The record-union., 1891-03-16
THE NEW ORLEANS MOB-CLAN-
NISH ANIERICANISM.

Ihe recent tragic events IL the city OF
New Orleans disgraced the civilization of
the day. Whenever communities which
claim to be highly civilized, to base their
social system on the capacity for self-gov-
ernment, and that boast of the majesty of
the law, and of the submission of the
people to its DEGREES, take up the bludgeon
and resort to the methods OF the savage,
they testify to retrogression, the suprem-
acy of passion and the rule of the merely
animal. Lynch law. represents so much
of savagery as fingers in civilization; it is
the weaponry of heat, unreason and pas
sion. The mob has neither conscience
nor reason; it is the engine of lawlessness,
the foe of security, and the enemy of
human rights. 1t cannot be tolerated or
its offenses condoned. Even if at times
its action appears to mete out exact JUS
tice, and to punish the guilty, if at times
it is apparently the defense Of the law
and the assistant of its ministers, never
theless behind its apparent temporary
achievements in the interests of virtue, is
the repulsive form of passion, unreason-
ing hot blood, and the enemy of social
order. There is no accomplishment that
the mob effects that is not more than off
set by the wounds it inflicts upon self
government.
1t is entirely true that there was much
to inflame and anger the people Of the
city of New Orleans; that timorous Jurors
cowed by secret murderous tribunal;
that corrupt officials and venal agents of
the law, seconding and excusing the
bands of blackmailers and assassins, and
tolerating associated criminals in their
warfare upon society, had given cause for
public indignation, and even for fears
that the community might be in peril
from the assaults Of alien hordes of cut
throats and inquisitors, But assuming
all to be true that the rioters Of New Or
leans claim, there is no excuse for the
terrible taking of vengeance by the hands
of the mob. The law is not vengeful;
vengeance is not one of its attributes, and
no office of revenge performed in its
name can have it's countenance without
destroying its integrity. The people OF
the United States, abhorring the Sicilian
assassins and similar associations of out
laws and murderers, have too high q
sense of justice, are too unalterably at
tached to the substructural principles OF
free government. to fail to make their
condemnation of the New Orleans mob
heard to the remotest corners of the land.
We are not blind to the terrible provo.
cation that infiamed the people of New
Orleans on Saturday. But the enormity
of the outrages committed by the in
famous Malta, and the failure to convict
the assassins of the Chief of Police, served
as tests of the capacity of the people to
uphold the arm of the law. They were
not equal to the test, and to that extent
demonstrated that civil government in
the hour of its bitterest trial is not safe in
their hands.
Unquestionably the Sicilian associ-
alton of outlaws in this land should be
broken up root and branch. They should
bepursued to the uttermost by the law ,and
If it is insufficient in its present form, the
people being the creators of the law, have
the capacity to raise up enactments suf-
ficient TO meet the need. These Sicilian
gangs of thugs, blackmailers and terror
izers represent the very worst elements OF
human society. Compared with them the
Chinese highbinders are mild-mannered
fellows. Driven from their own country,
says Inspector Byrnes of New York, than
whom there is no better authority, these
Sicilians of the Malta are the most dan
gerous of human beings:
They are outlaws. They cannot return to
the land of their birth, because in many In
stances price is fixed upon the heads of more
tnan one Of them. They were criminals in
their own country, and they continue theiI
career OF crime in the home of their adoption
Before 1850 the Malta was q powerful politf
cal organization. 1t was secret and had rites
symbols, passwords and the other features OF
league in which bandits, robbers, counter.
feiters, murderers and other of the criminal
classes were united. Expelled from their
country, these men have come to the United
States. They form an organization similar to
that of the anarchists. There is silent nm.
derstanding between them. The greatest
criminal IN their number is their leader.
This is the class for whom L,Eco
TJtalia of New York lifts its voice and