our police forces until they are adequate to meet the demands placed upon them. In whatever way this question may be decided there is ample ground for demanding the application of the most thoroughgoing civil service reform rules to our police establishments. It is well known that the rank and file of our police forces despise the dirty work forced upon them by the political wretches “higher up.” No man capable of the heroic deeds which are commonplace in the annals of the police service rings the doors of bawdy houses and collects a tithe from the sorrowful wages of shame except under the compulsion of the sternest bread and butter necessity. Usually it is necessary to select the yellow dogs of the force for this particular devil’s work, and the promotion of such creatures for their pliancy is a stench in the nostrils of their honest comrades. If one doubts that this is the real spirit of the police force let him consider the character of the fire departments of nearly all of our cities. The men in the latter service are chosen from the same class, face dangers of the same magnitude, and receive wages of about the same amount as policemen. In the main they deserve and receive high praise for their efficiency and honesty. It is true that they are not exposed to the corrupt temptations which surround policemen, and also that their work is held up to exacting standards by business men and insurance companies. The fact remains that our police forces are constructed of the same human material as our fire fighting forces. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that if we adapt our requirements in the regulation of vice to the capacities of our forces, (or _vice versa_); if we criticise and appreciate their work in the same way as we do the work of their sister department; if we place their appointment, tenure, and promotion, upon grounds of merit and utterly exclude the influence of the corrupt “higher-ups,” we will have gone a long ways toward drying up the most despicable of the sources of political corruption. * * * * *