The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-05-26
Laws and the LawIess.

Last MONDAY morning the story OF
a horrible lynching affair at an out
of-the-way town in Florida was told.
In that instance two brutes were dis
posed of. This morning brings the SEN
sational account of summary process
in an Illinois town. In yesterdays af-
fair no negro figured. as is usual in
southern experiences Of this sort; the
men who were hanged yesterday were
white men described to be of 'unsav-
DRY reputation"
It's the fashion to raise hands all
around and say it is horrible when ex-
piation is brought home to human be-
ings under the process known as lynch
law. Yet, after all. what warrant is
there for this sentiment?
a few days ago, a wronged husband
walked into a room. revolver in hand,
and he killed his wife as well as her
companion. who was the son of the
governor of Kentucky. Yesterdays
news was that the Jefferson county
grand jury refused to indict the man
who did the killing. Nobody lifts hands
in horror over that piece of news.
man worse than the one for which
lynching was the punishment in the
recent cases I'm Florida and Illinois.
But in these instances the victims are
dead or dying; they were defenseless
women, to begin with. Shall hands go
up in horror when our common hui
manity exacts the penalty which the
victims themselves. had it been
physical possibility. would have wrung
from those who so grossly wronged
them?
This lynchlng practice seems to
grow. Newspapers denounce 1T. Mag
azine literature writes it down. The
pulpit assails IL. AS a rule, public opin-
ion is startled at it's recurring manifes-
tations. Yet It seems to become con-
stantly more common; somehow you
cannot put IL down.
There must be a reason for this. 1t
is to be found. we believe, somewhere
between the jail and the court room.
Undoubtedly the bench of this coun-
try. take it all in all, merits the conf
dence of the people: If 1t were other
wise. things couldn't go on at all. But
there is a screw loose somewhere-we
begin to think that 1t is to be found
in the bar. not on the bench.
Your panel of jurors is presented.
There are too many lawyers who pick
out for duty all the pin-heads they can
discover and then complete the poll
with the needed number of professional
jurors. These latter are found i'm every
court house: they find FOR the side that
secs" them. When outrageous verdicts
are rendered, the judges say that it is
not their fault. They are right about
IL.
But. meanwhile. the public has new
crimes to attract its attention, and
so the old ones go unpublished.
We believe that lynching will go on
from conquest to conquest until this
condition of things is changed. The
STANDARD might not wish to stand
! sponsor for a doctrine so savage: still
we are tempted to believe that lynch
ing is commissioned to serve a useful
purpose. To make a practical applica-
ton of the point, we are inclined to
| think that the law of the land would
, be i'm higher repute i'm Silver Bow
| county this morning If the city of
| Butte had been the scene of seven or
eight lynchings during the five years
| last past.
| You may say that this is dangerous
| theorizing. But you have this one fact
confronting you-the practice of lynch
/ ing spreads. How do you account for
| Il? How will you stop 1t? II the nor
NAL administration of law is tending
in the wrong direction. how. in view OF
experience. will you awaken the peo-
pie TO the need of better methods un-
less you shock public opinion? And II
the normal administration of law is
not tending in the wrong direction
how do you account for the constantly
widened sway of lynch law?
CURRENT HUMOR.