Before, the policeman
had had to pay for a new uniform himself. He had each policeman
trained to use a pistol, so that if he had to fire it at a
criminal, he would hit the criminal, and not somebody else. He did
his best to stop the custom of selling beer and whiskey to
children. Finally he stopped disrespect for law by having law
enforced, whether people liked it or not.
Of course, this got him into hot water. One of our worst faults in
America lies in passing a tremendous number of laws, and then
letting them be broken. In many instances the worst troubles are
with laws about strong drink. People in the State, outside of New
York City, and some of those in the City, wished to have a law to
close the saloons on Sunday. So they passed it. But so few people
in the City really wished such a law, so many of them wished to
drink on Sunday, that the saloons stayed open, and the saloon-
keepers paid bribes to the police for "protection." The result was
not temperance, but the opposite. Moreover it led to disrespect
for the law, and corruption for the police. It was not
Commissioner Roosevelt's business whether the law was a wise one
or not, but it was his business to enforce it.
He enforced it, and had the saloons closed. As he said: "The howl
that rose was deafening. The professional politicians raved. The
yellow-press surpassed themselves in clamor and mendacity.
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