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Newspaper Page Text
WHY POLICEMEN TOADY TO THE RICH . BY N. D. COCHRAN Why is the mental attitude of the average policeman hostile to the working class? . Why is he so ready to take off his blue cap to good clothes and pull his club on a workingman? To illustrate, I will publish a letter I have just received: "Editor Day Book: At 9:15 Sunday evening, March 8, 1914, a very humble human being passed along Madison street between Clark and Dear born. He was not well dressed, his trousers being of coarse blue, his coat a sagging rusty black and his cap a mere rag. But he was proceeding peace ably, giving no offense to any one. The eye of a fat bull lit upon him though, and it plainly stirred the ire of this human male bovine to see a common human derelict float past him so serenely. Stepping briskly after the unsuspecting victim who was only a workingman at best this noble guardian of the peace violently slapped the man with a pair of heavy leather gauntlets he carried in his hand. y "The blow seemed to daze the man, who, fumbling on the sidewalk for his cap, which was knocked off by the cowardly action, weakly passed, on. I suppose his pace was not sufficiently rapid to suit the bull, who followed after and administered a hard kick," preceding it with the remark: 'I guess ye ain't got enough yit.' "The poor wight appeared unable to move faster, so the valiant de fender of law and order especially order grabbed the unhappy wretch and yanked him viciously to a patrol box and called the wagon. "The questions this incident invites are put to the readers of The Day Book. What, under the circum stances, do you think ought to be done to that contemptible .bully? "Do you believe a well-dressed swell, even if drunk and disorderly, would have received such treatment? If not, why not? "This was a workingman, possibly a besotted one, but, if so, made so by well-dressed swells. Why should a workingman at any stage of his ca reer be so treated? "God! If the workers could just see the rotten game as I see it there'd be a hot time in the old town to night. Veritas." Of course, the first answer is that the workers don't all see the rotten game as Veritas sees" it or as I see it. If they did the rotten game couldn't go on. The plain truth is that policemen themselves come from the working class and belong to the working class. They can't break into the other class socially. They are regarded as serv ants by the employing class and act the part of servants. But most of the rest of us are no better in this respect than the aver age ignorant policeman. We, too, ac cept the under-dog position and toady to wealth, position and good clothes. If the workers saw the rotten game those who produce the world's wealth would control the world's government. If the workers saw the rotten game there would be no thugs and gunmen who wo"iild beat up and shoot down their fellow workers in the copper country, in ..the coal dis tricts or in the streets of the indus trial cities. If the workers saw the rotten game there would be no working scabs, no starvation wages, no police brutality. The policemen like most of us are mere imitators. They get their hunch from their superior officers in gov ernment. They see governors, mayors, legislators, judges, editors, clergymen, lawyers, doctors, college