Salt Lake Tribune | 1912-08-31 | Page 6 | Why the Change

WHY THE CHANGE? Tn the Dcserot News of Thursday evening there was an account of the doings and sayings of a woman of the underworld who made "startling charges'' against detectives of the police po-lice force, alleging that they have used her as a stool-pigeon, forcing her to be a spy and tool for them in the purchase pur-chase of "dope. " aud in the getting of evidence against rooming-house kcopors who illegally sell liquors. The detectives detec-tives against whom she makes these charges promptly deny their truth, and tho woman 's atory, unless it can bo corroborated cor-roborated in aomo other way, will generally gen-erally be considered "fi3hy. " But what we want to call attention to now is tbo departure of the News from its habit of some years past of taking such stories at their face value when the.y are first told, and building up upon them a fierce denunciation of the police force. If this sort of a story had been told last year against any members of the police force, or iu any of the five or six years past, the News would have instantly accepted it as true, and covered jls editorial page with recitals re-citals of tho charges and with fierce denunciations of the officers charged with tho offense. It has not been the habit of tho News to wait for evidence in any such case as this, but at ouco to. assume that the officers were guilty, and that they should not only be displaced dis-placed from their positions, but sent to jail. It has habitually nnd coustantly held in every such case as t ii i s that the officers wore guilty beyond question, and that any charge made by anone whatever, thief, murdered, or lawbreaker lawbreak-er of any kind, was rieeossarilv' true because it was made against the Salt Lako police force. In this case, how-ovor, how-ovor, there is not a line on the editorial page condemning the police or the detectives, de-tectives, there is not a word vouching for the accuracy of the story told by that woman, there is no call tD kick anybody out of the force or to send anybody lo jail. Surely the News has slipped n cog on this matter, or else it has conic into a belated condition of reform, which has been long overdue, !