The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-05-02
NO SUCH INVESTIGATION.

'hNiN was Ioub 'dNhic III
the Smoot - Mouth yesterday morn
ing, to the effect that The Tribune had
been under oflicial investigation in
Washington rs 10 the matte, Of Ger
tain statements recently made in our
local columns about the coal land eases
| here. The "Mouth' claimed the stuff
as Il Washington dispatch from a
staff correspondent. And there wcro
even more silly headlines than the stuff
itself, Here ii is.
WASHINGTON April 3o,-Tbc sccrc-
| tary oil the Interior has received from the
| attorney generals office some interesting
/ memoranda concerning some complaints
that We're made against Col. II. y. Booth
| United States District Attorney for Ctah,
| through The Salt Lake Tribune,
These charges We're printed In The
Tribune ad l6itum. ad nuseam. as they
termed ii here in Washington. amt were
sent on 70 The Secretary of the Interior
Aticr fun investigation. their abso-
lutG baselessncss was proven TO the entire
satisfaction Of tho government, with the
additional statement that The Tribune
is a scurrilous. lying. slandcrous buck
bltins sheet Impossible to be believed;
The Attorney General OF the United
States.
some llIne ago. shortly inter the SCI
tlemcnt by the government of the cases
against the Utah Fuel Company which
settlement was considered by the Wash
ington officials as u victory for the gov
ornment and as a personal triumph for
Col. Booth and Fred A. Maynard special
assistant 10 the Attorney General. who
handled the cases. The Tribune published
several scurrilous articles rejecting upon
the character of Col. Booth. and IntImat-
ing that he had been interested flnaD-
clally In n concern which the government
did not handle tho case properly. The
1rticle In The Tribune intimated that Col
Booth had been derelict In his duty and
that a monetary consideration was In
vovcd.
Several OF these articles We're printed
and the management Of The Tribune
terror with the idea that an invcstIga-
ton be had or rather IN an attempt to
Following the Washington habit tho Sec
retary OF the Interior, having charge of
the public lands, sent tho papers on TO
Attorney General George w. Wickcrsham
with the request that the matter be in
ycstieated.
Attorney General Wickersham prompt
with the Instructions that ont of Justice
10 Col. Booth the matter must be probcd
thoroughly and 10 hand him a full report
upon IL THIS order was was .{,i oheyed: , and
management once before had had an in
vostigation Of the same thing. a fun prob
Ing OF the matter was opened, Records
were examined and every effort to get
at the truth. The special assistant In
charge OF the work in due time made his
report To his chief
This report was TO the effect that tho
charges had bcon fully Investigated: that
tho result was the Same as before; that
Col. Booth was absolutely blameless In
his transactions with the government
that he had occupied himself as diliScnt
officer a all times. and that instructions
from Washington had bocn fully ,ohcycd.
Tl,Zf cha 11NE ti,i, laG
was the summing up on the report
Tho report also occupied itself In some
measure with The Salt Lake Tribune. 1t
carried a rider 10 the effect that The
Tribune was q. "slandorous. baselcSs.
scurrilons. unreliable, backbiting sheet.
impossible OF being believed because OF
recognized as such In Salt Lake and
Utah. and that little attention was paid
TO its fulminations.
The report with its rider went from the
assistant attorney general 10 Attorney
General Wickcrsham,, received his 80.
X" and went on to the Secretary. of the
archives OF the Department OF the Int
rior. another exploded sensation
The headlines over that were. ''Gov-
crnmcnt Hits a Utah Newspaper"
Gets What il Wanted,' "Tribune
Slauders Against Col. Booth are Probed
and Rcfutcd, and That Paper De-
nounccd by Federal Officials
OF course, "thc most notorious liar
ever known in Utah. as the HMouth
was very properly termed during and
since the campaign of last fall, is
merely carrying out its usual lying
There has been no such in
vestigation. and if any Government of
fetal has said or written any such
thing about The Tribune, he has either
been imposed upon by falsi6crs. or else
he is n willful falsiicr himself. and
has so acted for the purpose of cover.
ing Booth with nice coat Of white.
wash.
We say there has been no such in
vostigation, and say so advisedly For,
it there had been, the only proper
course would havo been TO invite The
Tribune to substantiate its statements.
This we could easily do, But as there
has been no such call on The Tribune,
and as we have no information that
any investigation has been in view, we
must necessarily conclude that the
Mouth IS story is r fake. Attorney.
General Wickersham is too good law
yer to ignore the first principles of
such an investigation, Whoever is in
his Office must also necessarily he too
good lawyer TO proceed without no.
ice to the accusing party, mako up an
PIX parte case, and enter biased iudg-
ment, on no hearing. We are there
fore on entirely solid ground when We
1enouncc the story AS fabrication.
For the honor and credit of the At
-orney Generals Office, this must ncces.
sarily be so.
The Tribune summed up certain facts
in connection with the coal land suits
and their outcome, some of open no.
toriety and not in the least in dis
Dute, and others Of record in the books
Df corporations affected, aud written
them. Those facts proved that the
Government, instead of winning a vic
tory, as WAS SO loudly claimed by the
h.rn 4, |