The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1897-05-05

that a people most hopelessly debased In
spite Of school houses and churches. and
infinitely above all else. fifty years read
ing Of the Galveston News, should exist
within less than one hundred miles of its
office is proof overwhelming that ciyiliza-
ton is a fraud, progress a sham, religion
lie and the News a colossal ass as the
champion OF all three.
AS for my own part. believe that the
people OF Waller county are no better nor
worse than those OF Galveston island
They are Just common everyday folks who
have become impatient of the laws delay
and the increasing burdens of corrupt and
venai courts. They are outliving the in
flucnce of legal fetish worship, trials by
courts which are as worthless as trials b.
fire, and are coming to wiser understand
ing of social upbuildng. The techncalities
of the law are the curse OF free institu-
tions. the fruitful source OF crime, and they
are awakening TO the fact that it Is not
only cheaper but altogether better for the
community TO rid itself of criminals than
to have it done by the proxies of sheriffs,
judges and jurics. That the mob may make
mistakes no one denies; that II should
sometimes hang the wrong man is as true
as that the News should sometimes ad-
vocate the wrong man for the esAlency.
That two innocent men may have been
hanged in the present instance amounts to
nothing In view of the most damnably
guilty that have been turned scot free by
the courts Of Waller. Harris and Calves
ton counties. Under no oircums tlnces is
it TO be supposed that human Judgment will
act with unerring certainty. but 1t is Il
matter Of demonstration that less limo
cent men have been killed by the mob
than by the law and that less guilty ones
have escaped from the one than from tho
other. To attain perfection is impossible:
to reduce evil to a minimum is therefore
the supreme wisdom Of craftsmanship. No
mob has ever deluged a country with blood
by the murder Of n million of its best cit
liens through four years of civil war, no
mob has ever been Henry VII. hanging
1900 persons for vagrancy during eight
years of its despotc sway, no mob has
ever been an Edward H. branding people
WIN red hot irons for the crime of begging
Tor bread, no mob has ever been a Span
ish inquisition, committing thousands OF
human beings to the flames for Worship
ping God as they deemed fit no mob ha,
consigned millions OF mankind to slavery
and death at the command Of lust and
greed desolating the fairest portions OF
the earth with imperial swords and giving
them over forever to Wild beasts and soil
tudo, No mob is flying its blood-red ban
ner in the East and in Cuba, no mob is
striking our own country dead with in
dustrial paralysis and crushing the life
out of industry with the overwhelming
pas tree of class legislation. No mob is. as
the Galveston News, panderng to the worst
OF I'M American Interested and giving
Iexas bad name abroad by vicious and
exaggerated criticism OF events TINT are of
common and righteous occurrence through
out the Union, And | would Impress on Tho
News that whatever reputation Hempstead
and Waller county have for evil has NOT
been given to her by mobs, but by in
dividuals whom the law constantly fails
to punish. Thus when the News speaks OF
tho unspcakable shame of their conduc,
10 the state and to civilization" and In
answer 10 the question "Will the civil au-
thofities Of the State arouse 10 the effect
i've aud condign vindicaton of its majesty
AGAINST this latest outrage?" says II were
folly to indulge the hope" II SANDERS the
people of Texas so grossly that II they
are truly alive 10 the insult the News
would soon learn through declining pa
tronage not to repeat the offense. 1t is the
fouiest dispersion OF character that have
ever seen. and coming as it does from the
galveston News, paper that in the opin
ion OF n majority of its supporters has
never been In favor OF good government
1t Is unequalled as n vicious denunciation q,
a people who, to say the least, are as good
as their defamer.
James Armstrong, Jr
May 3 1897