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Show THE CITIZEN 6 SCOTCH THE BAD CHECK MEN from a handsaw at a hundred paces when it is a question of m ing graft or official derelictibn. If a fraction of what comes to me, he says, is true, believe much of it to be true), such an investigation will disc series of the most mortifying scandals that have ever befallen country. There never has been a governmental department, m S or state, so urgently in need of painstaking investigation as tthei the alien property custodian and the department of justice, r clv from the enactment of the alien custodian law. The charge made by Mr. Untermeyer is that the vast pat:ime Go of the department of justice, the secret service and the alien pr! custodian were used to build up a mighty political machine an jj, although the main object met with inconsiderable success the t which patronage was put were none the less sinister. ter There is also an intimation that the power to punish was nurp and that men who had incurred the enmity of the secret serv!d fore we entered the war were interned. This seems to be a hii.)tar the power to punish might have been used to get possession o:ds ere! for officials. .It favored interests by government erty requien have see aliens coerced to acumen been that special might itaya surrender of their property to greedy competitors or others, tog At all events, the public will not rest satisfied with suspin Inasmuch as other departments have been investigated on susf 41 there will be, we fancy, a general demand that the inquisitiotc posed by Mr. Untermeyer be held as soon as possible. ic Bad check men have been giving the local banks and business men an increasing amount of annoyance, and the legislature, if it could devise more effective means of dealing with irresponsible characters who are in the habit of emitting worthless checks, would be doing a great public service. When checks in the form of overdrafts are cashed and are not made good it is usually the teller who must stand the loss out of his small salary. Bad checks are of two kinds. One is the outright forgery ; the other the check issued when the maker has no funds in the bank. Forgeries give some trouble but checks not backed by funds give immeasurably more. Because overdrafts in business are often legitimate our lawmakers have found it difficult to devise measures satisfactory to business men. It would seem, however, as if there were a simple way out of the difficulty. If all overdrafts were banned that would compel those entitled to overdrafts to make arrangements with their bankers. In legitimate business arrangements of that character are easily made. Only the deliberate swindler would be affected by the penalty of the statute and that penalty should be a jail sentence. Frequently, of course, an innocent party overdraws without knowing it, but there would not be many such mistakes if the law served as a warning. t. The laws grant too much leeway to the one who makes a pracGreat Britain is going to reduce her navy and that wi!se tice of overdrawing or of giving checks on a bank in which he has dr. off a good many million pounds. no funds. e A The petty grafter is the most annoying. He gives a check on a What is all this to do about a woman judge sentencing, bank in which he has had a small account and is able to overdraw $25 for life? Many a woman has sentenced a man for life. or $50. It is then up to the teller to make good. When he searches rs. for the bad check man he often finds that he has left town. The sum fwar Headline, Buy a Lot in Zion as Foundation For involved is too small to warrant bringing the offender back even id I Sounds like a cemetery advertisement. when his whereabuots is discovered. He defies threats because he Teal realizes that ,the bank or the teller will not stand the expense of A news item says that farmers are the largest users ofna prosecution. in the country. Truck farming appears to be on the increase of those consists of bad check men The most numerous class pso who give worthless paper, not to the bank, but to those to whom Dr. Bryan is again reviving the Democratic party and l.yf ( in good scribes grape juice. M they owe money. These checks are deposited by the recipient Vie! The issuer of the faith, but they come back marked no funds. check then tries to tire his victim out. He makes various excuses A Texas justice of the peace jailed a clergyman for conrayi designed for delay and frequently the victim, worn out and disgusted, We thought that a Texas justice of the peace was beneath coff.p, drops the matter. Y, funds had no check he made on a bank where who a If everyone Senator Southwick says his bill forbids smoking only inflar could be put in jail without delay most of the trouble from bad checks places. Are we right in assuming that the senator enjoys a Mi would cease. smoke when at home? me It would be well for the legislature to review all of the laws on Senator Harding will be sworn in on the east portico of the the statute books and try to devise means of making them more House while the hotel keepers do their swearing downtown.ier effective. ' yq A number of states have laws much more stringent than the lows on our statute books and these should be collected and studied. College girls are growing taller and heavier, but are ms i We have in the legislature many business men some of them bankers heavy enough for housework. who ought to be able to give valuable advise. The San Francisco police say that the murderer of a g,e man was an amateur. It must be terrible to be killed by an urcar i 3 UNTERMEYERS PROPOSAL Mr. Untermeyers suggestion that congress investigate the department of justice and the office of the alien property custodian probably will meet with prompt favor in and out of congress. In point of fact, it was inevitable that the affairs of the alien property custodian, involving as they did, the disposition of hundreds of millions of dollars, would be investigated sooner or later. There was so much chance for graft that suspicion, so to speak, would have strained to the bursting point as it has done in the case of Mr. Unter-meye- r. The proposal, coming from one who has obtained numerous dictments in the building trust scandal, will have great weight, even In view of Germanys refusal to abide by the peace looks as if the treaty was being executed. riior, v i iiiiiiiiiiinniiiinininimniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiniiiiiiiinininiiiiiiiniinniiiininininimnmniiniiiiniminniniirt cl Thomas Insurance & Investment fer Company Via: Else Insurance Of All Kinds in- though, as he admits, he has no direct legal evidence. The public will believe that as the result of his experience lie knows a hawk 3.J Telephone Wasalch 3164 Boyd Park Bldg,, Salt Lake lis &ee .Jiee :l"llllllllllllHllllllllllllMlllltllllMltllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHI1lllllllllllltllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll ' |