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Show The Crime of the Press. SOME crimes are so filthy that whan the persons concerned are brought to trial the judge, with a due regard re-gard for decency and public morals, i conducts the examination behind closed doors. The public is not allowed io gratify its curiosity nor listen to the disgusting details, although to the habitual ha-bitual court lounger no harm could come, morally or intellectually. But the same reasons which provoke a righteous judge in a matter of this kind are repudiated by the public press. Crime is regarded as a factor- in the capital of a daily paper. The more sensational, the more filthy it is, the more valuable is it for a newspaper. especially a Salt Lake daily. It would appear that the chief aim of the managers man-agers of daily newspapers in Salt Lake is to see how closely they may describe crime in its revolting features without trespassing upon the law fixing a penalty pen-alty fo rthe sale and circulation of obscene ob-scene literature. A crime was committed in this city and the body of the murdered man found, on the morning of Easter Sunday, Sun-day, in a cave on Ensign peak. In a few dayn after the discovery a boy named Clyde Felt was arrested. He confessed the deed and maintains that he did it only through importunity of the man he murdered. This confession cleared up the murder mystery. The motive leading to the boy's crime is within the domain of the court and should be discussed only in court, he-hind he-hind closed doors. But with an enterprise born of the destroyer of souls, every daily newspaper news-paper of Salt Lake gave carte blanche to its reporters to make the most of the story, and the result is a mass of filthiness calculated to poison the mind of every child into whose hands the paper fell. What the reporters omitted to state in plain language was made doubly injurious by suggestion. The child in the family is of nn inquiring in-quiring turn of mind. It turns to the I parent for explanation of something in this crime found in the paper. What if the parent evades the answer? "What if the parent gives one that :s misleading mis-leading or unsatisfactory? The cluld finds the real answer to the question from his companions in the street. It will not do for the Uriah Heeps of the daily newspaper to write stupid sermons ser-mons on the editorial page, the oie that is seldom read. It will not do to charge the cause of the boy criminal's downfall upon the dime novels, for the daily newspapers give him more excitement ex-citement and stimulate his desire for that notoriety which only the newspaper newspa-per can satisfy. This is proved by the boy's conduct after his arrest. His joy over the appearance of his pic-tare in the daily papers overshadowed sr..y remorse for the crime or the fear of punishment. The duty of the head of a family is plain. Read the Salt Lake daily papers pa-pers for the telegraphic and such other news as aids one to keep in touch with the world. When that is done, open the stove door and consign the paser to the flames. Never let your children have it in their hands. |