The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-31
A Bad state of Affairs.

The people OF New Orleans have good
reasons for feeling anxious and uneasy.
Tho city appears to be wholly without a
government that affords the least protec-
ton. Several Of the aldermen are under in
dictment for accepting brides, and one or
more Of the aldermen have recently been
convicted and sentenced to the peniten-
tiary. The mayor has been impeached
for incompetency. and his trial was begun
last Monday. That he is incompetent, and
that the police force is worthless, will be
admitted by almost any fair minded per-
son who is familiar with occurrences in
New Orleans during the last few days.
The white screwmen object to so many
blackmen being employed in loading ships
with cotton. Last Friday night they made
a raid on the ships employing colored Ia
Dor. and threw the tools used in loading
cotton into the river. Saturday there was
rioting in broad daylight all along the
levee, the rioters being armed. They fired
at the defenseless negroes, woundirg
quite a number of them. The police were
present and made no attempt to check
the rioung or to arrest the rioters. On
Monday, according to our dispatches yes
terday the rioting continued. The COVER
nor of the state was in consultation with
leading business men, and the question OF
calling out the militia was considered.
The mayor does not seem to have been
regarded as person of any consequence,
and no reliance apparently was placed
,,ro,, tho y,oIico Tho roIgca hoo ri &c nv
pected to give the police force a thorough
overhauling, it being evident that the
force, as at present constituted, is of no
practical benefit to the city.
What is thought of the police is shown
by the following from an editorial article
in Sundays Democrat. Speaking
of Saturdays riot and the conduct of the
police that paper says: Such murderous
assaults in broad day on the commercial
center Of New Orleans, and in the pres
ence of the guardians of the peace, are a
scandal and a disgrace to the city, and
there must be some deeped-seated cause
that will explain them. That cause, we
think, is to be found in the disrepute into
which criminal justice has fallen here, the
many InlSCdITldSeS Oh justice lldL nave
been reported and the fact that so many
criminals escape. Had the men who en-
gagged in this riot believed that they were
likely to be arrested for their part in it,
and tried, convicted and punished, they
would not have been so willing to join in
the shooting of the negro laborers; but
they evidently thought they ran no risk
that the police would look the other way
and not see them, that no arrests would
be made, and that If by some accident
any of them were called upon to answer
for yesterdays work there would be nc
| difficulty, under present conditions in ouI
criminal court, in cheating justice and
getting off scot-free."
1t is evident from the foregoing thai
impeachment proceedings against the
mayor of New Orleans have not been be
| gun too soon. 1t is evident also that the
! criminal courts need a thorough over
! hauling, and there is need of new polio,
| officials. A city in which a mob is per
mitted to do as it pleases is practically
without government.