Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1905-09-23
USUAL ANTE-ELECTION DODGE.

vi VII IuO ldo Oh uCh InS Clly. IL llduC
its appearance for the season last Sun
day when by instruction of the mayor
the saloon men were ordred to keep
their places closed on the Sabbath day
and some of those who needed not
the admonition of the virtuous city
administration were arrested. 1t is
likely the wave of virtue will extend
to the gambling houses and the slot
machines and will endure until after
the ballots have been cast next No
vember.
This action at this time on the part
of the city government is stamped
deep with insincerity and is only an
other instance of the double dealing
and duplicity which has characterized
the present city government since
the day it entered into office. For two
years the saloons have had their doors
open wide week days and Sundays
without molestattioD. The saloon men
were informed by a message direct
from the mayor that they might ply
their trade on Sunday without being
interfered with. Formerly Sunday
liquor selling was engaged in on the
quiet. The thirsty ones had to gain
ingress to the saloons by the back
show of obeying the law. Under May
or Morris, however, no such impedi-
mCnts were put in the way The
front doors of the liquor dispensaries
were open on Sunday the same as on
week days. Now if that was the right
and expedient course to be pursued
for year and nine months, it is right
now OF course Mayor Norris was
a1notnd 1ar0oIu Inv Of a
good people of the churches to whom
he gave pledges that the law would
be enforced prohibiting the sale OF
liquor on Sunday and that gambling
would be suppressed. Like the other
pledges and promises Of the present
administration these were entirely ig-
nored. For 81 months they have been
a dead letter, but now when Mayor
Morris needs the vote of the church
people to re-elect him, now on the eve
of election, the mayor and his advisers
make bluff at closing the saloons on
Sunday.
AS to gambling the present city adj
ministration and the mayor have aid
ed, abetted and encouraged it until
now the vice has grown to alarming
proportions. Besides the regular gam
bling houses which are known and
practically licensed as such and fair
ly well conducted, the town is full of
poker and other card games, and slot
machines which are a great deal more
pernicious than the regular gambling
houses, because they inveigle the
young and inexperienced and plant
within them the seeds from which
develop a love for the gam
ing table. These kind of games have
been encouraged and fostered by the
present administration. More than
half the cigar stores in the business
part of the city are in reality gam
bling houses. The sale of cigars and
tobacco is merely blind and an in
significant part of their business,
while in the rear rooms their real bust
ness, gambling, is conducted. In
some of these rear rooms any day may
be seen from a dozen to perhaps 80
or 40 men and boys playing cards
for money and frequently the stakes
are high. Gambling has become such
a profitable adjunct to a cigar store
that it is very difficult for cigar deal
er who does legitimate business
without "back room" to continue in
business.
Then there is the slot machine
abomnation. These machines paying
in money or in trade were installed in
oil tho bucinpcS p1npac i'm town that