Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-12-27

| Organ of Plutocracy, "to Compel OH
GERS of the Law to Stand Trial for Doing
What They Thought Was Their Duty
| From the Cleveland Recorder
Ha1per'S Weekly is sadly concerned
about the fate of Sheriff Martin and his
murderous deputies, They have actu
ally been indicted for murder, and theil
bail has been fixed at the enormous sum
of 5000 Most murdererS are not allow.
ed bail at all, but these men, being pet
murderers, ought to be differently treat
ed thinks the civilized Harpers.
Then there is the local prejudice
against the murderers--a foolish senti.
ment of sympathy with the assassinated
boys and men, which has made it impos-
sibe for the accused to procure local
bail. They were obliged to resort to a
Philadelphia bail-mongering corpora
tion, which to HarperS seems hard.
But the hardships which the sheriff
and his deputies have to suffer do not
end here. The county commissioners
have refused to pay them their fees for
committing the murders. The cruelty
of this touches Harpers to the quick
''The people of the county" it says,
through their official representatives,
have refused to treat the sheriff and his
deputies with common decency;" and it
fears that these murderers must be more
than human if they do not now regret
that they committed the murders with
which they stand charged! That would
not be extraordinary. Most murderers
experience similar regrets when their
trials approach.
What seems most to concern Har-
pers, however, is the fact that the
bloody sheriff for whom it speaks,
and his deputies must face the expense
and terrors of trial" This is very sad.
of course. 1t is to be deplorcd that
sherifls who take the law in their own
hands, and shoot down unarmed and
peaceable men and boys as if they were
wild brutes, especially when they do so
in the interests of property, which is
the most sacred thing known to the
civilization that Harpers represents,
should have to stand the expense and
horrors Of trial, to determine whether
or not the killing is lawful. They ought
to be held to no accountability. At
least so thinks Harpers, for it declares
that 'if men do their duty according to
their own judgment are to be treated
as these peace officers of Luzerne county
have been treated, dutiful sheritfs under
such circumstances will simply not
exist"
Harpers is entitled to the credit of first
advancing the proposition that sherifIs
who kill according to their own notions
of duty, should be exempt from the "ex-
pense and terrors of Il trial. to determine
whether their own Judgment of their
duty was lawful judgment.
But at the speed with which we are
moving toward the goals of plutocracy,
no one need be surprised at the adoption
of Harpers' novel theory. 1t would be
no great matter for our plutocratic law
gverS to authorize sherffS when on
labor strike duty to shoot workingmen.
and if it appears to be their duty accord
ing to their own judgment, to free them
from the "eXpense and terror of an in
quiry into the lawfulness of their con
ception of duty.
An appropriate duty for a law which
would give legal vitality to Harpers
ideas of the immunity of sherfTs for
these crimes, would be IAN act to legal
ize the murder of workingmen by sherifrs
who commit it in accordance with their
own Judgment of their duty