to remain in their positions, were retired from the force against their protest, merely to make way for the substitution of new appointees—the political friends of the Chief and his superior. Men with good records and physically able to perform their duties were thus forced upon the rolls as pensioners, to deplete a fund, sacred as a trust, not only for the benefit of the living and necessitous pensioners, but also for the widows of the men who had lost their lives in the service and the wives and children of those who had died after ten years of police duty. One effect, as to the standing of this fund, was to reduce the balance on hand January 1, 1897, from $16,837 to $4,543 December 31st, 1897. Thus over $10,000 was raided, seized and forced upon unwilling pensioners, “still able bodied and anxious to retain their positions at their full salaries.” A more contemptible exercise of political power and administrative robbery could not well be imagined.

The omissions of the police force in the enforcement of the laws, their acts of commission in evading, attacking and disregarding others, especially those relating to all night saloons, the source of most of the arrests for disorderly conduct, where wantonness is displayed, assignations are arranged, drunkenness aided and brawls engendered, are blamable, not so much upon the patrolmen, as upon their superior officers. The patrolmen do as they are told. They report infractions of the law, or not, according to their instructions. Their eyes are opened or closed, as the “wink is tipped” to them from above. The men are brave in moments of danger, fearless in rescuing the inmates of burning buildings, risking their lives in stopping runaway horses, tender in caring for lost children, or destitute persons, both men and women, and faithful in the performance of their duties as members of the ambulance corps.

During the year 1897 one hundred and eighty were injured while on duty, and of this number forty-seven were on service in the first precinct, embracing the business district, the thoroughfares of which are the most crowded and in which the heaviest fires happen, while only seven were injured in the second precinct along the “levee”—the tough precinct. Given proper management, strict discipline and law abiding example, it could be made, and ought to be made, one of the “finest” forces in the world. Thugs and thieves, within the past two years, through the manipulation of the civil service law, have been admitted to its ranks, to its everlasting disgrace and that of the usurped appointing power.

The number of arrests in 1897 for those offences from the perpetrators of which the police are charged with receiving protection money, was less than in any of the previous years since 1895, notwithstanding the increase in population, according to the school census, from 1,616,635 in 1896, to 1,851,588 in 1898, an increase in round numbers of 234,000.

The following is the number of arrests for the years 1894, 1895, 1896 and 1897 for offences as named, viz.:

In 1897, as compared with 1896, there was a decrease of 78 in the number of arrests of inmates of assignation houses, 24 of the inmates of disorderly houses, 1,810 of the inmates of gambling houses, 4,016 of the inmates of houses of ill fame, 275 of the inmates of opium dens, 155 of the keepers of gaming houses, and 800 for violation of saloon ordinances. That these offenses had not decreased in point of perpetration is a fact, patent to observation and well known to the people. On the other hand, the arrests for keeping disorderly houses increased 109, and for keeping houses of ill fame 407. In the year 1896, when some effort was made to keep the police out of politics, the total arrests were 13,167 more than in 1897, when the police force had passed into the hands of a political machine, which sought to erase the application of the civil law to its government. In 1896 the inmates suffered arrest, but in 1897 the policy of arresting fewer inmates and more keepers, except of gaming houses, seems to have been inaugurated. “The keepers” are more able to pay than the inmates. For every dollar collected from inmates, the keepers are able to pay ten, or fifty dollars if necessary. From these figures it is clear that the practice of assessments for police protection was maintained principally against keepers in 1897, and that few inmates, comparatively, refused to pay in that year, while a large number of keepers of immoral and gambling houses were tardy in their payments, consequently, the former were not arrested, while the latter