The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-09-13

The Governor of Pennsylvania has done
well in concentrating in the troubled dis
trict such a force of soldiery as will dis
courage any retaliatory acts of violence
upon the part of the miners. The peace
of the country must be preserved, and the
best wa to do it is to make riot impos-
sibie beforehand rather than suppress 1t
when it has broken loose.
80 much for the present situation. AS
for the horrible tragedy of last Friday,
it can only be said that no more reckless
and wanton act of blood has ever been
committed. The most charitable view
that can be taken of it is that it was the
irresponsible act of men who lost their
heads. To believe that it was the de-
liberate act Of peace officer, exercising
his cool judgment as to What he con-
ceived to be his duty, is almost too
hideous.
The law and the common sense of a
resort to arms for the preservation of
peace and order are very analogous to
the rules applicable in respect to self-de-
fence. This is a matter which has so
often been thrashed out in court, in trials
for homicide, that every intelligent man
has a fair notion of when he is justified
in resorting to arms to defend himself.
must be such that a man has reasonable
grounds to fear that he is in danger OF
his life or of serious bodily harm. before
he may resort to an act e~ndangering the
safety or the bodily safety Of another. 1t
is not enough thai a man shall be afraid;
there must be reasonable and demon
verbal threat, or even an ordinary assault
will not justify a resort to firearms, and
if a man should walk in front of another's
house and threaten to kill him, the other
man would not by any means be justified
in coming out and shooting him.
All the principles involved in these
statements apply TO the preservation of
the public peace. A sheriff has assuredly
no right to fire upon a gathering which
merely talks or marches, but which has
committed no overt act of violence. which
processes to be on a mission of peaceful
remonstrancc and which is not armed or
equipped for violence and which makes
no display or exhibition of weapons. 1t
Is not enough 10 say that the Sheriff
feared violence; his fears do not count in
the premises. 1t is worse than useless TO
saw that the mob had terrorized the
region for many days. for the fact that
they had committed no crime against the
peace. il an argumen that the alleged
terror was unwarranted, and strongly
suggests that there was no more likeli-
hood Of violence at the time when the
massacre took place than at any previous
time.
The attempt of the Sheriff and his men
to bar the progress Of the miners along
the road at this point suggests that the
terrorism was largely on the side of the
employers. These, if the truth must be
said, have found courts and officials a
little overpliant in lending them the aid
OF the public force to defeat the cause of
their workers and to prevent their just
cry from reaching the ear of public opin-
ion. That the courts, in granting in
functions, have kept within the letter
Of the law, we may well believe; but there
have been more technicaiities in making
i q case to uphold them, than could be
wished where humanity and civilization
are at stake.
As for the defcnces that are manufae-
fured for Sheriff Martin and his posse. we