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Show up, and we will aid the chief of police in the fight, in answer to the call of Governor Spry. ' " Governor Spry's call in is the form of an official communication, written on Sunday, and evidently an emergency measure, in which he says : October 16, 1910. , "To the Board of County Commissioners and Sheriff of Salt Lake County, and the Mayor or Acting Mayor and Chief of Police of Salt Lake City: "Gentlemen It is common knowledge that within the past few months numerous burglaries, holdups, thefts and. . robberies have been committedn Salt Lake City, and vicious assaults made, both in the day and at night-time, upon helpless help-less women and children. For several months the city has been and is now being infested with numerous vicious and criminal characters. By reason of such conditions, the lives, property and homes of the citizens of such city have been rendered insecure and unsafe. There justly exists wide- spread foar and alarm that no man, woman or child is free from such assaults and attacks. Public sentiment has be-' be-' come aroused to such an extent that unless something is done to protect the public it is feared that it will take the law in its own hands and bring the city and state into disrepute dis-repute and disgrace. "A number of citizens have inquired of me as to what action could be taken to safeguard their homes and personal 'and property rights ; to apprehend and punish tho3e guilty of violating such rights and committing such crimes, and to rid the city of such criminal and vicious elements and characters ; and have importuned me to take some action to accomplish such purpose. ' "I therefore request you, the county commissioners and sheriff of Salt Lake county, and the mayor or acting mayor and chief of police of Salt Lake City the special appointed agencies and conservators of the peace to co-operate and work together to accomplish such object. It is my wish that for the public good you will lay aside all differences of opinion as to measures to be adopted and that you work together to-gether and take speedy action to apprehend and punish those who have committed such crimes in our midst and rid Salt Lake City of such criminal characters. "The safety of the public requires that something be done to put a stop to this reign of terror. If the combined efforts of the peace officers of the county and the city shall not be adequate to cope with it I shall resort to such other measures as may be within my power to preyent and stop the commission of these crimes, rid the city of its criminal element and protect the homes and safety of the people of Salt Lake City. "This letter has been forwarded to the parties above named. "Very respectfully, "WILLIAM SPRY. Governor of Utah." If the Governor is not unduly excited and if .Sheriff Sharp has hot an exaggerated idea of the situation, and if much of what id satd is not published purely for effect, then Salt Lake City is not alone concerned, but Ogden is endangered by the campaign of "driving out" which is to be inaugurated. Allowing liberally for the political aspect with its deep crimson coloring, evidently Salt Lake is crowded with thugs and there is ample excuse for a "clean up," but Salt Lake is not justified in inflicting in-flicting its plague upon others, but that is exactly what it proposes to do in driving out the undesirables. Other cities must suffer from this exodus of criminals and the first place to be burdened will be Ogden. Salt Lake should have established a chain gang and placed the vagabonds, nondescripts and thugs on the streets, with guards. That would have been accepting its full share of responsibility, but the campaign now on simply means that Ogden and other communities must meet the responsibility of finally disposing of the hegira. SALT LAKE'S REIGN OF TERROR. There is a reign of terror.in Salt Lake City, so the papers of that city inform us. Men are being robbed and murdered and women outraged out-raged and the saturnalia of crime has reached a point where the sheriff of Salt Lake county and tho governor of the state have deemed it necessary to take action in suppressing the criminal element. ele-ment. This morning's Salt Lake Herald-Republican, in a most sensational sensa-tional declaration of that city's desperate straits, says: "Sheriff Sharp had been busy all day with the foreigner believed to be the murderer of Thomas Karrick, but telephoned tele-phoned from the state prison to Chief of Police Barlow, who was at police headquarters. " 'I am going to ask the county commissioners for fifty deputy sheriffs,' Sheriff Sharp told the chief of police, 'and I want you to understand that it will be my purpose to aid you all I possibly can to clean the city of the thieves and thugs who have been working lately.' "In speaking of the situation in Salt Lake, Sheriff Sharp said: " 'It certainly i3 high time that some action were taken to clean out the rooming houses and other places of the criminals crim-inals who have held the public in fear for weeks. I do not care to lay the blame for this condition upon any man in particular, but things have been allowed to go until the city is now full of thieves, hold-up men and desperate men of all lines men who would kill without a second thought in order to get money. The rooming houses are full of them that is, the cheap rooming houses. These places should be cleaned |
