Editors’ Table

Is There a Remedy? Law enforcement officers are human. Being human, they react to external influences as do all other individuals. An officer is likely to wink at minor, and sometimes even at serious, law in- fractions on the part of one to whom he is under political or other obliga- tion. That is human nature. An alliance, no matter how remote, be- tween enforcement agencies and vio- lators of the law is sure to resulr in evil. And when officials and criminals actually join together in an unholy partnership, decent citizens must gird themselves for battle. That time has come. No intelligent person believes that crime could pos- sibly gain the foothold it has in this country were there no collusion be- tween officers and criminals. Unfor tunately, honest officers, and there an many of them, suffer under such a statement. But it must not be sup- pressed on that account. The public must be aroused, for in public senti- ment, and there only, lies the power to correct present deplorable condi- tions. Enforcement officers do their best only when the public insistently demands their best. Conditions are such that this demand should be made and in a tone that will impress the most calloused. Rampant crime flaunts itself in the face of an outraged but apparently helpless citizenry. Men are degraded, women debauched, virtue held up to scorn, honesty ridiculed. We are not speaking of New York, where graft and other forms of crime are so odorous, nor of Chicago, where recently seven men were lined against a wall in broad day-light, and in a busy part of the city, and shot to death. We have in mind the plight of our own fair Utah, her hamlets and towns as well as the larger cities, where conditions demand the attention of all upright people. These conditions were described re- cently at a joint meeting of the general boards of M. I. A. by George A. Goates, assistant prohibition enforce- ment officer for this district. Mr. Goates' position gives him an excellent opportunity to know his subject; and he knows it. His startlingly graphic account calls forth the statements here- in made. This does not mean that Utah is worse than other parts of the country, but it does mean that Utah is much worse than it should be. In Ogden a young man was killed recently, and, while the unpalatable de- tails are not yet fully known, liquor played a conspicuous part in the trag- edy. This incident calls attention to the fact that some men, otherwise cir- cumspect and law-abiding, feel justi- fied in having liquor when they attend a convention. They fail to realize that they are contributing to a condition in our nation which is bordering on anarchy, and at the same time are fattening the bank accounts of a low class of criminals, many of them foreigners, and one of whom made profits last year in Salt Lake county amounting to $69,000. There is so much graft among pub- lic officials that one wonders if good old-fashioned honesty has ceased to exist. In order to save a paltry garage bill for a guard at the Utah State prison, a desperate robber and murderer, sen- tenced to life imprisonment for killing a splendid citizen, was permitted to

April, 1929 EDITOR'S TABLE 511 come outside the prison walls, and, his job apparently well done, escaped in the car which he had repaired. His partner in the bank robbery, of which the murder was the direct result, was paroled within three years. Attention has already been called in these col- umns to the fact that eleven men sen- tenced for rape or an attempt to com- mit that heinous offense averaged less than two years in the penitentiary. Mr. Goates reports that he made a request of a prominent man in one of our towns to aid him in tracing an auto suspected of transporting liquor. Though the car in question often passed the gentleman's place of busi- ness, he declined to assist. It was, he thought, none of his affair, and why should he mix with the dirty mess? Shortly thereafter his brother came to Mr. Goates with an appalling story. Heartbroken, he explained that the night before, his sixteen-year-old girl came home intoxicated and with much of her clothing torn from her body. It was learned that she had been brought home in the very auto which the officer was trying to trace, an effort in which the girl's uncle declined to participate because he felt it was no concern of his. It is well for reputable people to re- member that the author of the question which has come down through the centuries, "Am I my brother's keeper?" was a murderer. There are a few hopeful signs on the horizon. Editors in all parts of the United States are insisting that some- thing be done to stem the tide of crime which is sweeping the country. In vigorous language they foreshadow na- tional disaster if there is not an im- mediate and widespread change. Newly elected judges in Salt Lake City are showing a commendable desire to cooperate with the police by meting out to lawbreakers something more than a nominal fine. In other locali- ties where laxity exists it is hoped that citizens will insist upon their judges following this example. Some of the statements made in President Hoover's inaugural address brought joy to the hearts of all who love righteousness. He said in part: "Justice must not fail because the agencies of enforcement are either de- linquent or inefficiently organized. To consider these evils, to find their reme- dy is the most sore necessity of our times. * * * A large responsi- bility rests directly upon our citizens. There would be little traffic in illegal liquor if only criminals patronized it. We must awake to the fact that this patronage from large numbers of law- abiding citizens is supplying the re- wards and stimulating crime. I have been selected by you to execute and enforce the laws of the country. I propose to do so to the extent of my own abilities, but the measure of suc- cess that the government shall attain will depend upon the moral support which you, as citizens, extend. The duty of citizens to support the laws of the land is co-equal with the duty of the government to enforce the laws which exist. * * * The worst evil of disregard for some law is that it destroys respect for all law. For our citizens to patronize the violation of a particular law on the ground that they are opposed to it is destructive of the very basis of all that protection of life, of homes and property which they rightly claim under other laws." The power to remedy undesirable conditions herein mentioned is, ulti- mately, in the hands of the public. If voters will actually stand for law and for the officers who enforce it, and refuse to stand for officers who, either through indifference or inefficiency, do not enforce it, we shall soon see an im- provement.— C.