Show SPIES AS WITNESSES one of the federal and PS in missouri has robit j airl I 1 ii it tho testimony 0 a anness employed as a spy to detect violations of the law is nofa of and that where only testimony is produced the accused party should b rolease 3 it is doubtful if this anlin will stand the arber of or of morals tho general of spotters is by no mes a favorable one under any circumstances and yet it will hardly do to pay that their evidence evid enco is wholly worthless and their services never useful or creditable there are certain offenses offe nEes which cannot be detected in any other way the officers of law ire frequently obliged to resort to sach means ia to bring the guilty to justice some jf the worst crimes ever perpetrated iu this country have been fastened upon tho proper persons boly through the efforts of hired detectives familiar with the ways of criminals and willing to play a false part for the pur icse of en trapping them it is a it face in tho proceedings of the courts that those men who consent to go about iu disguise searching for difficult clows and worming confessions from sharp and experienced offenders are really in dispensable they are never popular but it is due to them to say that they often exhibit decided courage and a true sense of devotion to duty it rarely f ever happens that an innocent man is harmed by detective processes the most skillful and persevering spy can not induce a man to acknowledge a crime which ho has not committed it ia only the guilty that have reason to fear trouble from the betrayal of their confidence the testimony of the spy like that of any other witness is subject to the severe ordeal of cross and its places are reasonably certain to be exposed A degree of suspicion attaches to it always and juries are per bitted to make allowance according angly but it has never before been held by any federal that wo know of that such witnesses are utterly unreliable and that their evidence should bo disregarded from first to last whenever it stands alone A better rule and kho one universally observed is that of giving to testimony of this character such weight as seems just and proper after careful analysis and and duo consideration of all the circumstances cum stances it would be more satisfactory of course to havo the laws enforced without the intervention of an agency so objection able on moral grounds if that wore possible but experience daily shows that such a thing is practically out of the question the spies are a necessary evil to say the least of them their pros ence ia the result of conditions which can not be changed so long as human nature remains what it is and society surely has a right to avail itself of their services in the important work of hunting down criminals and inflicting penalties for violations of the laws which are tho basis of general safety and happiness the work of enlisting tho services of detectives in prosecuting the liquor laws in prevo has been attended with the same unpleasantness that it has elsewhere that their work hag pot absen as successful as it might have been is not due to their inefficiency but simply because of the odium that their calling has seemed to place upon the men who have composed the j dries who have heard the case would the people in general give men employed in this direction their moral support their would be a different situation of affairs in provo than there is tod to d ay |