St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-04
MORAL APATHY.

Much discussion concerning the failure of
the courts to deal with murder has been
elicted by the Cincinnati incident. The Jail
of Chicago usually contains at least dozen
men who are charged with homicide. In
the Cincinnati prison there were said to be
fourteen criminals charged with capital of
lenses. What is true of the presence of
these two cities is true of the places of con-
finement of nearly all large cities of the
north. In the comments which are being
made, the disproportion between the crime
of murder and its punishment, between the
number of assassins and the number hanged
is always assumed to be the fault of the
judges and the jury. The laws are all right
but it is the administration of them that is
at fault. The real explanation of the present
lax administration of the criminal law is to
be found in the laxity of public sentiment.
We have not yet wholly recovered from the
effects Of the war. The influence of this war
was to make human life of comparatively
small value. Hundreds of thousands of men
were slaughtered in that internecine strug-
gle and the end was that the people became
accustomed to blood.
The isolated killing of a man here and
there attracts no especial attention or abhor-
renee on the part of community that for
years has been in the habit, almost daily, of
porting over the details of the slaughter of
thousands. The scent of blood ceased to be
offensive. Men grew used to the contempla-
ton of its crimson hue and thence grew to
vii nj A n
ceased to excite the horror which attended it
before the nation had gazed on the shambles
of the war and become calloused to the spec
tacle of cut throats and shattered bodies.
Nor was this all there was of the causes
which have led to the apathy OF the public in
regard to great offenses. The war caused a
general decentralization which has ever since
been fostered by the character of public events.
There has prevailed general apathy in the
matter of honesty both in public and private
life. 1t was proved beyond all question that
a candidate for the presidency of the nation
had been guilty of participation in a con-
gressional scheme whose purpose was the
boldest and most undisguised robbery. The
proof of the fact made no difference in the
NObc given I'LL.
Senators and representatives have grown
wealthy who it is positively known, had no
fortune when they commenced their profess
sional career and who spend more to secure
an election than the entire salary which they
getfor their services. The people see these
things and they know there must be some
thing wrong and yet there is no complaint.
The men thus inculpated occupy lofty social
positions and the dulled sense of the nation
is forced to the conclusion that there is no sin
in gilded wrong doing. Thus bad moral
condition is being cultivated which includes
leniency for crime and which extends to
crime against life as well as that against
public or private property. Judges and juries
are the opponents of the moral sense of a
community. If nation is lax in its morals
it is certain the laws will be lax in their en-
forcement. To secure the hanging of muir
derers by the processes of justice there has
first to be q reform in public sentiment.
There must first be conviction in
the minds of the people that a crime is a
crime and must be punished as such wheth-
er committed by member Of congress, a
bank cashier, or laborer. The last quarter
of century has given us condition OF
| things in which a loose morality has been
| the rule, and has been powerful in its influ-
| ence on the moral sense of the people,
| There must be reform in this direction
| 1t must become understood that because q