The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-12-17
HOW TO DEAL WITH CRANKs.

The recent attempt to blow up Russell
Sa &c and the simultaneous attempt to shoot
DR.. John Hall have set the Eastern papers
to discussing the question how one is to deal
with crank who demands money under
threats of exploding a dynamite cartridge
or pulling the trigger of revolver. Thus
far the discussion can hardly be said to have
solved the problem. In the East 1t is agreed
On all sides that the demands of the crank
should be resisted-but the form Of resist
ance is still open for debate.
We here in the West long ago decided that
where road-agent covered the passengers
in stage with a shotgun. it was wiser for
them to surrender their valuables than to
run the risk of being killed. The PROPOSE
ton on which this decision rested was that
the loss OF small amount OF property can
easily be made good, but dead man cannot
be recalled to life. Occasionally an obsti-
nate traveller not only refuses to hold up his
hands, but begins incontinently TO take pot
shots at the highwaymen. If he is alone in
the coach, his conduct is quite justifable
and even commendable. But ii he is one of
many passengers he draws the robbers fire
upon them. and his recalcitrance may cost
them their liveB. 1t is wrong to subject
them TO such danger.
The application of this rule to the crank
who demands money with dynamite bomb
In his hand would dictate an apparent sub
mission to the demands of the crank. When
a dynamite bomb explodes it scatters de-
structiOn and death all round. 1t is apt not
only to kill the thrower and his proposed
victim, but likewise numbers of innocent
bystanders. To provoke such an explosion
is therefore to place these lives in jeopardy.
The wise course would seem to be to feign
acquiescence in the crank's request, to give
him money if necessary, and to watch for
an opportunity of Selling his bomb and him
self and separating them. The moment the
crank's back is turned his capture is mat
ter of a moment, and his weapon can be
seized as quickly.
But what is to be done with the crank who
turks in a railroad depot like Guiteau and
without warning shoots in the back one who
has given him no prOvOcation, or one who
from pure devilisEness fires pistol in the
open street at man like the Rev. John
Hall, who has not an enemy in the world :?
There is no way in which such cranks can
be guarded against. nor their attempts frus-
trated IN advance. 1t is impossible Ter the
most yigliant and the most numerous police
force to spot every man who may be seized
with homicidal mania, and if they did seize
them they could not hold them until they
had committed some overt act. There was
the crank who tried to throw bomb into
the audience at the opera-house of this CITY,
II was not his fault that he did not kill hun
dred people And yet, though he was known
to the police as man of unbalanced mind,
his arrest on suspicion that he might some
day do mischief could not have been
justified.
This is one Of the cases in which the law
appears to be powerless to prevent crime
No one can tell what dark and bloody
thoughts may be harbored in the mind of
soured, disappointed, desperate man.
But what the law can do is to make it at
least difficult for such men to obtain high
explosives to destroy lives at wholesale
1t is probable that the explosion at Sage's
Office will lead to revision of Eastern laws
on the subject of the sale of explosives, and
we might advantageously pursue the same
course here. The man with the carpet-bag-
whoever he was-must have bought his dy-
Mantle or its ingredients somewhere. WHY
were they supplied TO him? Nitric acid is
not an article of such general use that much
Inconvenience would result from the impo-
sitiGn of restrictions upon its sale, and peo-
pie would submit to very stringent restric-
tions If they could feel assured that the
dynamite business was going to be checked.
This severity would not. of course, pre-
vent the enterprises Of cranks who shoot
men in the street from pure deyitry. In
their case the most that the law can do is to
punish the crime with unerring certainty
and unsparing severity. Insanity should be
no defense for a crank who has wit enough
to buy a pistol. load it and fire it into a
mans back. Such a man is quite sane
enough to be banged in short order.