addition, a corps of detectives connected with a central bureau, likewise under the general supervision of the commissioner. Most large cities, including New York, also have special divisions of police, such as the bicycle squad, the mounted squad, and the river and harbor squad.1

The police administration is one of the most difficult branches of city government because of the opportunities for corruption offered to every member of the force, from the roundsmen on their beats to the police commissioner in his central office.2 There are everywhere opportunities for discrimination and persecution; saloon keepers are willing to remunerate policemen for overlooking violations of the closing law; gamblers and keepers of houses of ill-fame are willing to pay handsomely for "immunity"; in short, all of the lawless elements of the city which derive profit from plying their respective trades are willing to share their ill-gotten gains with the police for protection.

Not only monetary considerations are brought to bear to induce neglect of duty. Those who have economic interests at stake are always quick to combine and bring pressure to bear through political channels by taking part in primaries and elections, and by contributing heavily to campaign funds and to the private exchequers of political bosses. In every large city in the United States, the criminal elements, deriving profit through police protection, are organized more or less effectively for political purposes, and whenever there is a general exposure they are usually to be found influential in the political party which controls the city government.3

These ordinary sources of police corruption are augmented by the attempts of the rural communities to force upon the cities moral standards which the latter do not accept. Furthermore, there is in the United States a marked tendency to penalize every action which the religious elements regard as sinful. A minority of moral enthusiasts can readily push through the state legislature some measure which has no support at all from the great mass of the people and which even the enthusiasts themselves are

1 To prevent the spoils system from entering into the selection of the rank and file of the police force, New York, Milwaukee, and many other large cities have provided civil service examinations for patrolmen.

2 See Readings, p. 505.

Note, for instance, the recent exposures in San Francisco.

Gallow Sta

ints

mit & condicot unwilling to uphold by a concentrated and persistent action. Accordingly, we have upon our statute books innumerable laws imposing fines and other penalties for actions which the majority of the people do not even regard as harmful, but which afford the police splendid sources of revenue for neglecting. Thus we have the peculiar situation of political bosses and police corruptionists supporting measures introduced into the legislature by the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the clergy because they know full well that every new penalty imposed yields quick revenue to those who can guarantee immunity to the violators of the law. "There has never been invented so successful a 'getrich-quick' institution," says Professor Goodnow, "as is to be found in the control of the police force of a large American city. Here the conditions are more favorable than elsewhere to the development of police corruption because the standard of city morality, which has the greatest influence on the police force which has to enforce the law, is not the same as that of the people of the state as a whole which puts the law on the statute book. What the state regards as immoral the city regards as innocent. What 11 wonder then if the city winks at the selling by the police of the right to disobey the law which the city regards as unjustifiable." 1 This, of course, is not an argument against attempting to raise the standard of civilization by the enactment of criminal laws because they cannot be perfectly enforced, but it is an argument against the enactment of laws which have no adequate foundation in the moral sense of the communities to which they are applied.

Closely connected with the police force are the courts in which are tried the offenders, great and small, who are arrested by the patrolmen. The selection of judges for these courts is a serious matter, for these judges have control over the life and destiny of hundreds of poor. It is important that they should be in close and sympathetic touch with the social and economic conditions under which the people who are brought before them are compelled to live. A kind word, a gentle rebuke, or a helping hand at the right moment may stay a new offender on his downward course, or may save from despair some poor person whose only offence is his ignorance, or who may have been arrested without

1 Municipal Government, p. 266.

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American Government and Politics

warrant by some still more ignorant policeman. On the other hand, brutality and indifference in a police magistrate may fill the prison with people who have no business there; may embitter a large portion of the population against what purports to be a system of "justice," and may add to the hopelessness which overwhelms thousands in their fight against the poverty, unemployment, and uncertainty so prevalent throughout all the great urban centres.

A strong argument may be advanced, accordingly, in favor of the election of police magistrates, in order that they may be brought into close touch with the life of the district in which they preside. It has been found, however, that in a number of instances the system of popular election only brings the police justices under the control of the political bosses and organizations supported by the same elements which pay for immunity against the enforcement of the criminal laws. Thus it happens too often that police magistrates are selected, not because they understand sympathetically the problems and conditions of their respective districts, but because they will still further guarantee the immunity enjoyed by the criminal elements which, operating through party organization, put them in power. The recogni

tion of this fact has led in several large cities to the abandonment of the elective system. In New York City, for example, the city magistrates, having power to try petty criminal offences and hold prisoners for trial, are appointed by the mayor for a term of ten years; and the justices of the court of special sessions are likewise appointed by the mayor for a term of ten years.1

An important reform has been recently accomplished in our police administration by the establishment of children's courts in all of the large cities, including New York, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Denver. The purpose of these courts is to separate juvenile offenders from the old and hardened law-breakers, and to treat them, not as criminals, but as delinquents who need proper care and supervision. It is the practice, therefore, not to commit young first offenders to institutions of any kind, but to let them out on probation, unless

1 Owing to the crowded conditions of the day courts and the undesirability of holding any one in prison who is not a genuine offender, several of our larger cities, including New York, have established night courts.

2 See Review of Reviews, Vol. XXXIII, p. 30 (1906).

their home influences are positively pernicious, or their parents testify to their incorrigibility. Accordingly, there have been established in connection with the juvenile courts probation officers whose business it is to visit the homes of first offenders to see whether the instructions of the courts are being obeyed or the home environment is conducive to the reform of the children. Obviously the work of this system depends largely upon the tact, humanity, and wisdom of the probation officers, but the reform is a step in the right direction, because it recognizes the importance of laying hold of offenders early in their career, and it also takes into account the influence of home environment and social conditions in the creation of the criminal.1

1 The work of the children's court in New York is thus described by the report of the clerk of that court for 1910 (New York Times, January 31, 1910):

"Its work in withdrawing thousands from the procession of paupers and criminals that press onward to almshouses and penal institutions, and making them future good citizens, entitles the court to be regarded as one of the municipality's most valuable assets. Viewed merely in the cold light of dollars and cents the test of appraisement would be the civic difference in citizenship between preying parasites and profitable producers.

"The court, in dealing with the multitude of children who come before it each year, views each as a prospective citizen, an individual potentiality for good or evil. The thought of individual salvation is ever uppermost in dealing with each child.

"If, in the best interests of all, it is possible to rescue the child without commitment to an institution, this is done and he is saved to his home and the state at the same time. Of the 11,494 children arraigned in this one court in the year 1909 only 1792 were committed to institutions, either charitable or reformatory.

"The Justice presiding is prosecutor, defendant's attorney judge, and jury in one; in fact, a big father in time of greatest need to the unfortunate children brought before him. Those charged with actual offences are by law of course entitled to the benefit of counsel which they always receive, but there is no public prosecutor to hammer and harass the young defendants; nor under the law would a public prosecutor have a right to appear and prosecute.

"Where the case seems to require it, ample time is taken for an investigation of home and other conditions. Frequently it is the delinquency of the parent rather than of the child that is responsible for the latter's appearance in court. This condition being ascertained, the court directs that specific improvements be made in the home; often the child is released on parole on the condition that suitable corrections be made.

"Failure to obey, the parent is made to understand, will lead to the commitment of the child to an institution, because of improper guardianship, accompanied by an order requiring the father to pay the city for the child's maintenance while in such institution. The court in this way often improves the condition of the parents as well as the children.

Health, Tenement, and Fire Departments

With the growth of cities and the progress of enlightenment, the scope of the police power has broadened far beyond the limits of the term as understood in the old and narrow sense; and we are now creating special authorities charged with promotion of good order and public welfare through other than merely repressive measures.

First among these may be placed the department of health. This branch of municipal administration is usually in charge of a board, but some of the larger cities, following the general tendency in the other branches of administration, have created single-headed departments. In New York, the department of health is administered by a board composed of the commissioner of health, the police commissioner, and the health officer of the port; and it is the duty of this board to enforce all the laws for the preservation of life and the care of health in the metropolis and to report the vital statistics. The sanitary division of the department is in charge of a special superintendent who has under him a force of sanitary inspectors whose business it is to enforce the sanitary standards laid down in the code adopted by the department of health-a large and complicated set of rules and regulations.

1

In general the labors of a department of health are threefold: 1 (1) it must take precautionary measures to prevent the rise and spread of disease; (2) it must inspect offensive streets, sources of food supply, and all places which are dangerous to public health; and (3) it must manage and control contagious and infectious diseases.

In close connection with the department of public health and sometimes forming a branch of it, is the tenement house and building department, charged with the duty of maintaining certain standards in the construction of public and private buildings

"It has long been known scientifically that many adult criminals are the victims of conditions acquired or hereditary which result in a mental disturbance predisposing them to the development of criminal tendencies. With such cases the time for relief, if curative or ameliorating remedies are possible, is in youth and at the first indication of criminal tendencies, and the best opportunity therefore is through the children's court, to which such unfortunates will naturally drift."