TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT 105 



police officers, which is unavoidable under any police system 

 like the present, is a great handicap on the protection of parks. 

 The lack of fixed individual responsibility seems to constitute a 

 great loss of power and efficiency. 



After long and careful deliberation, led by the initiative of 

 Mr. Joseph P. Hennessy, Park Commissioner of Bronx Bor- 

 ough, the members of the Park Board unanimously reached the 

 conclusion that the situation now demands a force of special 

 park policemen, chosen with special reference to their effective- 

 ness in park protection, and maintained under the direction of 

 the Board of Parks. The present force of policemen being 

 already too small for the needs of greater New York, the special 

 park force is proposed as an increase, and not as a subtraction 

 from the regular force. 



This plan has the hearty approval and support of the Zoolog- 

 ical Society. It is, in effect, the principle for which we long have 

 striven, and once enjoyed for six years, in the form of special 

 permanent details of policemen to daily duty in our Park. Hav- 

 ing seen the great benefits and economies of this plan, the 

 Society's support of it is based on experience, not theory. 



The tendency toward vandalism in public parks is too well 

 known to require description here and it is morally wrong to 

 permit the children of New York to think that in a public park 

 any hoodlum can commit rubbish nuisances and go unpunished. 

 Of all places in America, the grip of the Law needs to be the firm- 

 est in New York City. 



Most sincerely do we hope that for the good of this great 

 city the Board of Park Commissioners will persevere in their 

 campaign for a force of special park policemen, and that every 

 good citizen of New York will do everything possible to aid 

 that movement. 



CONCLUSION. 



Like many other institutions and industries, the mainte- 

 nance of the Zoological Park is hampered by the universal short- 

 age of skilled labor. We now are facing a program of repair 

 work that is scarcely less than appaling. Mr. Merkel's long list 

 of tasks is not exaggerated for the sake of dramatic effect. 



