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Show STILL SNARJjLNG- AT THE POLICE. It was perfectly natural that tho Smoot organ should succumb to an attack at-tack of editorial hysteria following the exoneration of the police department from the chnrges of a notorious desperado desper-ado who robbed, killed, and lied with eoual recklessness, and whose threats to "get even" with tho Salt Lako police po-lice at the time of his arrest a your aco. he assiduouslj- sought to carry out with the aid of his journalistic sponsor. Stress is laid on the fact that Morris was dead, having been hanged for murder, mur-der, at the time the investigation was held: but he wasn't dead when Sheriff Sharp made .his investigation. Ho wasn't dead when U. S. Marshal Anderson An-derson sifted the matter to the bottom. He wasn't dond whon the District Court refused to eonsider his allegations. allega-tions. He wasn't dead when Sharp and C'allister and Brown and Jackson and Anderson were wont to hold political conventions in his cell endeavoring to coax" out of him somo statement that bore such appearance of truth as to warrant an investigation. And tho good Lord knows .that, with all the coaching- Morris had, and tho official, political and personal interest tho gang all had in making out a case against tho department, if no facts were ascertained ascer-tained on which to act, there could bo no hone that moro could have been drawn from Morris by the city commissioners com-missioners in an open and unbiased in-auiry. in-auiry. Tn Julv of last year, 'immediately following fol-lowing ono of the secret clan gatherings gather-ings in tbo coll of Morris, the Smoot organ promised that in tho event of an investigation it would produce sensational sen-sational o virion eo tending to show tho police department up in a bad light. Yet tho man who wrote that and tho man he depended on for hiB information, informa-tion, went upon the stand and told the citv commission substantially that they knew nothing about tho matter, nor whether Morris had anj- othor diamonds dia-monds than those stolen by him from a local pawnshopthe day of his arrest; that they know absolutely nothing of any policeman being in any way implicated im-plicated as charged by Morris, in the affidavit written by one of those witnesses, wit-nesses, and that the' wore "riot withholding with-holding anything which would throw light upon the investigation." In a column of sneers yesterday morning the Smoot editor reiterated his attacks by innuendo against the men ho knew nothing against when he was under oath, and laid great stress on tho fact that "tho accuser, the man who made the charges, was dead and out of tho way." Is that the manly thing to do under the circumstances' I Sheriff Sh arp, after months of probing under .the direction of Morris, found nothing in any clue that was given him. Tho District Court brushed the matter aside as tho mutterings of a vengeful criminal. And even the Smoot organ strenuously denies that it made any charges, sa3ing: On ono side was Murderer Morris: on wi ouier me policemen who handled and searched him. those mombers of the p, 'ce department who were so situated W Bht efVfUy have robbed him had they been so disposed. None others could know anything about the, facts. It therefore becomes a matter of predilection as to which side is believed. be-lieved. "On the ono side is Murderer Morris: on the other tho policemen." On the one side crime; on the othor society. On the ono side defiance of the law: on tho other its enforcement. On tho one side a transient highway--man: ou the other reputable citizens and officers. Tho Smoot organ is welcome wel-come to its choice of sides. For our part wo concur completclj' with the Commission which 6ays: We confess an unwillingness i0 take the word of a highway robber with a long criminal record and a reputation for untruth, with no interest in justtco save to defeat It, no respect for law or Its officers, and no regard for the rights or lives of his fellow men. corroborated cor-roborated only by his pupil and partner in crime, against the. sworn statements of neighbors and citizens whose families and interests are all hore, however much we may have differed from them politically polit-ically or criticized some of them officially. offi-cially. Tho Smoot organ seemingly attaches importance: to the 'fact that Morris is dead, and that his were the only charges made against the police department. depart-ment. Aro they-entitled to belief because be-cause Morris was a murdorer? Or because be-cause he was a highwayman? Or because be-cause he was a notorious liar? Or merelv because he made them against the police department? Had the3' been, made against the sheriff's office would tho Smoot organ have backed them up with constant reiteration and sneors acraiuet the- objects of criminal spito7 Had the prisoner accused the deputy sheriff who carried his vest and other clothing from the city -Jail to the county coun-ty iail, would thero havo been so much red ink and simulated wrath wasted on tho incident? Isn't the attitude of tho Smoot paper an invitation to every desperado to make an uncensored political po-litical issuo of himself, to lot its reporters re-porters prepare affidavits, not as an evidence of rood faith but for publication publi-cation and sensation ? Does the mere fact of an accusation boinc made, cither in jail, in mental anguish, or in tho consciousness of impending im-pending death, afford justification for continued suspicion and constant assaults? as-saults? Will the editor of tho Smoot ncwsDnner affirm so indecent a proposition? propo-sition? The slandered policemen raid in their petition: "It is more manl3- and satisfactory sat-isfactory to prove the falsity of these charges than to allege the insanitj' of the deceased." And- it must seem to everybody that the call for evidence mado by these policomen entitles them to moro favorable consideration than would bo doserved had they simply tried to prove by members of the force that Morris was insane at tho time he mado the nccusations. |