The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-06-03
DENVER DYNAarIrEKs.

The Denver dynamiters seem to be in
dead earnest in plying their hellish in
,dustry. They are practicing and de-
YeIoping a business that is new to this
country-4 business OF which we know
only by reading accounts of the ex-
plosions in the old world. Within week
or two attempts have been made to
wreck trains Of the ID. & r. G. railway.
and the dispatches this morning tell of
the wreeking by dynamite or giant
powder, of barn belonging to gentle
man who had refused to pay higher
wages to his employees than he could
or felt able to pay. with the account
comes the suggestion that the people
are thinking OF dealing with the Sound
rels az they did once before,
through the agency OF q vigilance com
Ralttee. The vigilance committee was
of iRes6mabie service to Colorado in
early days, as it was to others of the
frontier Territories. Il took the place
of the lawful authority which was
poWerleSs to assert itself and preserve
order; it was Judge, jury and ezecu-
toner, and while at times its DEGREES
were harsh and their enforcement cruel,
in the main they were right though ar
rived at and applied SO irregulariy. The
"Yigilantes" were guilty Of some crimes,
but they we're terror to criminals, and
made it possible for honest people to
live. Where there is law, and where
the regularly constituted authority
OF the State has the COM
munity at It's back to render
all the assistance asked for in bringing
the guilty to punishment, and protect
ing the innocent, it would seem unneces-
sary and almost outrageous for the
vigilance committee to assert itself; and
yet if there we're ever an occasion when
it would be proper for this effective
organization and authority to operate
in the presence of authorized and
regularly appointed civil government, it
is just such an occasion as the Denver
dynamiters are creating What the
Higilantes want 10 know is that man
is guilty, and they viii not let techni-
calities and the cunning of lawyers pre-
vent The due infection of punishment;
they viii carry into effect their DEGREES in
a way not only to punish the guilty but
also to strike terror into the hearts of
others who may be leaning towards the
side Of the criminals The dynamiters
are among those entitled to neither
sympathy nor consideration their
mode Of warfare is hellish, and they
fight against innocent and guilty alike,
against friend and foe. The destruction
of railway train would hurt none of
the men that the D. & R. G. strikers
want to injure; the Cunningham and
Burton explosions in the House of Com
mons and the Tower of London injured
only the innocent-men, women and
children who had no more to do with
bringing about the condition of things
to which Cunningham and Burton OBJ
jeeted than the latter had with direct
ing the course of the Thames.
ItR0uld be a scandal on the State of
Colorado we're the citizens to organize a
vigilance committee and wreak ven
geance on the fends who are using
dynamite and giant powder Sc rcck-
lessly and with such apparent malice,
but the scandal would be less odious
than would be the fact that the dyna-
miters had wrecked tram and killed |
iHnOceHt people against whom they
could hare no possible cause for griev-
ance