The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-05-15
ENCOURAGING LAwLEssNEss.

/ A contemporary which has been try.
ing 10 belittle the endeavors of thu
Governor and all the officers who have
been engaged in enforcing law and pre-
serving order. now gi> es a little mild
advice to the incendiaries whom it has
been encouraging for the past few
days. 1t says:
.'They should go slow. A little vic.
! lence would ALLEVIATE a world of sym
pathy from them. A little disregard
of property rights, and the manifesto
ton of a spirit Of law-breaking would
leave them worse stranded than they
now are
What was the stealing of the train
in Utah county? What was the act OF
forcing the engineer and fireman in the
dead of the night to do their bidding
What was the defiance of the officers
at Provo and the bowls and threats OF
the mob daring those officers to use
t'eil f'e arms If these We're not
manifestations of spirit of law
law-breaking," what were they?
When desperate men band together,
seize property that does not belong to
them and on which they have no shad-
ow of a claim, block public traffic, OBJ
struct the carrying of the mails, pro-
claim themselves as a power above the
law. and defy public officers when the
latter are but few in number, but cave
in when sufficient force comes in sight,
what ought to be done?
Ridicule the executive authority ?
Misstate the situation? Shed crocodile
tears for the horde of law-breakers and
bowling incendiaries? Try to weaken
the power of the officers seeking to dis
charge their sworn duty? Make sport
of the youth of the militia called upon
10 support the civil authority? Pre-
tend that all such exercise of the forces
of law and order are unnecessary? And
thus encourage the crowd of clamor-
ing Migrants to demand as a right that
which they can only ask for in reason
as a favor?
That is the kind of miserable drivel
that has been run out from the same
source that now pats mobocracy on the
back and says: BE good or you will
lose our sympathy" In the face of the
menace which confronts the country
decisive action is absolutely necessary.
As long as men claiming to be unem-
ployed workers-though most of them
are work-hating wanderers-no matter
in what numbers, move forward or
backward without breaking the law or
threatening the public peace; as long
as they proceed to no violence or in
timidation, even if they go so far as to
steal ride on trains; they will not
meet with much opposition. But when
they exhibit the spirit of lawlessness
which is in most of them, and that
breaks out into overt acts against
peace and good order. it is the bounden
duty of the judicial and executive au-
thorities to exercise their lawful pow
ers to the utmost needed extent.
Life and property and the public
peace must be preserved at all haz-
ards. The insane movement towards
Washington" is only symptom of
the disorder, working among masses
of men in whom discomfort has been
fermented for years. It means disaster
to this nation unless it is met at once
with sufficient means for its dispersion
or suppression. That means is in the
several states and ter -itories. There is
where it should be applied. Now is
the time for its enforcement If it is
permitted to increase and hold sway,
it will soon become impossible of sue
cessful treatment and the result will
be social chaos, governmental anar-
chy.
Every aid ana comfort given to law
lessness is tlesstrable II he people of
the United States. And anything in
the shape of ridicule of official author
ity and encouragement TO the law
breakers and law defers, is a mark of
mounting semility or the quality which
is vulgarly expressed as pure cussed-
ness