The leader., 1905-06-21
The Duty Of the Press.


The time is drawing near when
the extra session of the Legisla-
ture will be assembled and as il
will be their duty to codify the
laws and add to or take from the
present code such laws as they
deem proper, or as may have been
recommended by the committee
appointed by them to SO codify.
the laws, we think it an opportune
time to have the Press of the State
take up certain questions and dis
cuss them fairly and friendly SO
the people may be informed as to
the questions at issue and pass
their views on the several sub
One question of vital impor-
tance to the people,is the manner
in which public and private sales
of personal property and real es-
tate are sold and we think the law
should be changed in order that
illiterate and unsnspecting persons
may have some show of protec-
ton. The law as it now stands
allows the trustee or beneficiary
tof any property given as security
for any debt or obligation to sell
same by posting three written no.
tices IN any public place and does
not require the party making the
sale to so notify the person whose
property is to be sold of the time
or place of the sale, and this loose
ness of the law often acts to the
hurt and ruin of the ignorant and
unsuspecting debtor. A design
ing rascal can post these notices
/ and place them in some remote
spot, where the debtor will not see
them, or steal around in the night
time and tear them down, thus
defeating the ends Of justice and
robbing a man who may be able
to pay off the obligation and thus
save his property.
There is a good way to defeat
all such acts and that is by having
a law passed requiring all sales Of
property to be advertised in some
newspaper in the county for three
weeks and requiring the trustee
or other party to mail a copy of
the notice Of sale to the party
whose property is offered for sale.
Now let the editors of the State
take up this matter and each see
their representative in their re-
Espective counties and impress up
on him fully the Importance Of
such a law for the good of hui
mantiy.
There is another question Of
vital Importance that demands our
consideration and that is how are
We to break up blind tiger denss
The suggestion we offer along
this line we offered week before
last we believe would give the
best remedy sought. Let the
Legislature appropriate sum
from $4,000 to $25, 900 for the
employment of say six or eight
reliable detectives whose duty it
would be to go from town to town
and county to county to ferret out
these law breakers and land them
in Jail, and amend the present law
so as to make the unlawful sale of
liquors a felony and we feel sure
the days of the festive tiger would
fast ebb away.
/ We feel like something should
be done as soon as possible to
break up these unlawful dispen-
sers of poisonous bug-juice and
we hope every editor in the State
will take up the matter and APP
peal to their legislators to act and
act quickly.
The people do not feel called
on to play the role of detectives,
the officers are poWerless, in many
cases to get testimony sufficient to
warrant conviction. So the on
ly way out of the muddle to en-
force the local option laws is to
hire some good detectives whose
sole duty it will be to run these
iniquitous dens and cess pools Of
crime down and place the mis-
creants behind the walls of our
State convict farm. Indianola
Enterprise.
/ While The Leader approves,
in the main, what is advocated
above by the Enterprise, we can
not give our endorsement TO the
proposition of employing detec-
tives at the States expense to OBJ
tain evidence against blind tigers.
IF the Legislature will make the
unlawful sale of liquor q felony
and the people will do their duty
in eIecting sober officers who are
lnot in sympathy or secret league
with The blind tiger business and
then give such officers theiI NOR
al and active support, the evil will
be reduced to The minimum.
The proposition TO require the
publication of trustees sales is
| timely and should be enforced by
law. Representative Smith, Of
this county, introduced such a bill
some six years ago, but it failed
to receive the consideration 1t de-
served and was lost.