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Show RESIGNATION OF CHIEF SHEETS. Chief of Police Sheets has resigned. Worn out by the continued assaults of unclean enemies, ene-mies, and feeling that ho was being used as a olub to beat down the party through which ho obtained' his ofllco, he decided to pull out. Two sentences will express the full situation: (1) Never before was there in this city so efficient a chief of police. (2) Never before was any officer In any station sta-tion in this city so hounded and so abused. Ho stopped the hold-ups; he closod "the public gambling, joint's; he relieved tho Social evil of its mor.o sinister presentations; ho made the city safe for the first time in years. But from the beginning he has beon pursued as never was an officer before. No charge has" P been entered against him except by acknowl edged thieves, bunco men and prostitutes but by the criminal press of the city every charge has I , been accepted as true, and day after day he has by this press been tried and convicted in advance i of the courts. , The chief infamy of this rests upon the paper I that claims to be tho organ of tho agents of Alt 1 mighty God in Utah. I To understand its infamy one must underr ; l stand its history. For quite a quarter of a cen tury it was tho daily defender of every short-' short-' coming and crime perpetrated by Mormon rule. I We may mention a few of these. It endorsed every graft made by Mormon officeholders, -including embezzlement of public funds; the in-, competency of officials; the blood-atoning of ( "enemies" on tho street and in, private; the flinging fling-ing of filth Into the houses of United States of- ficials; tho establishing and furnishing of houses I of prostitution by the "holy elders" in resident districts with the hope of catching inwary Gentiles; Gen-tiles; the employment of thugs on the police j forco; an utterly incompetent fire department; I the beating to death of prisoners in jail; tho entering at night and destruction of merchants' stocks of goods; the taxation of Gentiles out of all proportion to tho taxos levied upon Mormons; endorsing every defiance of the laws; the purchase pur-chase of worthless water rights; the indirect licensing of houses of prostitution and gambling houses; tho wide-open town as this town was throe years ago; tho failure to provido any sufficient suf-ficient water supply for tho city; tho justification for refusing to make ono sanitary regulation for the health of the city; tho giving of all Its influence in-fluence to prevent tho sprinkling of the streets, and abusing all who cried out against the absorbing ab-sorbing of all the revenues of the city by the officers of-ficers and their refusal to make improvements. (As a sample wo may clto one fact. Tho first year the Liberals sprinkled tho stroots the death-rate death-rate among ohildren fell off CO per cent.) But this organ from tho first has pursued Chief Sheet with a vindlctlvoness unparalleled, i j The word of a bunco sheerer and acknowledged 4 thief has boon accepto'd by it as gospel truth, and the chief has been pursued as though it had boon proven that he Avas a convloted thief. And, in its ease, its entire influence comes through tho fact that it Is endorsed by the fifteen men who are from day to day tho Mormon ohuroji, j and it means simply that they are determined fa rule Utah and Salt Lake City or make this a , storm center forever. That is, from tho first. the persecution of Chiof Sheets has been the persecution of the Mormon church, and the Chief j has been but the instrument, the real aim was to , - discredit and if possible to destroy tho American i party, and to cajole Gentiles to be Democrats or Republicans, that tho church might throw a 1 sop to one party this year and to the other next i ana thus keep control as it has for the past ten j yews. The purpOBO was to never bring the j chief to trial until after election, but to spring lila case iipon the city every morning as a special i i indiotment of the American party. His resignation resig-nation is a mighty disappointment to them No chief of pollco In all the past has dono as well by Salt Lake as Chief Sheets; his retirement should bo a matter of regret to every well-wisher of the city, and he should havo the support ot overy honest man until proof can be brought against him that did not emanate from a hold-up or prostitute or bunco-sharp or acknowledged thief. |