Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-02-03 | Page 26 | A Word to Mr. Scheid

A WORD TO MR. SCHEID. After rakinj the city for a thief of police and making one trip as far as the placid Pacific the new commissioner of public safety has decider to permit J. Parloy White to keep the uniform und star of chief, if the city commission commis-sion will consent and the public, will agree not to throw hand grenades. Commissioner Seheid's search for chief of police has a comic and a tragic aspect. Tho search was comic; its failure fail-ure tragic. Like Sir Galahad, the commissioner went forth in purity of hoart and guile-lessness guile-lessness on his quest. If he had been seeking the Holy Grail he probably would have been as sticcesssful as Sir Galahad, but he was seeking an iron-fisted iron-fisted chief of police who would enforce en-force the law and clean up the town. Somewhere early in his quest he was persuaded that no chief must be selected who would not retain Joseph C. Sharp as chief of detectives. At the very beginning, begin-ning, therefore, a string was tied to the offer. Anyone who had accepted the position of police chief would have been intimidated by Sharp. If Sharp could 'not be "fired" the chief of police would really be second in command. The guilelessness - of Commissioner Seheid is shown by tho fact that some of the old war-horses of politics and police intrigue convinced him that the government of -the United States wanted Sharp rotained, and this in spite of the fact that . the federal law requiring re-quiring a clean town within five miles of a military reservation had been shamelessly ignored. A rather simple trick won the day for the intriguers and when Mr. Scheid departed for San Diego he really believed that the federal fed-eral government was taking a paternal interest in Joseph C. Sharp. It is reminiscent remi-niscent of a story told of an Irish private during the civil war. The private himself -was relating his experiences. "Just before the battle of Antietam," he. said, "Ginral McClellan rode down the line and says, 'Is Private Murphy in the ranksf And I steps forard and says, .'Here, Ginral.' 'Thin,' says the ginral, 'let the battle go on.' " The old-time politicians must have . had a good laugh as Commissioner Scheid started for San Diego to offer Martin Mulvey the post of chief of police with Sharp tied at the end of the string. Of course, Mulvey refused the preposterous proposal, knowing full well that he could not be untrammelled in the enforcement of the law so long as a political favorite was to be an irremovable ir-removable fixture of the police department. depart-ment. Returning to Salt Lake the commissioner commis-sioner began offering the position to a number of estimable gentlemen - who were devoted to the quiet life aud who desired to be chief of police about as much as Daniel desired to be in the lion 's den before ho knew that the Lord was on his side. And when these gentlemen declined to mix in police intrigue, Mr. Scheid conceived the marvellous idea of becoming chief of police himself without with-out assuming the title. He moved his office into tho public safety building and probably argued himself into the belief that he could direct affairs successfully suc-cessfully no matter who should wear the chief's uniform. Then occurred the theft of $t540 worth of opium from tho safo in the office where the detectives have their headquarters. head-quarters. For nearly a week this has been a big scandal in tho police department, depart-ment, but the mystery has not been solved. And yet Mr. Scheid, with this scandal still a stench in the nostrils of the public, is ready to keep Chief White as chief and to assume responsibility for the conduct of the department. We suggest that Mr. Scheid, before he indorses in-dorses the name of "White to the commission, com-mission, take ud the opium scandal and solve it himself. That will serve in some small degree to demonstrate whether he has the necessary ability to be chief de facto and to guide the destinies of the department without the aid of a new chief who will be entirely free from department intrigues and who will have both tho nerve, the astuteness and the executive expedience to run the department with a firm hand and at j the same time keep the city c!c;m ani law-:i'udi:i''. I When Mayor Ferrv --'i : f r-M to another depart rm-ut and Mr. $.-hi-l Warn com-nfissiuiier com-nfissiuiier of public safety it was assumed as-sumed thtft he would wipe the slate clean, get rid of the old ring that had permitted bootlegging, gambling and worse, and reorganize the department. I But he found himself out of his ele-t ele-t meat. The net of intriie "began to enmesh him and he became convinced that he could make no change in the j department except to constitute himself a kind of super-chief. He would, he thought, be able to clean up the city, suppress notorious vice and enforce the lrlw with the old officials if he could but give the department his personal I supervision. We wonder if Mr. Scheid ever has heard of the "double-cross." It is a symbol familiar to politicians and police po-lice intriguers. A police department is filled with Machiavellis who are as expert ex-pert in conferring the double-cross as the kaiser is in conferring the iron cross. We believe that Mr. Scheid was double-crossed in the Sharp affair and we would not be surprised if the opium scandal was simply the initial stage of another "double-cross." The opium may havo been taken by an outsider for mere pecuniary gain, but there are some . aspects of the case which indicate indi-cate that it was an "inside job" and that the purpose was to discredit someone some-one upon whom Mr. Scheid was inclined to look with favor. At all events the opium mystery should be solved before a new chief of police is appointed. And when it is solved perhaps Mr. Scheid will know more about the habits of policemen and detoctives. It is in the kindliest spirit that we make these suggestions to Mr. Scheid. We believe that he is sincere in his purpose to clean up the city, to got rid of the liquor that swamps the city daily and nightly, to stop gambling and to put an end to the soliciting by the vicious women who have been allowed to ply their trade practically unmolested despite the federal statute passed to protect the soldier boys. But Mr. Scheid cannot accomplish these objects by permitting himself to be deluded by the tricksters who are now in the police department or thoso outside who seek to control the department. Already the' have succeeded in pulling the wool over his eyes and we give him a friendly warning that he must clarify his vision and make a new start.