The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-01

polite, enforced IN any such fashion this; and
/ if they are not so enforced who, out of a body
offree citizens who have an abundant control of
all the executive, Legislative and judicial func
! tons, are responsible for their miscarriage!
ONE PLAIN, RECOGNIZABLE CAUSE.
Chicago News.
The shocking occurrences of the past few days
at Cincinnati, the terrible street fighting the
persistent attack on the Jail, the destruction of
| the Courthouse and county records by fire, the
/ loss of life-in short all of the horrors that on
horrors head have accumuated-are due to one
plain. easily recognizable cause. existing not
| only IN the Ohio city, but throughout the land.
This is the employment of the forms of law in
the defense of crime-the common and out
rageous prostitution of justice to wrong,
| the foul deed being effected through the
1 agency of INSCRIPTIONS criminal lawyers
and weak or corrupt jurios. Often the failure
| OF Judge to exercise due care that justice OBJ
talns her due contributes materially to the re
suit lime after time the press has drawn at
tention to the evil, and has shown the direct
connection existing between it and the ordinary
manifestations of mob violence known the
| operations of lynch law Legislatures have
been urged TO make such reforms in the law as
will leave open to counsel none of the loopholes
! through which they slip their clients. Especial
ly has this been the in Illinois, wherere-
vision OF the criminal code has been persstently
urged. 1t is to be hoped that the horror of the
! Cincinnati outbreak will be laid to heart, and
| the amendments of the law asked for made at
the earliest opportunity.
THE ELIMINATION OF LAwLEssNEss
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.
| This movement which has caused the loss of
so many lives and the destruction of so much
| property, is the elimination of lawlessness
| There has been growing for years in this com
lnunity disregard for lawful authority and
! growth of influence the part of criminal
classes that foreshadowed danger to society
The warnings have been plain enough. We have
| often pointed them ont, but they have not been
| No p11 prfl1 in
! our government as that which chooses to be a
law unto itself. The result has been insecurity
in the matter of life and property, and the fail
ure to punish crime. As to these matters, this is
not the time to enter into details Intelligent
citizens do not need to read or listen to discus
sion on this subject But the outburst of public
| indignation has already been sufficient to secure
reform Innocent blood has been shed and prop
erty has been destroyed, and all that is neces-
! sary to bring about a proper respect for law is
for those in official positions to cease to wink at
| crime, and set themselves at work to teach the
people that LAWS are passed to be enforced, and
| that the duty of every officer is to see that
crime OF every grade is promptly punished, and
that citizens are properly protected in all their
rights.
THE IRRESPONSIBLE JURY SYSTEM.
! Cincinnati News Journal,
The utter responsibility of the jury branch
OF the judicial system is radical and difficult of
correction. 1t is easy to point it out-we confess
! hard to find out the remedy. Salutary, always
alert and applied public opinion is corrective;
but it is precisely because of the continual failure
OF that corrective thatwe have continually to la
ment the failure of justice. How to have and keep
| hot and applied wholesome public sentiment, so
that the jury will intelligently, but effectively
| and Justly, reflect the social will. is the very
point to be looked at when that is the reliance
for the cure of the evils growing out of the fact
that when the jury separates it bears itself its
| own and others sins back, to be lost in the DO
| som of society. Demonstrations of sound pub
| lIc no off but
for how longl 3" There is no use clogging
the stream below the source, What is wanted
is not violence, but the moral boycotting of q
salutary public opinion-the cool, wholesome
and purifying influence of perpetual exclusion
from honor, trust, business and participation in
applying law and justice, of rings and friends of
rings and thieves. 1t is the power of these is to
be broken Short of that is but striking their
tools and damming the poison stream below the
source. Reform must aim higher.
REFORM IN LEGAL MATTERS DEMANDED.
Chicago Times.
The fault is not in the trial by jury. 1t is
partly in our evil methods of impaneling juries,
partly in laws and rules prescribing or sanction
ing those methods and partly in the inferior civ
| ilization Of which those laws, rules and prac-
tees are the expression. Better meth
DDS OF selecting juries-methods by which not
only unfit jurymen could be rejected, but by
which tit iurymen could be drawp-would furn-
lsh some guaranty, in every really civilized com
munity of more efficient and certain exeeu-
| ton of justice 1t is not meant to imply that the
| stream can rise higher than its source; but the
frequency of the failure of the formal stream of
justice in this country, and the frequency of its
| execution, or of attempts like that at Cincinnati
to execute it, in informal ways, prove clearly
| enough that the source is good deal higher than
| the stream-prove that with better appliances
the stream can be raised much higher than it is
| The Cincinnati performance is another warning
that the work of raising it is imperative, and
cannot be commenced too soon.
WEAKNESS OF THE JURY SYSTEM
New York Herald.
| Lynch law and mob rule are always to be con-
| demned. They are unjustifiable and ineXcuSa-
BILE even when the results of the strongest provo
| cation and when their avowed aim is to remedy
a fragrant miscarriage of justice. But while
| juries abuse their powers, travesty the forms of
| justice and outrage public decency by aiding
notorious criminals to escape the Just penalty of
| their crimes, there are likely to be lawless out
breaks here and there of those determined to
take the law into their own hands There a
| time when these occurrences were chiefly con-
fined to frontier regions. But they are now
breaking out in more law abiding communities.
Notable instances of this are the sequel of the
Dukes aequittal In Pennsylvania and the conse
quences of the Berner verdict in Cincinnati.
The Cincinnati riot is not to be defended OF ex-
cused, but it is a warning and should it have q
wholesome effect on the shameful jury abuses
throughout the country it will bear at least one
| good fruit
CAUSED BY THE PEOPLES RIGHTEOUSNESS.
| Chicago News.
I'm not of those who believe that God is re-
sponsble for everything that goes on in Chicago
or anywhere else,T said DR.. L. W. Munhall, at
,Je1erson-park Presbyterian Church. The speaker
said God was in no wise responsible for the riot
! in Cincinnati. 1t was brought about by the Ii
centiousness of the people of that city, which he
termed the most ungodly place in America. The
same thing liable to occur in Chicago if Sab
bath-desecraticn continues and whisky and beer
I'll
Cincinnati and indianapolis designated as
the special homes of Satan and sin. The idea
was advanced that the devil alone has the power
of death. Ii sin had not entered the world, there
would never have been a grave The devil
caused the deaths in Cincinnati, and God had
nothing whatever to do with it. The speaker