OCR Text |
Show I THE DYNAMITING OF THE ECCLES' HOME. This blackmailing of th family at the late David Eccles has taken on the form of robbery employed by the Blaekhand of New York and other large cities, where vlolncp is employed em-ployed to intimidate and overawe Tho blowing up of the home of LeRo Eccles Ec-cles on Sunday night undoubtedly was Intended to so unnerve the members of the Eccles' family that they would yield to the demand for gold So far the Eccles boys have shown excellent courage in their resolve to resist the threats of the blackmailers In. doing do-ing this, they are making a fight not alono for fhemselves, but in behalf of the entire community and the people of Ogden should get back of them Hundreds already have volunteered, and the sentiment as the Standard has found It, Is unanimous that nothing noth-ing must be left undone to clear Og den of this terrible odium But how to proceed, Ik the question Prominent business men. in confer ence yesterday, suggested a commit, tee of safety to be made up of three or four men, who shall be supplied with sufficient funds to bring to Ogden Og-den the most expert detective in the 'United States Burns. If possible. Some have said that the city and county should provide the funds. This is a community affair and the burden Bhould be carried by all But above all there must be a well organized campaign, to be carried on a year or two years, if necessary, and one or more men must be kept on the job. day and night, until the blackmailers are caught or driven out We understand that thre more prominent families, ojther than those generally known to be the victims of the work of the blackhanders, have received threatening letters. The Bucceas met with In the Culver, Boyle, Dee and Bristol affairs have encour aged the criminals to enlarge their field of activity, and, we can under- stand how. with continued tribute, the Rlaekhanders would go on levying blnrkmail until half of the city would bo terrorized No one 6eeks to live in a city where the Blackhanders are at work, and that phase of the situation Is a serious seri-ous one, because if this blowing-up of homos continues, Ogden will be Injured In-jured In name and in material wealth. We are quite certain the Blaekhand era are not a local product; they are men who have been here loug enough to know the city from one end to the other, bur they are not one of us. They have comr out of the criminal element ele-ment of some large city where tho base methods of the Blaekhand has been successful. Of course, they are' not low-brows, or stupid fellows such as arc depicted as making up the criminal class They are bright, clever, clev-er, skillful, daring men who play their wits against those of th5 police and nflirs riilniBtor) with) fhf rioncp nf this city and to meet their cunning and craftiness there ib needed some one just a little brighter who is trained in the catching of rogues When the committee of safety gets under way, the Crated States govern m ni mU8l bo iire! io do its full share The brightest special officers In that line of duty must be brought on the ground and kept here The police are doing their utmost circumscribed in their work as thej art but they must be given more latl tude Here is a big Job for Chief Xorton and his men; if they can beat out the private detectives the secret service men and others in this ferre' ing out of this gang, they will gain fame. And they shall have oppor tun I ties which may be denied others W.v. and then a disgruntled confeder ate of a gang seeks out the police to tell his grievances and offer a clue That has been the history' of hundreds hun-dreds of crimes In each of which more than one mail participated. But let us offer a small piece of advice The "Bench" has not been patroled, it rannot be with the present force. That delect can be overcome by a volunteer service There are men in every part of Ogdeu. with telephones in their homes, who will agree to respond re-spond to a call at any hour of the night Instead of sending the patrol auto out, as on Sunday night, with bell clanging, why not arrange to block every zone or district in this city by the sen ices of olun teers' Sheriff Harrison made a checker check-er board of the outskirts of this city and try the use of that system halted two holdups at the RIverdale bridge. The men at the time escaped after an exchange of shots with an officer, but they were Identified, traced to Salt Lake and the officers were close on their trail when the desperate fellows, fel-lows, after robbing a jewelry store and killing a bystander were cap tured. There must be some similar system by which the possible avenues of escape from different parts of the city can be blocked. |