Salt Lake Tribune | 1914-11-29 | Page 6 | Boy Bandits

BOY BANDITS. All good citizens will commend Policeman Po-liceman tit. John for his fearlessness and efficiency. At the very beginning of v;hat has come to be known as the "hoklup season," he taught a terrible les-on to the criminal element by fa- j tally wounding a robber within ten rain- iites after a holdup. He coolly risked j death by waiting until the bandit at- ! tempted to shoot him. and then proved j himself the quicker marksman. But ' while we extol the intrepid policeman, i we cannot help seeing the pathoa in the case of the bandit; not so much in his death as in his wasted life. A few years ago a baud of desperadoes, despera-does, known as the '" car barn bandits.'1 operated in Chicago. Some were cap-i cap-i tured and several killed, after they had ; murdered several citizens and ex-i ex-i eeuted many daring robberies. It oc-! oc-! curred to one of the bandits to com- pute how much he had made in the three j years he bad operated as a robber, and ; he announced to the newspapers that i ho had averaged $750 a year. Xo doubt j bis companions had derived about the j same income, perhaps a little more or a j little less. i From a practical point of view this i was a most convincing lesson. The : bandit had dared death a dozen timts i in the three years to acquire an amount ; of money which he could have earned 1 honestly by very little effort. Inves-1 Inves-1 tigations have revealed that most of ; the bold young bandits have grown up , in idleness. They Hhe to hang around : dives and pool halls, but they detest : working for the money they like to spend. They prefer to let others do the work and then to take -the money irom them by a sudden raid on a place of business or by a holdup on the ,-tn.et. If the young bandit expended the same amount of energy and acute-ness acute-ness which he often displays in his criminal operations, he could make an honest living and earn two or three times the annual income of the famous car barn bandit. But the ' 'yellow streak" in his make-up leads him to adopt what he considers to be the ' ' easiest way. ' ' In the end he finds it is the hardest way. for the way of :he transgressor is hard. The 20-year-old Salt Lake bandit, who had been fatally wounded, was searched at the police station and only ol-i found on him. For that sum he took frightful risks and met with a tpeedy death. Policeman St. John acted with prompt decision and yet with due care, thereby setting an example of efficiency, effi-ciency, lie was coiled upon in an emergency such as tests to the utmost those qualities whim a guardian of the law should possets and for which there 'in be no adequate compensation in faiaiy. It is the duty, therefore, of the . community in general and the city 'commissioner:-; in particular to stand back j mi him staunchly should criticir-m j ame. There is a teu'lerp-.y amon" the ui.thinkiEJf, who do not appreciate- the 1 importance of law and order or the peril of unchecked lawlessness, to raise a hue and cry a?iist the police officer of-ficer who is compelled to u'-e firearms a.:, a Ia t resort iu upholding the law and in prote':t::i Hie and property. The very fact that t-yh a t'Tniency exisiu rr f.'. k h it ai! ti;e more ''-sential ;'or the city comm i:-inner s to support -.vitho'it weakness or equivocation a po-ii'-e of tier r who hn been put to tie : ;iprfme t'-st ,