possible way. The police are shooting to kill, and the more frequently their aim proves true the better it will be for Cleveland. It is not time for leniency or compromise. The thug of to-day, who has so serious a misapprehension of the privilege of being an American, deserves nothing beyond a snug grave. There have been other epidemics of outlawry in Cleveland, and perhaps the present "crime wave" is no more menacing than some that have gone before. But coming just at this time, when so great a price has been paid to make America and all the world safe and decent, the impudence of the gunman is peculiarly infuriating.
The Cleveland Press headed one of its editorials: "Chief,
call out the A. P. L.!" In answer, the Chief of the Cleveland
Police did call on the A. P. L. once more, although this
was six weeks after hostilities had ceased. All of the following
Saturday night and Sunday there were A. P. L. men
patrolling the streets of Cleveland in motor cars in company
with the police.
The disbanding of the A. P. L. was openly deplored in Cleveland. What is going to be the future condition of the United States in these days following the war? One thing is sure, the thinking men of the country are uneasy. There is reason to feel concern, in a city like Cleveland, over bolshevism and labor troubles. There do not lack those who predict for all America the wave of disregard for property and life which quite often ensues at the close of a great war—and this war was the greatest upheavel of human institutions and human values the world has ever seen. But matters in Cleveland might have been worse—much worse.
