OCR Text |
Show THE CITIZEN 8 lllllllllllllllllllllllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIH. I OBSERVATION PLANE ! I I What Are Citizens Doing To Down Vice Ringf Without comment the daily papers tell us that the sheriffs office has undertaken to rid the city of bunko men by arresting them as vagrants. The mere statement is an indictment of the police department, and especially of the chief of detectives. Why should the sheriff undertake a work which is specifically the duty of the chief of detectives and his force? Bunko men, pickpockets and criminals of various kinds and degrees were protected under the Bock regime. Since Mr. Barnes has taken charge there has been no change. The city is crime-riddeThe bunko men defy the menaces of the sheriffs office and do not seem to be frightened by Commis-siine- r Barnes. Pickpockets making their headquarters in Salt Lake are reaping a harvest on incoming and outgoing passenger trains and at the summer resorts. . n. Those unfamiliar with the operations of a police department are not disturbed by these evidences of crime until a carnival of crime is disclosed. There has been a carnival of crime in the city for months, but it has not been laid bare. So little is revealed by the police and so little comment is made in the daily newspapers that the public has not grasped the apalling magnitude of the operations of bunko men, pickpockets, auto thieves, safe robbers and burglars. Former officers of the police force know that crime as well as bootlegging and gambling is protected. Criminals and bunko men whose pictures are in every rogues gallery in the United States and whose faces, therefore, are well known to all detectives walk our streets daily without fear of intereference from the police. Th e criminals are not ordered out of town because the police are afraid of being ordered out of town by the criminals. Under the potection system a police officer who arrests a bunko man or tells a criminal to quit the city loses his job on the police force, just as a police officer is consigned to the official executioner if he dares to molest the gamblers and bootleggers who pay for protection. Under Bock the chief of police was a mere figure-heaWe wonder whether Mr. Barnes will have a real chief of police who will clean up the town? It is useless to denounce the chief of police when the mayor at the head of public safety department Is being paid for protecting gamblers, bootleggers, bunko men and other criminals. It is to the police subordinates that the protection money usually is paid in such a case and to the head of the public safety department. If the head of the public safety department is a thief and a grafter those who need protection find no difficulty in making the necessary arrangements for immunity. In taking over the department Mr. Barnes made the foolish remark that the police department seemed to be operating efficiently. If he continues to hug that delusion to liis soul the reign of criminality will continue uninterrupted under the auspices of the Democratic machine which once was headed by no less a criminal than Mr. It is the duty of Mr. Barnes to clean out the police departBock himself. ment and thus make it possible to clean up the city. And yet no one has ieard even a childish treble of command from Mr. Barnes as yet If he has the vigor and courage necessary to rid Salt Lake of protected vice and crime he has not, up to date, dis ' played the least indications of such qualifications. Admittedly, however, it is too early to judge the qualifications of Mr. Barnes. Perhaps he has not taken hold of the task yet. So quiet has he been that one is beginning to suspect that lie may have begun his term of office with a vacation, enjoying buttermilk in rural retreats. Soon, however, the public ,will yearn to see how one who lias earned thet nickname of "Buttermilk Barnes" will wield the big stick. The threat of the sheriffs office against the bunko men need not be taken seriously. If the sheriffs office meets with no better success against the bunko men than it has met in its dealing with the bootleggers the bunko men will trade Mr. Corless out of the county jail. The Citizen is doing its duty when it calls the publics attention to the havoc wrought in our fair city by a political machine which runs the city and county and runs it dishonestly. The Citizen cannot constitute itself a committee of public safety to clean up the town. The people of Salt Lake must do that work. In the next election, no doubt, they will have a chance to express their wills, but right now is the time to show some of the qualities of vigilant and virtuous citizenship. Unless the citizens organize and see Its the only food for breakfaw When you get up with "tha eat seven feeling, hungry of slices ROTAL BREAD plain or toasted, with your morn ing cup of. coffee. Try it with jaih or jelly in preference to other foods that con, more but which do not contain?! half the amount of nourishment L Bread is your best food eatv I more of it. Eat ROYAL BREAD. today grocer. of Buy itf neighborhood your Royal Baking Go. A J The Beaute Shope NAN C. DOBB 522-23-2- Let Us Whisper In Your Ear! 4 McIntyre Was. a timely warning ! Have you laid in your win- ters supply of coal? Of course you realize that crop movements in the fall mean a shortage of railroad cars for fuel transportation, resulting usually in higher prices for coal. .Take a tip from the inside and stock up today with 9481 Building The Rippe i V I Auto Bed and Tent Made in Utah Castle Gate or Clear Creek Coals Then winter winds may howl all they want to and people with empty coal bins may howl, too hut you can laugh at the whole world, knowing your bins are filled with the best standard coal on Hie market. 'tt From $25.00 to $40 00; ASK YOUR DEALER. d. UTAM IFUJEIL. CO. Miners and shippers of Castle Gate and Clear Creek Coals exclusively Husfietiitd ui Mi hr Rippe Brothers SA1T LAKH errr, UTAH Entrance throng! J. Ol Penney Oa 22S S. State St. I j |