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Image provided by: University of Utah, Marriott Library
Newspaper Page Text
T . 1 i 1 , I Vol. 6; No. 39. ' SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, JUNE 8, 1907. Price 5 Cents. I . Let us Have fl Grand Jury The concensus of opinion of such of the people as tako an interest in public affairs is that a grand jury ) should be called for the purpose of investigating the condition and ron , duct of municipal affairs generally ' '' and that of the police department in particular. Everybody is convinced except those who don't want to be convinced and who wouldn't be convinced though one rose from the dead, that great abuses have existed not only in the police department but in almost ev ery branch of the municipal govern ment. In regard to the police there is no doubt that they are and have been in league with thugs, thieves and vagabonds, who plunder anybody they can, more especially strangers in the city. The police afford these criminals protection, shield them from' prosecution and get a share ''of the plunder. The standard openly established by the police and the press organs of them and the other thugs is that strangers are legitimate prey. They prefer strangers and only attack residents when the tourist business is light. " Succors from Scotland " or anywhere else the po lice and their confederates are on the look out for. Another disgrace ful phase of the conditions which ob tain in the police department is the number of disreputable petty fogging . lawyers which are not on'y allowed t to rob prisoners but arc encouraged 1 by the police to do so. These law yers have the "run" of the city jail. When anyone who happens to have any money is arrested, these scrubs 1 "get to him" and soon get his money under one pretext or another, and of course they "divy" with the police. It's a great game and those engaged in it have become so bold that it is played almost openly, and no attempt is made to check it. The street de partment needs the attention of a grand jury, so does the treasurer's wfr office and so does the city council itself. One man who is pretty well posted remarked the other day and rightly so that investigation by a grand jury would result in the indict ment of at least three forths of the city officials. ,J, , The prosecution in the cases against the chief of police and others is a failure, cither from intent or imbecil ity. From whatever cause there is no doubt that it is a failure. A grand jury should be summoned. Those engaged in the prosecution of those cases should be dismissed. Capable lawyers should be engaged and a judge to hear the cases should be brought from) some outside district, who would be entirely free from the influence of the abnormal conditions which exist here. This should be done and done at once. What mat ters the few dollars it would cost. The existing condition is costing the people a great deal more than it would cost to put an end to the abus es and punish the guilty ones. Delay of course is what the guilty ones arc playing for above all else If the trials can be staved off for a few months the witnessess will be scattered. It will be impossible to assemble them and effectively mar shal the evidence. The evidence is here now, overwhelmingly strong. It has been laid at the feet of the prose cuting officers and they cither haven't the ability or the disirc to use it. It's a scandalous state of affairs. Let us have a grand jury, a new set of prosecuting officers and a new judge without delay. The atmos phere needs clearing up. A liberal application of disinfecting fluid or chloride of lime would do a world of good. The prosecution in the Sheets case seems determined to avoid coming to the point in the case. It shoots all around the bull's eye but never hits anything. The sensible and rea sonable thing for the prosecution to do would have been to have filed in formation charing the defendant with a felony in plain language. In this case it would be just as easy to prove a felony as a misdemeanor. To prove the charge of conspiracy (the misde meanor) it will be necessary in this case to prove the robbery (felony) and that Sheets was a party to it. Why not make a plain direct charge and avoid surplusage, garbage and other exterancous matter if the inten tion is to ever get the case into court? w An accountant said the other day that he would gladly pay Salt Lake City $500 in cash for the privilege of auditing the books and records of the Salt Lake City police department for one month on the condition that he would receive as his remuneration such amounts of money as he should discover to have been stolen from the city by the police and their accom plices. There is one very fruitful source of graft in the matter of fines that a grand jury should inquire into Offenders arc sometimes, many times in fact, sentenced to a term in jail, say 30 days, 60 days or 90 days, with the option of paying a fine at the rate of $1 per day instead of going to jail. Many a fine has been paid which didn't reach the city treasury, while the fellow who paid it was by some kind of fiction supposed to be serv ing his time on the rock pile. Why not have a grand jury? It's certainly badly needed. There is talk of increasing the sal aries of Salt Lake policemen. The stated salary of most of the men on the force is only a small part of their "earnings." The graft is so good that a policeman inclined to graft could well afford to take the job for no salary at all. The salaries paid, however, arc very good, better than in most cities. In the District of Columbia there arc 650 policemen' besides officers. The oldest men on the force are paid $1200 a year, others not so old in the service, $1080 a pear, and the new men $900 a year. The department is one of the best in the country. It is under the control of a commission. Slates arc already being fixed up .for the state, election in 1908. One of the early ones reads about as fol lows: W. S. McCornick for senator, C. S. Tingey for governor, James Christiansen for auditor, John A Edwards for secretary of state and Judge W. M. McCarty to succeed himself on the supreme bench. The trouble with these early booms is that they ripen too soon and by the time the conventions come around they are spoilt. MY. McCornick's name is probably being used without authority. Slates very often need fi nancial backing and Mr. McCornick is quite able to take care of that end I H of it, if he would. It is hardly thought , H however that he will allow himself H to be drawn into a game of that kind jH just now, not because he wouldn't M make a desirable senator, but it would H be a new departure to have two Gen- , H tile senators from Utah. If Senator il Smoot doesn't succeed himself the H place would probably go 'to some oth- jH er Mormon and Mr. McCornick we H don't think would abjure his faith and ,H join the Mormon church even for a ;H senatorship. Our guess is that Reed ijH Smoot will be re-elected and we don't iH sec why he shouldn't. j' The members of the Benevolent .M Protective Order of Elks who for iM years have used Elks' teeth as one i M of the outward symbols of their or- M der have very generally discontinued M the practice for the reason that the M demand for the teeth was so great H that all those noble animals in the ;H country would soon have been slain jH just for their teeth and the species M become extinct. It is a nice thing iM for the members of the order to act M in the matter as they arc doing. Salt M Lake lodge No. 85 was the first lodge M in the country, in this part of the M country anyway, to pass a resolution 'M discountenancing the use of the teeth M for charms. Other lodges have fol- M lowed suit, hut Salt Lake lodge led M the way. There will be a deprecia- M ti'dn in the price of Elks' teeth which M hitherto have sold at high figures in M some cases running up to hundreds H of dollars for good specimens. H H The Abraham Irrigation Company H of Millard County, Utah, is offering H some wonderfully good terms to set- !H tiers and others who want to own 'H farms. The company has thousands iH of acres of the finest and most fertile :H lauds in the world, and its system of '- irrigation is as near perfect as any- 'H thing projected by man can be. The 'H lands with the water rights are sell- ing at $80 an acre, 25 per cent payable jH in cash and the balance on easy ! terms. The company will clear the !H land, fence it, seed it with grain, or- chard, hay and so forth, sink a well H and in two years turn over to the pur- jH chaser a producing farm. It's a rare opportunity. Abraham is on the San 'M Pedro railroad, has as fine a climate 'M as any in the world and rich and 'M fertile soil. The Anderson-Cum- M mings company, 322 South Main St., ,VQ arc the sole agents. It's worth look- hg ing into. H