The Elk Mountain pilot., 1924-03-13
SAME OVER ON THIS SIDE

THE following clipping from the front page of the
Kansas City Times of January II receiving general
in the pulpits of the following Sunday
by valued friend and reader with the I'VE
all agree with his accusations IN GENERAL"
~Whose Crime Wave Is it,
Now if have stopped ourselves sufficiently with
silly talk about waves-as If they were law of
Nature like the ocean tides-et's have the truth,
The that is sweeping Kansas City is not
a crime wave but a of lazy Indifferent, selfish,
citizenship that is duly properly and inevitably
reflected in its government and in its administration
justice.
That's the nature of the that is fast submerg-
ing this community and the crime that stalks
is but the tiny wavelet that follows in its wake
Can it be expected that crime will be rebuked or
abashed when the citizenship of the abashed
by the shameful failure of the social it has
up to govern it?
will afraid and hide its head while Kansas
City tolerates with compacency judges who will get up
in the night release criminals habeas corpus pro
cess?
"will bandits suspend their operations while society
regards with Indifference administration of justice
that accepts straw bonds and hghwaymen
rob and kill?
-Is it surprising that there should be open, daylight
downtown bank banditry while appellate courts sitting
safe and panelled chambers
distinction between robbery and grand larceny?
Will crime while courts accept the testimony
of defendants against the testimony the police
the result that booteggers discharged thirty
minutes while the spectators laugh?
what does it all go back to but the citizenship of
the community that sits its lazy spine and allows
ring of political crooks to farm its government,
steal its revenue and debauch its justice?
kansas City is not the guardian law nor the
wacman its justice; its property delegates
the of insurance companies and human life look
out for itself Kansas City important business
on hand which is to indulge its pleasures make money
and spend it and accompany with suciency of jazz
civic societys merry and rapid march to hell.
"Why should not the lesser order of criminas-the
bandits and housebreaker the bootlegge and ha
beas corpus Annie-have little crime while Kan
Citys SNUG respectable czenry having
own? Itsust which class of criminals
carry the crest Of its higher. Which shall have
prize awlessness-the doped who
bank messengers bag, morally doped citizenship
that comfortably behind privately guarded
and lets its and its courts be constituted by
gutter politicians bidding against each other for the
privilege?
What is this citizenship doing about crime
except enjoying its own? Curled up like overstuhed
house before the fire, it lazy rbs its sleek belly
stretches opens heavydded and inquiries infs
ferenty why soebody doesn't do something about these
street robberies and murders.
"Wn Heaven send white-winged angel to guard
paunched damned lazy roll of the way
when hcked What would this citizenship do such an
emssary if Heaven one? Elect him mayor, appoint
him police commissioner judge? Or would it curl up and
go sleep while the nodes who the plastered
his wings with muck?
'sThe citizenship of this is getting what it de-
and will continue get it until it deserves
thing better When it is robbed, shot, nicked and if
possible shamed into moral and civic sensibility and
rises smases the urseakable thing it calls pub
lie administration political and judicial then, and
until then, will it have chance walk it's
safety This crime of Kansas Cty's crea-
tion its offspring of its usts; lust for
gain lust for private Indulgence the of pub
lie obligation
There's your crime wave, Kansas City, at i'll
Its your bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh
How do you like it,"