The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-02
THE VOICE OF PUBLIC OPINION.
What Is Said of the Riot and Its Causes by
the Newspapers.
THE KEY NOTE OF THE DISASTER.

THE KEY NOTE OF THE DISASTER.
New York Times.
The Fourteenth regiment has been placed in
front of the Courthouse with unloaded guns.
So reads dispatch from Cincinnati embodied
in the report of Saturdays TiOting. That state
ment strikes the keynote of the disaster and
accounts for its continuance whole city was
given up to a mob simply because there was no
resort to the we'll prOved ways of quelling dis
turbanceS Of the kind. An unarmed militia or
soldiers who simply fire blank cartridges
worse than useless under such circumstances
They only excite derision and inspire the law
breakers with the belief that no serious obstacles
will be interp0sed to their rloting and plumber
This has been the universal experience. Two
things are needed. The first is some to
command. The second is that there shall be no
make believe" Napoleon the Great cleared
the streets of Paris with real grape
and canister and after that expert
ence there more street rioting. The
mob saw that the work was in earnest. A SINH
lar experience did this city have twice-in 1863
and again in 1871. After the first volley no
blank cartridges should be fred in dealing with
a lawleSs rioting city mob This has become an
axiom. The Cincinnati mob was allowed to go
its gait, TODD as it pleased, to riot, to rob- to
deSpoil and to destroy. 1t stopped simply be
cause it was too exhausted to do any more. The
incapacity of the police force is not one of the
least striking features of the calamity
THE MAINTENANCE OF LAW THE CHIEF THING.
Philadelphia Times,
We can recall recent important political con-
tests when such journals as the Commercial and
the Enquirer, supporting opposing candidates,
devoted columns of their papers daily to prove
that the candidates on the opposite ticket be
lieved III God and Sunday and IN executing the
laws. Why they did it all well understand. The
large foreign German vote was supposed to be
most easily captured by the party that most
boldly protested against religion and law. True,
it is not claimed that the German citizens are
inclined to riot or anarchy, but in teaching
lou 70 rNraoyRi 70 -~Ta
the hOodlum element furnished fruitful soil
for the seeds of lawlessness, and bad seed
strewn in fruitful soil must bring its logical
harvest 1t would now be well for Cincinnati
journals of every political faith to appreciate the
truth that important as they may deem party
victory. the maintenance of law and the teaching
of its supreme sancity should be paramount to
all party interests
STEP TTIAT SHOULD BE TAKEN NOW
Chicago Tribune.
After we have had more of these riots, after
more property has been destroyed and more
lives lost by the dangerous uprising of mobs,
after some fearful manifestations Of mobS have
occurred, ending in widespread slaughter and
eonfagraton, then the country will be prepared,
perhaps, to take the step which it ought to take
now. for in nearly every emergency the ultimate
appeal is to the national regular troops.
There should be a contingent OF regular troops in
the immediate vicinity of every great city. Had
there been a regiment of regulars battery of
artillery, and squadron of cavalry at Newport
barracks across the river. they could have held
she whole city of Cincinnati against any effort of
she mob, and prevented any destruction of prop
srty or loss of life, unless the mob had been
foolhardy enough to have attacked the federal
troops
THE WHISKY TRAFFIC AND THE RIOT.
Richmond Palladium.
Whisky trafic-the great curse of this nation
must answer largely for the work at Cincin-
natl Whisky, we have no hesitation in saying,
is at the bottom of the whole matter Whisky
causes. directly and indirectly, ninetenths of
che crimes that are committed. Of the forty
one murderers confined in the Cincinnati JAIL we
doubt not nearly all were led to become muir
derers by the use of whisky. Not only So but
the whisky ring has been literally running
the courts of that city. The saloon men and
their friends have been carrying things with
high hand for years. Let US hope they have
reached the end of their rope If it
awakens public sentiment all over the country,
and causes it to rise up and demand righteous
enforcement of the laws. all this destruction
and bloodshed will not have been in vain
A WARNING TO OFFICERS OF THE LAW.
New York Tribune.
Cincinnati has also special warning of its
own, which was not sounded at Pittsburg Law
iessness there is the outcome of laxity and scan
aals in the administration of justice. Criminal
trials had long been a by-woPd and a reproach.
when verdict in a single murder case shocked
the moral sense of the community and led to the
catastrophe. That verdict was utterly at vali-
with justice, reason and common sense,
but 1t could not have caused a popular uprising,
if the patience of the community had not been
already exhausted and its temper aroused by
long series of similar otltrages. The warn
ing to courts, iuries and law officers is to en-
fofce the laws at all times with firm and reso-
Lutte hand
THE GUILTY MUST BE PUNISHED.
New York Times.
A large part of our law was the creation of
Judges and lawyers determined to protect
he innocent against tyranny under the guise of
Justice. The purpose is no longer justified The
tendency is to defeat defraud justice, and
what were formerly safeguards for innocence
aids to crime 1t is possible, and it is imper-
ative that. without endangering the innocent,
the guilty should not escape. That is a task
that has long called loudly for the energies of
the legal profession, but for the most part in
vain. Let us hope that the Cincinnati riot may
lead to some better result. 1t shows that, while
she legal profession may bring about reform if it
chooses it IS not the last resort.
RUNNING IT WIDE OPEN.
Minneapolis Tribune.
Mayor Stephens of Cincinnati is one of the free
and easy individuals who believe in running
metropolitan cities wide open" He was the
svowed friend of the Cincinnati gamblers and
bummers, and they nominated him to their
chief executive position in the city government
The decent and lawabiding people of the city
were too indOlent or too careless to avert at the
polls the danger threatened by the nomination
of the representative of so dangerous an ele-
lnent Of the Cincinnati population, and Stephens
was elected. Now comes the result Its shock
ing and bloody character ought to be sharp
and timely warning to the people of Minneapo
lis. And they ought to heed it.
HOW MORALITY IS POISONED.
Philadelphia Times
The moral atmosphere of a community is
never polluted in day, a week, a month
or even year The deadly poison comes as
silently and as surely the poison that steals
from the malayal pest pools in the silence of the
night, to creep into the lungs of the unconscious
sleeper. 1t is seldom noted until the blood is