State police Canada has been more efficient than the United States in affording protection to remote and rural communities, by means of her national mounted police.  “The isolated farmer and his wife slept securely in their sod hovel beyond the frontier, because they knew that a brave and swift corps of vigilant young athletes ... kept sleepless vigil.  Life and property were secure ... .” [Footnote:  C.R.  Henderson, “Rural Police,” Annals American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1912, p. 228.] In our own country Texas has her “rangers” who protect her borders against raids; but the best example of rural policing in the United States is in Pennsylvania, where there is a well-organized state police, or “constabulary,” which has many times proved its efficiency in protecting remote rural communities and homes, in bringing criminals to justice, and in quelling riots in mining centers.

VANDALISM

A great deal of property is destroyed or injured by vandals.  The original Vandals were a tribe of Germanic peoples who invaded southern and western Europe in the Middle Ages, and who were noted for their destructiveness of the beautiful buildings and other evidences of Roman civilization.  There seem to be vandals in almost every community, and sometimes they seem to be especially numerous in small communities, perhaps because of the lack of police protection.  Sometimes vandalism is wanton,—­that is, it results from an apparent love of being destructive.  Most often it is purely thoughtless.  Few people would knowingly injure the property of another if they would stop to think of their feelings if another should injure their property.  It is a case of “bad manners.”  Moreover, it is not a “square deal” to injure another’s property while expecting one’s own property to be secure.  When vandalism occurs in a community it creates a general feeling of insecurity and destroys the sense of freedom.

Public property is often more likely to suffer from vandalism than private property.  Some people will mar the walls of public buildings, or make their floors filthy with expectoration, when they would not think of doing so in private buildings.  They will break shrubbery in public parks, or despoil public flower beds, when they would not think of entering private premises for such purpose.  There seems to be a feeling that public property belongs to no one, or else that, since it is public, any one is at liberty to do as he pleases with it.  This, of course, is foolish.  It is as if a stockholder in a business corporation should injure or destroy the corporation property, forgetting that he owned a share in it and suffered a share of the loss.

Investigate and report on: 

Organization of police protection in your community.

Organization of a police department in a large city.

The Mounted Police of Canada and their work.