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.
"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 thf 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 would 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
.JWuj-lia- nl nil i J, l,'tril