The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1951-05-24

some l0 years ago, l ran front
page editorial, in which stated the
purpose of my paper was to serve
the community in every way pos
sible and to keep my criticisms and
comments constructive and not de-
structive, and / have done my best
to live up to that promise.
Needless to say, | went through
some pretty rough times in those
early days, as l was endeavoring to
build my paper up, but my heart
was really gladdened when one day
| received in the mail number of
subscriptions, from a prominent in
dustrialist, to be sent to group of
his employees.
Just this week ] again had evil
dence that my efforts have not been
entirely in vain, when l received a
check in the mail from another
prominent industrialist, covering
group of subscriptions to be sent to
a number of his employees, for
which l am deeply grateful
In publishing and editing a weekly
paper | am conscious all the time
that cannot, of course, even attempt
to give the same coverage that the
dailies do, but l do try however, to
keep my finger on the pulse of the
community so that l can, from time
to time, bring to the attention of
my readers, through constructive
criticism, matters that affect us all
in our efforts to make Hagerstown
and Washington County a better
place in which to live and make
living.
People are prone to criticize our
police department when something
happens that they don't like but,
somehow or other, they seem to take
for granted the many good things
accomplished by the department.
am happy therefore to be able to
relate little incident that shows
that the members of our police de-
partment are just as human as any
of the rest us.
Last we < young sailor and his
wife we1a stopped by one of our
police officers because he was driv-
ing an automobile on which there
were no license plates at all The
young sailor, who was enroute from
Wisconsin to Massachusetts, bought
the car just before leaving Wisconsin
and the dealer told him that he
wouldn't need license plates as his
Navy papers would carry him
through and the plates would be
mailed to him at Massachusetts as
soon as they arrived, and believe it
or not, the young man travelled all
the way to Hagerstown without once
being stopped for this very definite
violation of the law.
The normal procedure would be
for the police to impound the car and
hold the young man until the case
was investigated which, of course,
could take several days But our
police department, realizing that the
boy had to be in Massachusetts on
a certain date or be reported AWOL,
went to the trouble of having a long
distance call put through to the deal
er in Wisconsin and after verifying
the sailors story, requested the deal
err to send set of plates by air-mail
Immediately, direct to the police de-
partment, which they did.
AS if this wasn't enough, arrange
ments were made to have the couple
put up overnight at hotel, instead
of, as many police departments
would have done, OBTAINING them at
the police station until the matter
was settled.
OF course, there are no funds in
the police department for such hum
an acts as this, so the money was
provided out of the pocket of one of
the officials of the department.
Representatives of the Hecht Com
pany have been invited to the next
regular meeting of the Board of Di-
rectors of the Hagerstown Chamber
of Commerce, which will be held on
Monday, June 4, to discuss with
them their plans for building a store
in. this community.
The company's name was mention
ed prominently during the recent
controversy regarding a proposed
shopping center in the North End,
but in fairness to them it should be
brought out that the Hecht Com
pany took no part in the argument
whatever, the matter being definite
ly between the developers of the
real estate and the Mayor and Coun-