Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 100, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 September 1931 — Page 23

The Pushcart that toppled a Magistrates Bench f LITTLE DRAMAS IN THE LIFE 0 F A GREAT. NEWSPAPER ISYSTEM I

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SCRIPPS HOWARD

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A poor and bewildered pushcart peddler nervously fingered the brim of his shabby derby .. • and paid Paid a fine imposed by a judge on the evidence of an extortionist in league with mercenary hangers-on about the court. Paid ... for a trumped-up charge of a minor violation he neither understood... nor committed. • Scripps-Howard saw this incident.. • and hundreds like it Saw unfortunate men and women “framed” and exploited Saw a group of dishonest police officers muddy the prestige of a whole police force. Saw justice in a great city grimly burlesqued, perverted, turned into a mill for grinding graft An investigation of the city government was demanded. The public answered. And there followed the appointment of a lawyer of unimpeachable standing as investigator extraordinary. • Unlike many civic investigations, this one leaped into action from the start. Guilty officials were dethroned, some even imprisoned. Magistrates resigned, crept out of public office. The police force cleaned house. The law courts again became halls of justice instead of stalls of the money changers. Shady bondsmen, “fixers,” informers, provocateurs, ran to cover. And even as you read this, the fight still goes on. • A SCRIPPS-HOWARD Newspaper plays no role of policeman or District Attorney. It is first of all a newspaper, not a reform society. But when, in its job of printing the news, public malefactors are found and brought to justice, so much the better ... for its readers .. . and thus for the advertisers using its columns.,

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