San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-09-02
WHY THE RANGERS?
TO the Editor:

1t strikes me tu6t Tue pcOPic Va Soh
Antonio arc displaying remarkable pa
thence and long suffering under con-
dition which amounts to persecution
and is resulting in grave injury to
our city. 1t has hurt both their good
name and their pocketbook. refer
to the unwarranted foisting upon us
of the state rangers, upon the mis-
representation by somebody, that these
outside six-shooter emissaries are nee
essary to enforce the law and main
tain public order in San Antonio.
A gentleman arrived few days ago
from Los Angeles and expressed sur
prise at the peace and quiet orderli-
ness of affairs in San Antonio. de
had read in California papers startling
news stories, some of them under Aus
tin date lines, to the effect that San
Antonio was under martial law and
that the governor and adjutant gen.
eral found it necessary to send state
troops here to keep the gamblers and
bootleggers from running away with
San Antonio. -,
Another traveller from Tampico said
that the newspaper reports reaching
Mexico indicated that almost a state
of civil war existed in San Antonio
between the local authorities and the
state rangers. He said these reports
are damaging US among that class CT
well-tO-do Mexican people who like to
visit San Antonio and trade here and
send their children to school here. .
1t is deplorable that the designs OF
q few cheap but ambitious politicians
should result in this slandering of our
city and the sending forth of menda-
cious> statements, based upon only a
possible atom of truth, which can be
and are seized upon and exaggerated
and exploited to the great detriment,
damage and defamation of our city
and its citizens. :,
l am no defender Of gamblers and
bootleggers or law violators OF any
class, but disinterested travellers from
city to city say that there is less law
violation in San Antonio than most
any other city of its size in the entire
country. As for bootlegging, the fed
eral prohibition officers are always
here in force and prohibition is more
stringently enforced in San Antonio
than in most any city in the country.
Liquor is openly sold in most of the
cities of the United States, but such
II not the fact in San Antonio.
In spite of all the political lies to
the contrary, our local county and city
officers are constantly at work to en-
force the law against gambling, as
we'll as other crimes, and there is less
gambling of all sorts in San Antonio
than in any other city in Texas. There
are no open gambling houses in opera
ton, and while an occasional club may
start MP for the purpose of gambling
behind closed doors, it requires shrewd
detective work to break into sucn
places and secure, any evidence OF
violation Of law. g,
The rangers have been here several
weeks now and their chief exploit was
rounding up the so-called Pastime
club, where a few were rounded up
and q total Of so cents in money was
found in the crowd. This insignlfl-
cant fact was heralded abroad as
sensational raid upon huge gambling
hell, operated in open defiance OF the
law, and other absurd exaggeration.
By shopping around in back alleys
and the poorer quarters OF the city
few crap shooters and a few bootleg
gers have been bagged by the rangers,
but most of these cases have fallen
down in the courts because OF Illegal
procedure on the part Of the rangers,
or for utter want of evidence.
I am told that the rangers do not
relish this kind of service. They are
accustomed to working on the border
and rendering real service in protect
ing life and property. But they are
working for a living, and must not be
blamed as individuals for carrying out
the orders of their superiors. Incl
dentally, they have been instigated to
search private residences and arrest
people against whom no charge could
be made. One man working with
them has been arrested for carrying
a pistol without authority, and still
another for rudely displaying a pistol
In public.
Why aren't the rangers kept busy
in those North and East Texas towns
where masked mobs are defying the
law and flogging helpless men and
women to death? Ask, and ask in
vain.
In the meantime, our county and
city officers have arrested more gam
blers and bootleggers than the rangers
have, and due to the activity of our
local officials, there is comparatively
little violation of law in San Antonio.
A q matter of fact, there will al
ways be some attractions of law in
San Antonio, as in every other city.
1t is impossible to make Everybody
perfectly good by law, and the best
that can be accomplished anywhere is
to keep law violation at a MINIMUM.
And I think we can truthfully and
fairly claim that our local officials
do their duty, in this respect, as well
as any other officials of county or
city in Texas. They do better than
the rangers. They do better for the
reason that they know the town bet
ter, and they go about their work
without any ostentation or braggado-
clio and without any Interior motive
to injure the good name of the city,
or to initiate a political boom for some
politician to run for office. Men who
are big enough, and patriotic enough.
and broad enough to fill our higher
offices in the state should seek to at
tain their ambition by nobler means.
Or has this situation been brought
about BY local marplots to further the
plans of a certain irreconcilable facV
ton of would-be office holders who
want to try again to capture the
aounty offices? l think the truth will
all come out in the wash before this
thing is over. Then the people of
San Antonio will learn to what base
outrages they are being subjected.
In the meantime, this political ruse,
IL such it be. is doing a great deal TO
neutralize the public spirited efforts