It is the duty of our officials who are entrusted with the management of our city to practice economy. But the economic measures must be sensible and must not jeopardize public safety, nor be detrimental to public transportation, or they will be just as harmful as extravagance.

The mayor undoubtedly deserves credit for his good intentions in trying to cut down expenses. Like his predecessor, he tries to save a part of the appropriations in order to enable the city to defray its expenses from its actual income. But there are branches in the civil service where economy should not be stressed any more than necessary. How it will be possible to curtail the police force in the face of the present crime wave with hold-up men and burglars working overtime--that we cannot explain. If Mayor Harrison succeeds in ridding the city of its criminals with a smaller police force than we now have, then he indeed deserves the gratitude of the community. But we fear he cannot 2do it. With or without a curtailed force, it is highly desirable that energetic measures be adopted to deal with the jail birds who make Chicago the toughest city in the world--with the exception of St. Petersburg.