Mayor Harrison has announced that he intends to give the city an economical administration, and that he also wishes to make drastic changes in the police department. We have no reason to doubt his word, and therefore the mayor should not object to a few suggestions.

There is one place in police matters which needs considerable improvement--the police court. That place demoralizes our guardians of the peace. If an officer arrests a criminal, then the policeman is compelled to go the police court on the following morning and wait probably until late in the afternoon before the case is called--and so the officer has no chance to sleep, since he must appear in court during his off-duty hours. And if the case is postponed four or five times, then the officer suffers accordingly. Obviously, the more ambitious and efficient the officer is on his beat, the less sleep he gets during the day, 2and so it is not unusual for a minion of the law to spend a week without sleep.

What the police must endure when facing the shyster lawyers on whom the crooks rely (the attorneys who rush to jail to get clients), is another story. It is bad enough that an officer is forced to be awake at a time when he should rest and sleep-that he must stay in a badly ventilated courtroom with no opportunity to build up his strength for the next working period.

Here, then, is Harrison's chance to do something. He appoints the police court judges and can dismiss them. If the mayor exerts a little pressure, then these judges will settle cases in one-tenth the time, without detriment to the community whatsoever. Why should any trivial case be postponed three or four times? If a man is accused of having stolen a pair of boots, then he should be able to prove his innocence the next day; and, if by some chance he is not able to bring his witnesses, there is still the grand jury. Although this body may question only the witnesses of the plaintiffs, the twelve men usually 3listen to the other side as well.

Of course, the grand jury is another bad feature, as far as the police are concerned. After an officer succeeds in apprehending a criminal and bringing the culprit before the grand jury, then the ambitious officer must wait in an antechamber until he is called. The grand jury does not announce when a certain case will be called; the gentlemen hold a secret conclave, and the witnesses of the plaintiff must often wait for weeks in an antechamber.

Is not this sufficient cause for reform? Should not the grand jury have a definite docket just like the court? And could not the state's attorney have a certain number of cases prepared every day, ready to present to the grand jury? If the policeman knows that, on a certain day, he must appear as main witness in the third case, then the man need not waste his time, nor lose sleep by useless waiting.

However, in this instance, so far as the states' attorney and grand jury are 4concerned, Harrison cannot take recourse to his official power. He must resort to persuasion.

If Harrison succeeds in abolishing the helter-skelter procedure in the police courts, and in matters pertaining to the grand jury, then he will have accomplished much, and be considerably nearer his goal--since he has said that he wants to be the best mayor Chicago ever had.