| Show THE MAYOR AND THE MARSHAL advar deveret neur reab SIR sip I 1 have thought that in justice to E ex x mayor armstrong and myself a statement of facts should be laid before the public in regard to our cases wherein in dec 1889 twelve indictments were found by the grand jury six against each of asfor us tor mis into appropriating public bublic monies of salt like lake city mry every few weeks our names have been brought before the courto courte and heralded by the press from one end of the land to the other we have asked repeatedly for a trial but it has baa been passed from one term of court to another until the present when mr armstrong and myself were elected to fill the offices of mayor and marshal of this city there were five notorious houses of vile repute doing a thriving business the names of the proprietors of these houses were very familiar to the public sunday liquor selling was teamed on to a con sid erable extent although not with open doors in 1886 a petition was re by the city council asking that the city marshal be empowered to employ two detectives for the better protection of its citizens and enforcement of the ordinances of this city A motion was made and passed at the the next council that the mayor with the he marshal associated be authorized to employ detectives no number mentioned for this purpose it has been claimed there was no authority given to the mayor or marshal to employ detectives after our installation in office these public alic houses of prostitution were do broken ken up and the proprietors and inmates scattered to the four winds and a public house bouse of that ch character ameter was not known thereafter in this city while mayor armstrong was in office strange women would come to our city and undertake to establish uch places und and sunday liquor belling caused a con fight on the part of the city sometimes the proprietors of saloons would be halfway decent in their actions at others they would band together and defy the city to stop them making threats against the officers and detectives the system adopted by the saloon men in most cases was to have two men as spies one inside the saloon at the window the other on the outside i As soon as an officer came within a half or quarter of a hloch of their places of business word was passed in side the counters were cleared c of glasses and everything suspicious dous removed A rule wis was adopted by the mayor and myself that no officer should visit saloons to drink but only guly in the discharge disch rge of their duty when p officers violated this rule they charged I 1 I 1 A better set of officers in regard to this matter would have been hard bard to find but these circumstances made macle it difficult for the police to detect sunday liquor telling selling it was for tills this purpose teeing our own officers could not gain admittance to these places th chattle attle teo tec tives were employed mr Z coltrin whose name has hag figured before the public many times in these cases was employed and a commission commis aion given to him by me as a detective for suit lake city he employed sub bub detectives who were strangers to me and the police until cases were brought before the court in which these men were witnesses offenses Offe being proven to the satisfaction of the court fines were imposed and the proceeds paid into the city treasury I 1 received an order from the city recorder on the treasurer as the mar contingent fund out of which mr coltrin was paid and a voucher taken these vouchers at the tind end of the quarter were examined andO KM 1 1 by the mayor and presented with the mar marshaus quarterly report to the council they were then referred to the committee on police and found to be correct and approved and were so recommended to the council and acted upon and filed now this is in full the proceedings wherein we have been charged with misappropriating appropriating mis the public monies lk 4 was demanded of us by the public and press that prostitution and sunday liquor selling should be suppressed and we determined to do it even as the mayor wisely said if fit it cost the city double the money that was made by fines collected in these cases how well we succeeded we will leave the public to judge we believed what we were doing was for the t of the morals and good government of the city now we are called upon to come law into court and prove there was no criminal intent on our part or suffer the penalty of the law for misappropriating appropriating mis public funds fund whether I 1 have done wrong in ma making this public or whether we have borne this stigma la in silence I 1 leave to the public ALFRED SOLOMON SALT lakis CITY march 12 1891 |
