OCR Text |
Show STRAIGHT TALK H With another campaign under way, wo again H . witness the recrudescence of the character assas-H assas-H " sins. The story goes that a certain person who H ' once held high public position in the community, H and who lost it through his own rank inefficiency, H is now giving vent to his purely personal venom H , at religious gatherings. Under the guise of M preaching prohibition, he is making personal at-m at-m tacks upon certain candidates for office. It is said '' that in one instance, at least, his attacks were 1 so vicious and undignified that even the chilli chil-li dren in the audience were disgusted, and that M some of those present left the room. And the 1 strangcest thing about it all was that the man fl who made the address was in no position him-M him-M self to throw stones. Whether measured by pri-H pri-H vate life or public record on prohibition, or any M other question of public issue, this man should M have considerable difficulty in sizing up to any , of the men whom he chose to attack. Since the M gentleman is so constituted by nature that the M purely personal creeps into all his ideas and pub-H pub-H lie utterances, we respectfully suggest that the j next time i"4 Iks he take for his text the old H, scriptural ction "let him who is without ; sin cast tl st stone," and then discuss him-w him-w self. If he does that, he will likely save others H the trouble later on. Hl M' Good for Mayor Ferry. He is on the right M' track at last. His appointment of J. Parley White H as chief of police rings true to his pre-election H promises, and is strictly in line with a sound . public policy. The new chief needs no introduc- H tion to the community. He has spent years in M the public service, and has had long experience H in the particular lino of work which will now B command his attention. He has shown rare ex- . ecutive ability in the direction of affairs in the sheriff's office. He is a native of Utah, a tax- H payer, a general all around good citizen, and H commands the respect of all who know him. H Moreover, he understands the city and its condi- H tions. H Chief White will give character to the police H department, and will command the confidence of H all good-thinking citizens in whatever he does. H. , His policies, as yet, are still a matter for specu- H lation, but we venture the prediction that ho H will give the city a clean, consistent administra- H tion of police affairs. So we say again that he is H the right man for the place, and we heartily H commend the mayor and city commissioners upon H their action. H H The unfortunate accident occurring on Mem- H' orial day up Parley's canyon reminds us of our H1 suggestion some weeks ago that the road through H this canyon be immediately put in shape for the H safety of travelers. This particular piece of road H is extremely dangerous and the wonder is that H serious accidents do not more frequently occur. H The state is spending thousands of dollars upon H the roads; so is the county, and it is imperative H that those who have supervision over this can- H yon road proceed at once to put it in a safe con- H dition, or else abandon it altogether. This should H be done, even at the expense of neglecting some Hi other piece of road temporarily, which although H needing attention, is not so dangerous to the H traffic! m H The star chamber meetings of the board of H education should cease. Their tyrranical methods H and the secrecy with which they continually put H something over without the public knowing about H it until it is done are being freely commented H upon and the comment is decidedly uncompli- H mentary to the members of the board. Their lat- H, est double cross, reducing the school term four H weeks Is astonishing alike to teachers and par- H ents, and it there were any excuse for it there H might be some reason for their action, but there is none and they are constantly doing things to the detriment of the entire public school system here. In this connection, more interest should bo taken in the election of members to the school board. The vote is always small and after the members have been elected there are usually protests, pro-tests, but there has never been a board so unmindful un-mindful of the public interest as the present one. It would bo an excellent idea for the members to take a recess for the summer and then resign. The Tom ball played here on Memorial day between the teams supposed to be representative of the Coast league, disgusted thousands of fans, many of whom have remained away from the games since. Had it been just an off day it wouldn't have made much difference, but such exhibitions ex-hibitions are the regular thing of late, and the loyal fans are getting very weary. After the support sup-port given last summer, which was greater than in any other town in the league, and which began be-gan the same way this year, it is outrageous to learn that part of the trouble lies in the economy being practiced by a few large stockholders and directors who are too little to see that such a policy pol-icy is going to lose them money instead of make it for them. Baseball fans are very quick to recognize the bunk and they won't stand for it much longer. They are not overjoyed, either, over the rumor that the Metropole bar is headquarters for a largo percentage of the team, being under the impression that batting averages should be made at the park and not uptown. It is painful to have to say such things. GOODWIN'S WEEKLY Is strong for baseball and will support a trying team of regular players, win or lose, and will do anything within its power to further good, clean ball, but the public is entitled to consideration and simply because it gave its time and money last year and usually got its money's mon-ey's worth is no reason for trying to fatten dividends divi-dends at its expense this year. It is a crying shame and unless something is done in every department of the business immediately im-mediately so far as the local team is concerned, the patronage will show just how far a grasping directorate can go and what those who pay think of retaining such players as can't make good. There are some splendid men on the team personally person-ally and some of them who- can play first-class ball. Those should certainly be retained, and a can tied to the remainder, the rattle of which could be heard in every city in the league. Some time ago the Weekly called the attention atten-tion of its readers to the abuses practiced on the poor and unfortunate by three or four unscrupulous unscrupu-lous collecting agencies operating in Salt Lake. It is high time that something be done by the authorities to correct this evil. These men who prey on the misfortunes of the ignorant still continue con-tinue to send about the city men in the uniform of police officers to frighten and intimidate their victims. They still continue to mail through the United States mails blanks purporting to be legal summons in court to further harass insolvent debtors. There should be a way to stop this. There are penalties for impersonating an officer. It is a federal offense to use the mails to defraud. There is no defense for the solvent man who refuses to pay his honest debts. Nevertheless, he is entirely justified in claiming protection against unlawful methods of collection. However, with this class of debtors we have little concern. It is the unfortunates whom, through loss of employment, employ-ment, accidents or sickness, become, for the time being, hopelessly involved; men and women, who, in this time of the survival of the fittest, find it difficult some days to provide even meagre food for their tables. These disreputable collection agencies know no sympathies. They seize a sewing machine from the hovel of a woman with starving babies clinging to her skirts as nonchalantly as they present pre-sent a bill to a rich but dishonest debtor. The statutes provide a very clear and certain way and means which may be lawfully used to collect col-lect debts. Officials should see to it that these methods are adhered to. The way of the transgressor is hard. There is certainly a real Nemesis pursuing convict George Johnson, honor man, who escaped from the road gang in Sevier county a few days ago. After walking two hundred miles in three days and three nights and succeeding in obliterating all trace of his whereabouts, he must forsooth stumble directly into a path of an automobile occupied oc-cupied by the governor and the warden of the penitentiary. It is hard to say who was the most surprised of the party. Now, instead of a speedy termination of his sentence he will be tried for ' the offense of making his escape and the prospects pros-pects are that a few years will be added to his sojourn in the big house on the hill. The comical Mr. Lund, Emil S., to be exact, filed suit during the week in the Third District Court to restrain those who proposed to erect a cross on Ensign Peak from doing so. Among his allegations is one to the effect that Bishop Nibley represents the Catholic as well as the Mormon Mor-mon church in the matter of erecting the cross, stating that the cross is the recognized symbol of the Catholic church. Sure it is, and of most every other creed and of Christianity in general. It Is no more the symbol of one church than of another an-other which recognizes it at all, and before the members of the city commission, the courts or any other officials are pestered further, wouldn't it be just as well for some one to file a suit to restrain Mr. Lund from making the community laugh so heartily every few days when there is so much serious work to be done. Even though we have a perfectly good lake with the exception- of the blight where a resort ought to be, shore dinners and clam bakes are not in great vogue. But that didn't stop the procession of automobiles filled to overflowing, literally and figuratively, from finding the way to the old paper mill on Monday, where they deposited depos-ited their loads and several hours later brought them home, the only difference being that half the contents of the automobiles were in the other half of the contents of the automobiles, and to them the panorama of the valley on their way home was doubled, tripled or quadrupled in proportion to the capacity of those who saw it. It was called a clam bake, and if there was a clam concealed about the person of any of the forty or fifty who attended, it kept very quiet during the orgy, and no one discovered its presence. pres-ence. There was beer by the barrel and booze galore, and considerable food which was prin-' prin-' cipally used for missiles. A collection was taken up at the finish to reimburse the gentlemen in charge who claimed there was a deficit, and everyone every-one who was invited is still trying to find out what it was all about. There was nothing clever about the affair, and no excuse for disturbing the peace of the countryside country-side and the highways down the valley with such an exhibition. -At the preparedness parade-today a great turnout turn-out of various organizations, employers and employees em-ployees and citizens In general is expected. Similar Sim-ilar parades will be held in hundreds of cities all over the country, and it is up to everyone to help to make the Salt Lake demonstration the greatest of those outside of the metropolitan centers. |