OCR Text |
Show WHITE'S DEFENSE. If anything were, needed further to demonstrate the unfitness of J. Parley White for chief of police, he supplied the deficiency himself yesterday in his outburst of impotent rage against his critics and his admission of defeat before be-fore he fairly had begun his administration adminis-tration under a regime pledged to clean up the city. ' How can the police department keep a city clean,'' he is reported to have said to the city commissioners at their meeting yesterday, " if persons keep on proclaiming Salt Lake a wide open town!'' The chief is also reported to have said that when a newspaper proclaims bait Lake City to be "a wide open town" it is natural that the tendency will be for the disorderly element to flock to that town. This is the oldest known argument of the inefficient police official. We have no doubt that the chief of police of Babylon, if ever he was called to task publicly for failing to regulate vice aud keep crime in check, blamed the failure on his critics and declared that the ' criticisms were an invitation to pick-j pick-j pockets, lewd women and wine-bibbers 1 to flock out . of Egypt or Syria into the imperial city. We believe that it is an argument which has been used by every inefficient police official in every city of the United States at one time or another. The chief is also reported to have said that responsibility for future moral con- ditious must rest with The Tribune, the Civic Betterment union and "other dishonest dis-honest persons," or words of that im-1 im-1 port. The Tribune makes haste to disclaim responsibility for anything that may happen now that J. Parley White has been given a new term of office. It protested against his reappointment because be-cause he had neglected to enforce the iaws the prohibition law, the law ' against gambling and the laws and ordinances or-dinances regulating vice. We refuse to have J. Parley White faint on our doorstep door-step and declare that we are responsible. It is too much. 'The Tribune lied," averred the chief in his graceful way, "when it said that the police department and I, as chief of police, had ignored the government's gov-ernment's order to clean up the town. There never was an o'rder to clean up the town of vice until recently. Only a few days ago did I receive such an order. ' ' The chief further asseverates that he made diligent inquiry of government officials to find out about the orders respecting the suppression of vice, and that they "passed the buck." If the chief of police had enforced the laws of, the state it would not be necessary neces-sary now for the government of the United States to insist upon the enforcement enforce-ment of the federal regulations. Within the last few weeks the United States government, through the department of justice in this city, ha3 taken steps to secure the enforcement of the federal regulations.- No such steps would have been taken had the police department enforced our own state laws and city ordnances. Tt is entirely due to the fact that a town which is legally dry is actually wet and to the fact that the town reeks with unsuppreseed vice that it has been necessary for the federal government to intervene to protect the soldier boys. Is it nei-essary to sayvthat there are s' ores of thousands ot persons in this Mtv, in addition to the soldiers:, who are in need of the protection of enforced laws? The chief gives Ibe impression ul fortunate for himself that he did not offer due protection to the whole i Oirimuriitv until the federal government ;avc him ord' is to r.rotect a part of the community. We do not 'Aish to minimize the im-o:tance im-o:tance of protecting the soldiers, but v.e are determined that .. Parley White -I,.-)' not pan', the IrorSs," to use hi", own apt, if iiieijt;sint, e.qire-siorj. The 'rrA cn:;;rc,i rid not impose prohibition prohibi-tion upon im. The (,'tah legislature i;j-.-f'd a "bone dry law," ari l the city b'n 'oppiiig wet. ccr since. Wo h;i't st.it" Irivn flgain-tt '! i n but. gambling has flourished under police ! protection. These evils existed before The Tribune began to criticise. Who I was responsible then? The chief of police was keen to describe de-scribe some of the best people in the community as "dishonest persons," but it did not occur to him to include within the scope of his accusation a clique of politicians who thrive because the underworld un-derworld thrives a clique that wants J. Parley White as chief of police because be-cause it was satisfied with his conduct of the office before Commissioner Scheid took over the department of public safety. The chief, when alluding allud-ing to dishonest persons, could think of the terrifying "criminals" of our esteemed Civic Betterment union, but ho could not think of the gamblers, grafters, pandercrs, bootleggers and "other dishonest persons"" of that ilk who have been running the town. The Tribune, however, does not desire to be understood as placing the sole responsibility on Chief White. He was simply the hired man of the city commission. It was the city commission, com-mission, and, more directly, the head of the public safety department, that were responsible. And today it is the city commission, aud the new head of the public safety department that must assume the chief responsibility. |