The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1896-03-07
VIC. T. u. COLUMN.
Theodore Roosevelt ON the Enforce
ment LAW.

Theodore Roosevelt ON h Enforce
ment Law.
From his speech on Wsshington's
birthday:
1T is a discredit to US az a people that
there actually car be room for argument
as to whether the law Of the land should
or should not be enforced. l think, and
l speak after some experience in a local
Legislative body as we'll as an executive
officer, that the C hief evil from which we
suffer is the fact that the lax enforce
ment Of laws of all kinds has given the
impression TO the average legislator that
it is a safe thing at any time to put any
law on the statute books and then to
trust the law will not be enforced SO as
to please somebody else.
And in speaking Of the enforcement of
law l want to protect as emphatically as
| can, in the name of decent citizens,
against the habit that has grown up OF
maudlin sympathy for:the lawbreaker.
There are a large number Of people
who apparently do not mind any form OF
killing except judicial killing. They are
not shocked in the least by a murder, but
they feel terribly when the murderer is
hanged.
When kincaid was on trial in Wash
ington for killing ex-Congressman Tai
bert, a young woman came into the civil
service commission rooms and said: ~
am going to see the trial OF poor Mr..
Kincaid." said: Poor Mr.. kincaid!'
l hope they will hang him"
She was appalled, at such brutality.
what, hang Mr.. Kincaid! l am so
sorry for MIR. Kincaid." l said: "ies,
but l was sorry for Mr.. Talbert. Are
you cot sorry for him?" She said: ayes,
l was sorry for Mr.. Talbert, but Mr..
Talbert is dead"
When Bat Shea's tody was taken back
to Troy, after he had been e~lectrocuted,
at the funeral half Of the city's popula-
ton turned out to do honor to this man
who had been killed for a peculiarly ill.,
famous and brutal murder, committed in
the effort to do his part in ~overturning a
whole system Of governmsnt-because
that is what it means-in> overturning
the fairness and honesty OF elections. Ii
the man had been shot leading a forlorn
hope on the field of battle, and had been
q soldier of the most distinguished
gallantry and of unblemished private
life, he would not have had II tenth
the regret expressed for him that was
expressed for hat murderer.
What does such an event mean? Ii
means there are q large number OF
people who need to be educated up &c
the idea that a crime is a crime, a crime
should be punished, and sympathy is
not for the criminal, but for the victim
In New York City / have endeavored
to make the law-breakers, especially
those along certain lines OF ancestral
immunity, understand we were moi
playing "puss-in-the-corner" with the
criminals, but trying to catch them, anC
after we have caught them to punish
them.
+ 1t is worth while to point out to The
| latter day a~pologists for the t~ransgressor'
of certain kinds of avs that Washington
marched an army into Western
Pennsylvania to put down the whisk!
instruction, and beer is no more sacree
than whisky.
Some years ago a United States Sena
. ator announced that publication OF poll
tics was an irldescent dream, and tina
: the Decalogue and the Golden Rule ha'
. no place in public life.
: There is, unfortunately, a certain
5 order of intellect which is prone to ad
mire just such silly and vicious cynicisu
and to the admiration thus excited tn
words OF the senator did damage.
. Washington's whole life is meaningless
4 if it does not show that the Decalogu
and the Golden Rule should form tn
standard for public men above all others
A man who is q brilliant phrasemake
and uses his talent to advance what
:, low and base is unfit for public life in
II, COMMONWEALTH which seriously put
!, Washington forward as an example,.