National Affairs: Philadelphia’s Dodge

The duties of Philadelphia’s Director of Public Safety roughly correspond to those of New York City’s Police Commissioner, except that he also administers the departments of fire, building, elevator and electrical inspection, maintenance & repairs. Most famed of Philadelphia’s recent Safety Directors was Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, U. S. M. C., retired, who tried to dry up the city. In 1928 aggressive, door-smashing Lemuel B. Schofield was appointed following a grand jury investigation of Philadelphia scandals. Last week Mayor-elect Joseph Hampton Moore announced Director Schofield’s successor—a man he pointedly hoped would find other things to dothan “being a captain of police to lead raids or a fire chief to rush to fires.” New appointee is Kern Dodge, 51, socialite, consulting engineer. Never a politician, Director Dodge has been an executive council member of the Philadelphia Board of Trade. His father James —whom Mark Twain called “the greatest story teller in America”—founded and left his son a large interest in Link-Belt Co. Longtime friend of Mayor-elect Moore, Director Dodge is extremely air-minded. He flew in one of the Wright Brothers’ planes in 1912. He. his son and his daughter all hold commercial pilot licenses, a U. S. family record. Politically liberal, actively Wet, Director Dodge promised upon taking office: “We shall use our utmost endeavors to enforce all laws without stressing one to the neglect of others. … I am absolutely opposed to all forms of lawlessness. This includes lawlessness within the law. It applies also to the preservation of the civil rights of everyone, including the ‘soapboxers,’ radicals and the like.”

Still smarting under the Mayor-elect’s jibe, retiring Director Schofield among his last acts dismissed 228 policemen and promoted one patrolman to sergeant. That one was Charles P. Lang, whom Secretary Charles Francis Adams of the Navy dismissed from the Naval Reserve for wearing a U. S. uniform while making a liquor raid last July. “Lang,” explained Mr. Schofield, “was made a martyr in the Navy and despite an honorable career was dismissed … by a misguided and egotistic little whiffet!”