Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-03-02
THE CONTEST WITH LAwLEssNEss.

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THE CONTEST WITH LAwLEssNEss.
Sam Jones, the eccentric exhorter whose
rough hewn eloquence and coarse logic
has given him notoriety, if not fame, in
recent address in St. Louis, filling five
columns Of the Globe Democrat, said
When you've got law you can't enforce,
you've got anarchy set up; when you've
got law you won't enforce, you've got
communism in the community" There is
rugged truth hidden in this expression,
and though eccentric Sam Jones said it,
that at which he aimed ought to sink
deep into the hearts of the people. There
has been these many years deal of sl1ulk-
ing behind the plea that the moral senti-
nent Of the people does not stand behind
certain unenforced laws, and therefore
official failure, even to make The attempt
to enforce them, is to be passed over and
put aside as excusable
Let us look the matter squareIy in the
face. Is it true that in the case of most
of our unenforced laws against crime the
moral sentiment of the people really
justifes the inactivity? If so, how came
it that the laws were passed and approved?
If the moral sentiment disapproves these
laws, why is il not reflected in the repre-
sentative body, and why does it not
work the repeal Of the obnoxious statutes?
1t is entirely true, as we the other day
pointed ont, that community which by
inactivity appears to acqaiesce in fragrant
neglect on the part of officers to do their
duty, is estopped from complaining of the
inevitable results But this is by no
means admitting that quiescence is affirm
alive direction TO officials to be blind to
crime.
To put case directly, Why, if the law
against lotteries cannot be enforced be-
cause of assumed lack of moral support,
did the people, so recently as 1879, engraft
the law upon the Constitution itself thus
making it fundamental principle? Has
any one, in this community for instance,
tested the moral sentiment as to this one
unenforced and openly, brazenly violated
law? Who is ready to libel the people of
Sacramento by the infamous declaration
that they expressly desire the law against
lotteries to be unenforced
The truth is, we hare no anti-gambliug
laws the people do not desire respected
We have no such laws that cannot be en-
forced. But we have that which, if not
broken up, root and branch, may turn out
to be as disastrous to our prosperity as
Anarchy and as destructive of democratic
principles as radical Communism-that is
to say, we have political slavery. Since
We have ourselves forged the shackles that
bind Us, we mus. ourselves break them.
The non-enforcement of our laws is due,
not to lack Of supporting moral sense in
the people, but to the one simple and I'M
pardonable fact that the men the people
have commissioned to discharge the duty
do not invoke, but avoid it, and confess
allegiance to another power-one that
palsies their hands and letters their oaths
with reservations little short of rank per-
jury.
The time has gone by for mincing mat
tiers. There must be either one thing or
the other; open doors for the carnival of
vice, high feasting, rioting in the halls OF
crime, with the youth of the city invited
and often dragged into the banquet of de-
struction, or else the laws that command
the sinks Of inquiry to be suppressed must
be enforced as they can be; it is either
sheer cowardice or a wholly false idea Of
self-government that prompts one to say
they cannot be. The Democratic party
has given US a Chief Of Police who de-
family refuses TO even make the attempt :;
the Republican party has given us Police
Commissioners who cannot or will not
agree TO compel him to do his duty. 1t is
high time TO work reform in both these irec-
tons and the very first opportunity offers in
the Republican primaries about to be held
Let them be the final test; let it there be
decided once and for all if boss rule shall
continue to suspend the laws at the sweet
will of influences that laugh the moral
sense Of the people to scorn.
Ii the Republicans are too busy buying
supplies and selling tape; too busy ham
mering at the forge, weaving at the loom,
counting coin in the treasury, or toasting
their toes at glowing fires at home. to come
out and break the backbone of the lottery
dealing, gambling, opium-smoking, Office
trading, -brokering, domineering
bossism. let it be now demonstrated. If,
on the other hand, Republicans are sim
cerely attached to the principles OF the
party, and believe clean, orderly govern
ment and an improved police department
to be possible, they can make their faith
manifest by some little sacrifice of personal
ease in l,ehalf of the city of their homes.
As surely as the Republicans Of Sacra-
meuto make an appeal to the moral sense
of the people for support in cutting loose
from odious domination, Just SO surely will
they meet with response that viii render