Show I THE MAYORS APOLOGY There is a sort of humor in the mayors apology concerning the police department that this city is a favorite stopping place between the east and the west coasts for lawless as well as law abiding tourists But what has made this city a favorite I stopping place for lawless clements It never was before No gangs of armed roughs ever ran this city even in the I early days as was the custom with other western towns The apology now for the necessity of further increasing tho numbers j num-bers of men on the police forceis a mere confession that the Liberal administration of our city offers great inducements to f thieves toughs gamblers etc to come here g The mayor plaintively continues that the Idea however that our city is especially dangerous or worse infested by the lawless than other cities of the same size and similarly I simi-larly situated erroneous Certainly it is The Liberal administration can mar + not ruin the city People are still as safe or safer here than in any other city of this size in the country But the mayors I apology was intended to make as favorable a showing as compared with tho former condition of this city as could possibly bo made and this jumping to other cities to bolster up his argument is absurd 1 ab-surd It is not the people of other cities + but of our own that find fault with the Liberal administration and while it may be comforting to our people to know that things are not worse here than elsewhere + still they remember that they are vastly worse here now than they formerly were In view of tho milk and water policy of i vacillation the mayor has exhibited on the question of the Sunday saloons and allied issues this apology to the saloon keepers for an occasional shutting up is positively soft Twothirds of the arrests have been for being drunK R These figures present a strong argument in favor of restraining the sale of intoxicating liquors as far as possible There would be more point in the mayors argument intended to show the efficiency of the police force namely that three times as many arrests and detentions had been made this year as last year if the percentage per-centage of convictions had been given The apology that at the beginning of the year the police force were inexperienced in its duties tends to ruffle the even temper of our calmest citizens Why was it necessary neces-sary to discharge every member of the former efficient force in such unseemly haste Such a thing would be justly decried i de-cried in any other city A number of men of both political parties composed the old force every one of whom was promptly dismissed to make way for inexperienced but orthodox men This confession that the new men were not qualified experiance for the important positions given them to use a wellknown but colloquial phrase makes the people tired One circumstance enabled the mayor to avoid making just one more apology that is the noteworthy fact that the expenses or the police department were not given in tho marshals report This also freed him from the embarrassment incident to mak ing comparisons with the previous year or preceding quarter From another report + however the taxpayer may dig out this item and learn that the police department last year cost 54GSOS39 as against i 23 23S25 the year previous Whether the efficiency of this department has been twice as great as formerly we leave to the judg ment of an intelligent public |