The St. Johns herald., 1892-08-04
The New Homestead Situation.

DNCA III OOIll1O CA
 s The warrants against these mel
 have been secured at the instance o MT. Prick. There is in that circum I stance a suggestion at least that tn, , criminal law is thus evoked not fo the purposes of justice but of re venge, or as a weapon for use in g controversy. One of the officers ol
 the Carnegie corporation is report ed as having said that the arrests are meant to frighten the men.
 If either of these theories is true
 the invocation of the criminal law
 is unworthily and improperly in-
 spired. The laws against crime are
 not meant to serve the purposes of
 either party to a controversy, but to
 restrain and punish acts detrimen-
 tai to the community. Still less are
 they intended to gratify revenge.
 But these consideration would
 not stop the operation of the crimi- : nal law or prevent the trial of any
 accused man. The method of in-
 voking the law is legal, however un-
 worthy the motive may have been.
 And yet this question might have influence upon the action of a jury and determine the result of trial in case of doubt.
 If the prosecutions thus begun are earnest and the cases come to trial, they will involve many of the most delicate points of law and evidence imaginable.
 The law of Pennsylvania, based 1 upon judicial decision of half century ago, is that every person present at a riot is held to be par ticipating in it, and that if death is caused by the rioting every such person is guilty of murder in the first degree.
 There was a riot at Homestead. Deaths were caused by it. Every person present at it may therefore be tried upon charge of murder, including both the workmen on the bank and the Pinkerton men upon the barges.
 But at each trial the prisoner is entitled to set up any justification or excuse-forthe law distinguishes between the two-which the facts may afford. How was the riot caused and who caused it? That will be the first question. It will involve the issue whether or not the Pinkerton armed men had legal right to advance upon the town in their barges whether or not MT. Prick had right to hire them and } send them there; and especially the 2 question of who fired first and so 1 brought on the riot.
 If it is established that the first shot was fired by the Pinkertons, as equitable witnesses have sworn, hen the theory of self defence will 'e set up in behalf of each of the accused men. The law recognizes as right of the citi- len even during riot, provided the , tot is not of lis own making.
 In any event, the fact that the = 'rosecutions are instigated not in h he ordinary way but by one of the parties to quarrel to whom intim- dation at this time would be an ef- eetive instrument of controversy, : will play part in the trials. Itwill, . 70 far as it goes, influence the minds :. # courts and jurymen, who are i, lever very tolerant of prosecutions : hat wear the least aspect of perse- n ution or ot an attempt to misuse !, he criminal courts for the accom- . 'lishment of private ends.
 This, in brief, is the situation ere ted by the new movement, and an n utline of the issues it is likely to u aise if the prosecutions are press '' d. It is not at all likely that any sl nan will ever be convicted of mur- a er in Allegheny county on account o f the killing of a Pinkerton He's O ian in general fght.-New York \