer, to be known
as superintendent of the Illinois
state police" is to be appointed by
the governor and may be removed
only for certain specific constitutional
reasons.
Every individual member of the
force is to have full police authority
in all parts of the state. He may
make arrests and searches upon war
rants, and also without warrants. He
may arrest any person against whom
he may have Suspicion"
Large sums of money have mys-
teriously accumulated for a system
attic publicity campaign in behalf of
more effective policing of rural high
ways" and some, farmers have been
misled into believing that the purpose
Of the Dunlap bill is to furnish rural
police protection. Even a casual read
ing of the bill shows this to be a
shabby pretense.
For Armed Force Against Workers
The Illinois State Federation of La
Dor exposed the falsehood of their
claim some time ago. Instead Of pro-
viding for rural police, spread out
in the rural communities and per-
manently stationed in these commun-
tiles, the bill offers a heavily-armed
military force organized for quick
mobilization in military units. It is
an army for service against the
workers. UE
Proof that the state constabulary
is not an innocent rural welfare
scheme, but something quite different,
is. the fact that it did not originate
with farmers. Its hackers are manu-
facturers, mining companies, bankers
and investment firms. In the fore
front of the campaign is the Illinois
chamber of commerce, which collect
ed 100000 for prosecution of the
miners in Herrin
Not a Rural Police Body.
Moreover, the proposed military
force, which would not number more
than 455 officers and men as a maxi
mum, could not under any circum-
stances be sufficientIso patrol the ap-
proximately $4,000 miles of rural
highway in the state. Except in one
paragraph where the subject is men,
toned in four words having little or
no specific meaning, the bill does not
provide for rural highway patrolling.
But there is plenty in the bill per-
hitting the constabulary to be thrown
into industrial communities and min
ing towns when a strike is on.
The claim that the state constabu-
larry would be a simple rural police
for farm and highway protection is
, absolutely false. The main purpose
in establishing any highly centralized
state police force anywhere in the
world has been to enforce upon the
working people of local communities
conditions to which those people were
opposed
Not Intended to Prevent Crime.
The primary motive in the organ
ization of any such state police sys-
tenn has never been that of prevent
ing crime or apprehending Ordinary
criminals" No single exception to
this can be produced anywhere in
the world where a highly centralized
state police system has existed suf-
ficiently long to leave something of
a history.
The cossacks.
1t is particularly. significant that
the guest Of honor at the previously
mentioned chamber of commerce
luncheon was the superintendent of
the state police of Pennsylvania. The
Pennsylvania constabulary has been