CIVILIZING NEW YORK

Commissioner Valentine of the New York Police made a fiery speech to his department on Wednesday. "We want to tar the collars and dirty up the fancy shirts of a few of these mugs who hang around the night spots," he explained. "I think a lot of them are going to resist arrest, and there'll be many a black eye in the morning."

Mr. Valentine's position is unmistakable; it is also understandable. In the hands of such a phenomenally honest and efficient commissioner it can easily be justified. The courts have failed repeatedly to convict known gangsters, aided by shyster lawyers and self-contradictory law. These gentlemen have walked the streets, danced and drunk in the night clubs, and played golf on the municipal links without the twitch of n eye-lash-surrounded by music men and what the press euphemistically calls. "female companions". Extra-legal methods are the obvious reaction of a conscientious police commissioner to such conditions.

One must realize nevertheless, that Mr. Valentine's methods are extra-legal. Like the Vigilante committees of the early West, they are children of necessity. Under conditions of law and order they would be inexcusable. The fact that New Yorkers are rightfully grateful to their commissioner merely indicates that New York, like most large American cities, is not yet fully civilized. As soon as the rule of law has been established, as soon as brute force need no longer be met with force, Mr. Valentine's methods will be no longer justified. Until then, more, honor and more power to him.