The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-09-06
The Mercenary Daily Press.

he udliy press OF salt Lake, in its
treatment Of local news, particu-
larly criminal news and anything
rejecting upon the character of per-
son, makes no distinction between pub
lie opinion and public curiosity. In
its desire TO satisfy the last it utterly
ignores the first. No remonstrance
from the religious element Of our peo-
pie, no persuasion from men and wo-
men occupying the clean side of social
life, inhibits the local press from open
ing the fioodgates of scandal and i'm
morality and publishing the details of
crime in all its offensiveness, even OBJ
scenity. Resentment, so far from
teaching the daily press a lesson or
leading to any modification of the SEN
sational, only makes the reporter more
wicked. The editorial Pecksniff at
tempts to condone for all this by
preaching a lesson on morality.
Our thoughts were brought back to
most horrible crime by an incident
in the district court the other day.
There is much or little in the Incl
dent, according as the law may be
construed regarding dismissal of per-
sons charged with capital offenses. We
believe the court was engaged in set
ting a time for trial of a number of
civil and criminal cases, and while so
employed, the prosecuting attorney,
Mr.. Eichnor. made a motion postpon-
ing the trial of the boy Felt, charged
with numbering a man who, it is al
m
eide. The motion was granted and a
future day set for the hearing. At
the time, Mr.. Eichnor stated that the
prosecution. was reluctant to bring the
boy to trial. for two reasons. The
first was the tender age of the GRIM
inal and the provocation melting the
deed upon a person who was better
out of the world than in it. The other
and far better reason was fear that
the testimony brought out, necessarily
of the most debasing kind, would be
published in the papers and help cor
rupt the mind and morals of the youth
of the community. A prosecuting at
torney never offered a better sugges-
ton in support of good morals in any
court of the land. For doing so, Mr..
Eichnor deserves the praise of every
Christian, of every clean man and wo-
man in Salt Lake City.
Apprehensive that Mr.. Eichnor may
carry his point and the public be de-
MED the pleasure Of gloating over the
deed committed by this boy when pre-
sented in all its nasty details, one of
the afternoon papers (the telegram
proceeds to teach the prosecuting at
torney a lesson in criminal procedure,
and it does it by asking him several
questions, like this:
Will District Attorney Eichnor kindly
inform an ignorant public just where
in the English common law. or in the
corpus juris civilis, or any state GRIM
inal code, or in any established body of
presidents, or in any federal decision,
the principle is laid down that one may
lawfully kill, except in defense of ones
own life or that of another, or to save
from great bodily harm?
Of course these questions apply to
any capital offense as well as to the
case of the Felt boy, but the motive of
bringing them out at this time is plain
ly apparent. 1t is done to obstruct the
contemplated dismissal of the boy, at
least before he has had trial and all the
filthy testimony is brought out in the
hearing. If not done for such reason,
and for the mercenary sake of selling
papers containing the reports of the
trial, what other object is behind such
questions?
We are not in position to suggest any
answer to these questions in behalf of
Mr.. Eichnor. We leave that task to
himself. He is a lawyer, and his
record of convictions in the criminal
court demonstrates that he is a good
one. Whether it be good practice or
bad practice we are not prepared to
say, yet we recall a number of cases
in our courts which were dismissed for
reasons less meritorious through the
act of dismissal than the one present
ed by the boy. Felt. For the sake of
the morals of the community, we hope
the same course may be taken with the
Felt case. Either that or have the trial
conducted secretly, with the reporters
no nearer to it than the outside of the
courthouse door.