The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-30
A HIDDEN STORY

lowing item WHICH appeared III Int
home edition of your paper October
"a. in the Court House Notes and
Police Gossip column:
IL Hefner, living at 200 North Lake
street, reported to. the police that
window in the front of his house Sun
day night. Eefner is working at the
Santa Fe shops and accused union
men of the deed, officers said.''
Certainly this as a serious offense
and if Mr.. Hefner can prove his
charges that it was union men who
threw the brick they should be ar
rested and brought to trial
My father is member of the
has been on strike since the first of
July. Since going out on strike he
has worked almost every day at vari-
Gus places. He has moiested no one,
going about, attending to his own af-
fairs just the same as before the
strike was called.
Last Friday evening, October 20,
about s o'clock, after my father had
gone down town and my young
nephew, who lives with my parents,
had gone to a moving picture show,
myI mother was in the kitchen wash
ing dishes when she was startled to
hear a loud explosion
She went into the living room,
where fire had been lighted as the
evening was cool, thinking that the
coal in the heating stove had exploded
causing the noise.
She noticed glass lying on the rug
and upon investigating she found
hole in the glass in the front door
about four inches in diameter.
A crowd of boys had been playing
on the corner a short time before she
heard the noise and thinking that per-
haps they had thrown a rock and hit
the glass in the door she went out to
see if they were still there but was
unable to find any of them.
Next morning, upon further investi-
cation, a small hole about the size of
a dime was noticed in the screen door
and in the dining room a long scratch
on the side of the buffet and in an
other part of the dining room a as
special caliber lead bullet was found.
The police were notified and two
officers went to investigate.
They asked my father if he was a
shopman and>if he was working. He
informed them that he was a shop
man and that he was out on strike.
They also asked if either father or
mother had any enemies and were
told that SO far as they knew they
had none.
The two officers were told of the
boys who had been playing on the
corner only short time before the
shot was fired and. without even max
ing an effort to learn the names of
any Of these boys, they suggested that
my mother allow my nephew to min
gle with the boys so that he could
learn which one was carrying a gun
and report it to the police.
-. Instead of ascertaining the names
OF some of these boys, who meet on
this corner almost every night, and
questioning them, the two officers,
who are paid a salary for investigat-
ing such things, placed the entire re-
sponstbflity of experimenting the per-
petrators of this grievous offense
upon the shoulders of a 13-year-old
boy.
Il is my understanding that a news
paper obtains all of its news of this
character from the police, but, altho
have looked carefully thru every is
sue of both of the Topeka daily papers
since this shooting occurred,ySI have
failed to find any mention of it.
Surely the offense of shooting into
a strikers home with a high powered
gun is as great as that of throwing
a brick thru the window of the home
of an employe of the company against
whom the strike is being carried on,
yet we are confronted with the SEEM
ing indifference of the police and the
silence of the newspapers on one side
and interest and publicity on the
other. Therefore we can only con-
clude that when any man goes out on
strike, no matter how peacefully he
carries on his small part of such
strike. he is cut off from the full pro-
lection of the law.
One can hardly keep from wonder
ing what would have been the action
taken by the police and newspapers
had it been a deadly bullet that pene-
trated the window of Mr.. Hefner's
home instead of a brick. Would they,
as in the case of my parents, have
maintained an attitude of disinterest-
edness and silence?
wonder.
WILLIAM E. COURTNEY,
1112 West Seventh ST., Topeka, Kan.
Mr.. Courtney seems to take the po-
sition that many persons take-per-
sons who are not acquainted with
newspaper ethics and persons who are
always under the impression that
newspapers print only the news that
satisfies a policy
OF course Mr.: Courtney is wrong
at least SO far as The State Journal is
concerned. The State Journal prints
news without fear or favor and with
out prejudice.
There is only one reason for the
failure to print the story of the shoot
ing referred to in Mr.. Courtney's let
ter-the story was not found by State
Journal reporters and it was not given
out by the police department. If Mr..
Courtney had informed The State
Journal of the incident it would have
been given the space it was worth.