White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-12-09
is EVERY SECOND PERSON YOU
MEET 4 THIEF I'M 4 ROBBER

where that there are cars, anu II
! statistics which show the autos in
certain states to number n to every
four to ten persons, other ones could
be compiled showing that there are
100 auto thieves to every auto in the
United States.
II thieverv began and ended with
autos one might be justified in hoping
for a rift in this heavy cloud over
civilization. It only is more conspicu-
Gus and exasperating as to them.
for in nine cases out Of every ten
only such things are stolen as are abb
solutely essential to the operation Of
the car from which they are re-
moved. 1t begins and ends nowhere,
for as said at the outset it seems to
to be the sad truth that every Sec
ond person you meet is a thief Of
greater or less degree.
To enumerate the things they will
steal would require the reprinting OF
every noun in an unabridged diction-
airy, for there is nothing that will not
be stolen if lef. within possible reach
of vandal hands.
Yet there really are persons who
have a philosophy of life differing
from those meager1y described, such
persons being so constituted that
they do not and cannot enjoy things
unless they have been earned, pur-
chased or obtained honestly.
Persons of this bent of mind will
actually drive by a stranded car with
out stopping to give it a once over
and see what is loose, or will go by
a vacant house without trying the
door to investigate as to whether
or not it's furniture is there and not
bolted down.
And this brings to mind q field of
thieving activity that is indigenous to
mining camps, flourishing in fact be-
fore autos were in use, which is that
of the larceny of houses temporarily
or permanently vacated by their own-
ers. In Ely there are numerous
houses that were left fully furnished.
which, today have neither window,
door nor stick of furniture of any
kind.
The modern mining camp where
this has not been carried on does
not exist and Ely is the least of the
sufferers. Tonopah, Goldfield and all
the camps have had ten such houses
robbed where Ely has had one,
Yet after all these things have
been said it is a fact, paradoxical as
1t may sound, that Ely and Nevada in
respect to stealing are not a circum-
stance to similarly situated places in
Arizona, where there are hordes of
Mexicans, whose religion it is to
steal any and everything to a red
hot stove.
Like all crime, stealing is hard to
prove. The thief has the big per-
centage in his favor, for it is a sort
of crime where the article stolen
has to be produced OF accounted for
by the owner in order to secure a
conviction.
But there is one thing which steal
ers can we'll ponder, which is that in
White Pine county they arc taking
desperate chances, which some of
~N SSA'"'H ~ iuS' HIS cOun-
ty has officials who will give them
their meetings, and the White Pine
News does not hesitate to predict
that the next convicted thief will
get a punishment so severe that II
will surprise him. Nor will it end with
one or even two or a dozen, The sem
fences will grow progressively more
severe as these two-legged coyotes
are rounded up, being limited only
by the barriers of the law.
Having courts of this stern bus
admirable kind it behooves the peo-
pie suffering from theft to report
every case to the proper authorities
and cause arrests and convictions
wherever such are possible. Con-
doing theft is only a breeder of the
disease and should not only never
be practiced. but denounced as
roundly as thieving itself.
AS this orgy of crime grows worse
the people are going to have to ACT.
and the better way is for them to do
1t now hy cooperating with the auth.
critics whom they have selected and
are paying to enforce the laws. fo.
If they do not it is coming to but
one thing, which is ,nat of summary
action, and somebody thereby is eo.
ing to get hurt.
OLDSMOBILE FOR SAJE a.,