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Show Published Every Saturday BY GOODWIN8 WEEKLY PUBLISHING C0H INC. A. W. RAYBOULD, BUSINESS MANAGER SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: Including postage In the: United States, Canada and Mexico, $2.50 per year, $1.50 for six months. Subscriptions to all foreign countries, within the Postal Union, $4.50 per year,. Payments should be made by Check, Money Order or Registered Letter,; payable to The Citizen. Address all communications to The Citizen. . Entered as second-clas- s matteryJune 2i; 1919, at the postofflce at 8alt Lake under-thr Act of March 3, 1879,.,. City, Utah, . Ness Bldg. Phone Wasatch 5409 8alt Lake City, Utah - . V 311-12-- 13 ..v1 9 r t i . ... : . , O-- ; -- n ' : " r: . MURDERERS ESCAPE Killing for a thrill in Chicago and the state of Illinois is not sufficient to bring the death penalty. Human life is held so lightly, or apparently so, in Illinois, that the present laws can be so construed that brutal murder trials can be conducted without a jury and loopholes can be found for the murderers to escape. Nathan Leopold Jr. old and Richard Loeb, two university graduates, kidnapped Robert Franks and foully murdered him, and, after the murder, demanded a ransom from the murdered boys father with another threat of death from these murderous curs. The murderers are now old, but they are allowed to escape the gallows on the score of tender age. If a man is not a man at the age of nineteen he will never be a man at the age of fifty years. The majority of the American public stands aghast at the verdict. Justice John R. Caverly, who conducted the trial without a jury and in whose hands the lives of the boys were held gives his reasons in an A. P. dispatch in The Evening Telegram why he imposed life sentences: He said. In view of the profound and unusual interest that this case has aroused, not only in this community, but in the entire country, and even beyond its boundries, the court feels it his duty to state the reasons which have led him to the determination he has reached. It is not an uncommon thing that pleas of guilty are entered in criminal cases, but, almost without exception in the past, such pleas have been the result of a virtual agreement between the defendant and the states attorney whereby, in consideration of the plea, the states attorney consented to recommend to the court a sentence deemed appropriate by him and, in the absence of special reasons to the contrary, it is the practice of the court to follow such recommend14-ye- 19-yea- i " ar rs If we are to believe the daily press no greater contempt for our courts has ever been shown than was displayed by these two murder-- . ers early in the proceedings. They said it would not take much money to fix the juries and the judge and during all of the first part of their trial they laughed and poked fun at the court with sneering smiles-i- n fact they plainly showed their utter contempt for all law aiid order and our courts. A more cold blooded murder was never committed in any of There was absolutely no doubt as to who the murderers were. The crime had been fixed positively and there was no escape from it." However the law. prevented justice and an escape from the gallows. There can be no good reason now to convict any man or person to the gallows in Illinois from now on. A robber who commits murder does, so because he wants to escape, and why should he be hanged in Illi nois when willful murderers are allowed to escape. In Arabia justice is swift and sure. A man only robs on the highhours from the time he is captured way and in less than twenty-fou- r his decapitated body will be lying in the dust of the public market place as an object lesson for the entire community. No time is wasted, in legal formalities. In a Christian nation like ours, crime ought to be on the decrease. But why is it on the increase? Is it because of the laxity and flexibility of our laws?Is it because criminals have more of a chance of escape here than in any other country and the criminal element flocks to us? Why cant we get rid our-state- long-drawn-o- ut of this criminal element? At the present rate of criminal increase, how long will it be fore the criminals will rdle the United States? be- ations. In the present case the situation is a different one. A plea of guilty has been .entered by the defense without a previous understanding with the prosecution and without any knowledge whatever the plea of guilty did not in this particular .jp its part. Moreover, render the task of the prosecution easier by case, as it usually does, substituting admission of guilt for a possibly difficult and uncertain chain of proof. In the Salt Lake Tribune we read that Judge Caverly threatened with so many kinds of distress if he disposed of the youths either way by hanging of imprisonment that extreme caution had to be taken to gaurd him from any kind of approach . We do not believe that Justice John R. Caverly was swayed in his decision by any threats, or otherwise, but that he rendered his decision according to the present law upon the statute books of Illinois. That law, however, should be repealed and made to read to protect society and not the crook and the murderer. It is not punishment that the public demands in the case of these two young murderers, or other murderers, that should be inflicted; what the public does demand is the protection and saftey of society, and this cannot be done when demons are turned loose upon a defenseless public. ; POLITICIANS IGNORE TAXPAYERS The stand the Box Elder Journel has always taken regarding the patented Bitulithic pavement and methods used in its promotion, our demand that specifications and competitive types of all kinds be made comparable in cost, and that just and fair consideration be given to all concerned, has been fully justified by recent developments in Weber county paving matters. When the property owners and taxpayers of a community are practically unanimous in their demands for a certain type of construe lion, because of its durability and low cost as compared with other types, as was the case when taxpayers of Weber county insisted upon the unsurfaced portland cement concrete for the Wilson Lane road, one would suppose that the public servants, (the commissioners) would hasten to comply with the desires and wishes of the constituI cncy which they are supposed to serve. Especially when an institution of the industrial importance of the Sugar company, thru its presi-- . dent asks for that type, and when these many petitions and personal Presiappeals from the leading citizens of Wilsons Lane, including dent F. W. Stratford of the north Weber stake, Bishop James H. Platt, member of the committee from Wilson Lane, Fred Froerer, pliairmaii V s. |