The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-12-15
ONE CAUSE OF CRIME.

The crime problem is one of the
most difficult with which the state
grapples. One of the most potent
causes of crime is the immunity which
attends its perpetration. As long ss
this immunity exists, as long as arrests
are not made, or juries fail to convict,
or courts fail TO execute, crime will
exist and grow worse day by day. A
few years since, or that period between
the close of the war and the accom-
plishment of reconstruction, the west
ern or frontier counties of Texas repre-
sented perfect saturnalia of crime.
The courts were powerless and blood
and robbery were of daily occurrence.
Those counties represented the rogue's
paradise. They became the dumping
ground for the criminals of all the
states of the union. At last few men
Of steady nerve put their heads to-
gether and resolved that the time had
come to stamp out the lawlessness of
the border. The corrupt state police,
of the times of reconstruction, was
done away with and the Frontier Bat
talon was organized. This body of
state militia was composed of the best
young blood of the state. 1t was well
paid and furnished with every comfort
obtalnable. Merit, bravery and atten-
ton to duty were well assured by
simple system of rewards. Whenever
crime was committed and the GRIM
inal was so situated as to be able to
reach the haven of crime on the
border, warrants were placed in the
hands of officers of the battalion and
woe to the perpetrator. His fate was
sure. There was no escaping it.
Arrest followed as surely as the next
days sun rose. In the hands of the
court and the jury there was abso-
lutely no chance of getting off if he was
guilty. In few years mighy change
was wrought. The people stood by the
courts and juries and sentiment was
soon made which drove crime and
criminals away from the borders of
Texas, until now there is no land on
earth where there Is better order or a
more regular administration of law.
We have been led into this chain of
thought by the apparent immunity of
the youthful desperadoes who so
Ta1I n 40
voted sheriff of San Pete county, few
months since. They succeeded in
gaining refuge in rough and inaccess-
ible part of the country. Although
their whereabout is well known they
have as yet been able successfully
to evade and defeat every effort of our
present police establishment to appre-
hend them.
Now,if We had force of men similar
to the frontier battalion of Texas, or
ganized and equipped as it is, this body
would 20 and camp on the trail of
these men until they were captured.
The courts duty would then com
mence and were it as certainly per-
formed as the Texas courts did theirs
there would not be another such a
murder committed here in ten years,
If ever. These are suggestions made
only in the interest of law and order,
and because something must speedily
be done to destroy the immunity which
criminals enjoy in this land of noun
tain Businesses and difficult pursuit,
and uncertain action of courts. 1t is in
this case as in almost all others public.
sentiment must be led to the certain
detection, arrest and puniEhment of all
offenders against the majesty of law,
all men who take life unlawfully or
steal, rob OF otherwise outrage private
rights.
We do not mean to arraign our noble
constabulary force of Utah as inefi-
Gent, we only mean to say, as now
it cannot follow and devote
the time necessary to secure arrests of |
criminals of the Mlckle and Kofford |
order, nor is it sufficiently paid or re-
warded for such hazardous service.
We trust the next legislature of Utah
will devise a plan and provide tie
means necessary to create, arm and
put in the field such force as we have
described. rhe result will be that soon
the lonesomest nook in the mountains
will be as safe and as free from these
unsightly murders as is the cathedral
Yards of the most highly civilized peo-
pie of Europe, or the world.
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