Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-07-10
THE GAZETTE EXPOSURE.

The recent exposure of the infamous
traffic in young girls in London by the
Pail Mall Gazette is creating much COM
ment everywhere, and great deal OF ex-
element throughout England. Moral Lon
don can very well stand the traffic and
possibly in mild way condemn it, but it
can not stand an exposure. London must
be respectable although dark and
loathsome traffic in humanity may
exist, and prefers the traffic with
the appearance Iof responsibility to
a cessation of the traffic and an expos
ure of its want of respectability. The
question has become more than municip-
al f; it has become national, and the pro-
prietors of the Gazette have been com
pelled to ask the Home Secretary for pro-
lection against the crowds that surround
the Office. The prpprietors have taken
manful stand and have called upon the
authorities to proceed against them ii
their paper is an obscene one, and not
arrest the newsboys for vending it upon
! the streets, There still remains acensor-
ship of the press in England, but it is rare
that its power is ever brought into play.
The proprietors of the Gazette are making
good fight and one that deserves sue
cess. The exposure in print OF such,
hideous transactions as that of the trade
in young girls in London must necessarily
border upon the obscene, but there IS
wanting in such exposures the essential
| element of all crimes, intent. London is
far more shocked and incensed at the ex-
posture than at the actual crime. Such
things must be stopped, and if they have
grown to such magnitude as in
the present case and the public
authorities have allowed them to go on
unchecked and unpunished to whom does
it more legitimately belong to notify the
public of such things than to the press ?
Mr.. w. H. Smith, Secretary for War,
who has monopoly of all the news
stands at the railway stations in England,
has refused to sell the Gazette containing
the Objectionable articles, but neither
Mr.. Smith nor any OF his colleagues in
the Cabinet has asked that commission
of inquiry be appointed to investigate
the charges of the Gazette and see If
they were true, nor has he or they ex-
pressed any indignation concerning such
a state of affairs as exposed by the
Gazette. 1t is probable there is no coun-
try in the world where the press is more
potent than in England, and the Lord
Mayor may hold as many sessions OF
his court as he chooses to try the venders
of the Gazette on the charge OF selling OBJ
scene literature, yet the press will
eventually triumph. Perhaps if the
Gazette is driven to extremes and is COM
PEELED to turn upon its pursuers, it will
expose many who are high in place and
power, before which the scandal concern
ing the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Nor
daunt will sink into insignifcance.
Mr.. Albert Grey, Liberal member for
South Northumberland, so far is the
only member of Parliament who
seems to realize where the true
infamy lies. He has given notice
of his intention to ask the Home Secre-
tary whether orders have been given by
the Home Department to the police to
make all possible effort under the law to
suppress the denominations that have been
revealed by the Pail Mall Gazette. He
also intends to ask whether the Home
Secretary intends to introduce any bill
into Parliament for such amendments to
the existing criminal laws as would Sc
cure the punishment Of the perpetrators
of such crimes as the ones lately re-
vealed.
The odium of this infamous traffic
should be placed upon those who are en-
gagged in it, and not upon those who ex-
pose it.