Accordingly, most of the worst men put out were reinstated by the courts; and when the Mayor attempted to remove one of my colleagues who made it his business to try to nullify the work done by the rest of us, the Governor sided with the recalcitrant Commissioner and refused to permit his removal.
Nevertheless, an astounding quantity of work was done in reforming the force.

We had a good deal of power, anyhow; we exercised it to the full; and we accomplished some things by assuming the appearance of a power which we did not really possess.
The first fight I made was to keep politics absolutely out of the force; and not only politics, but every kind of improper favoritism.

Doubtless in making thousands of appointments and hundreds of promotions there were men who contrived to use influence of which I was ignorant.

But these cases must have been few and far between.

As far as was humanly possible, the appointments and promotions were made without regard to any question except the fitness of the man and the needs of the service.