The record-union., 1897-06-14

says: Lynch law is always deplorable,
but more so when occurring in highly
civilized community. No crime can
justify it." Says Governor Atkinson of
West Virginia, in denouncing lynching:
Execute the laws, enforce them against
prosecute the participants in
lynchings, and rid the country of the
odium attaching to such actions" So
run the opinions of all the Governors
who have been asked to express them
selves upon the subject.
When the Mayor of Urbana excuses
himself for his action by saying that
he wished to prevent the spilling of
innocent blood" he disgraced his office
and his manhood. He might say the
same under any circumstances involv-
ing the enforcement of the law, and
therefore refuse to execute it on any oc-
casion, for fear innocent blood might be
shed.
The lesson Of this case is too import
ant to be passed over with a single
reference. 1t must be pressed in upon
the hearts and conscience of the youth
of the day, that the laws are supreme
and must be enforced and obeyed, and
that when they are not, when viola
tion of them is excused and mobs and
lynchings parties are apologized for,
we are stepping over the threshold into
a state of society in which the only
protection for any will be the weapon
and the bludgeon in every mans hand,
with the heavens pity invoked for the
weaker
Let every man who values order,
peace and all that in life is worth hav-
ing use this Urbana incident we'll and
carefully. Let him beware of saying
that the people of Urbana did well.
Let him impress to the utmost Of his
ability these eternal truths upon the
mind of youth: Without the law, its
enforcement and the infiiction of its
penalties, you have no guarantee OF
VI
Without the strict enforce
ment of those orderly rules of society
that insure to each security in his
right, neither you nor those who look
to you for protection will receive it..
Neither chivalry nor violence will an
swer for the law For with non-enforce-
Of 10 nd 10
couraged and apologized for, we ap-
proach a state of anarchy, and then the
time when under dictatorship when
men become slaves.
The dispatch of yesterday that thou
sand persons die each day in Cuba of
disease and starvation as the result of
General Weyler's cruel policy, is clearly
exaggeration. Such a death rate as
that in the small population of the is
land would very soon exterminate life
on that piece of the footstool. No doubt
there is terrible suffering and much
death due to the driving of the farmer
class into the overcrowded towns.
Where there is cessation of production
in so limited an area as Cuba, and the
spot is cut off from commerce with the
world there must be great suffering,
accentuated when it
Is supplemented by the orders
Of a Captain-General whose pol
icy appears to be to bring the insur-
gents to submission by starving and
the non-combatants,
novel as we'll as merciless and barbar-
Ous policy. The dispatch goes into de-
tail to sustain the statement that more
than 1000 people die in Cuba daily as
the result of General Weyler's policy,
but it will be noted that typhus and
yellow fever are included in the state
ment of immediate causes Both Of these
diseases are liable to become virulent
in Cuba in the proper season regardless
Of war conditions. They are aggravated,
Of course, by reduced physical condi-
tions, and by the neglect of the country,
as the inevitable result of war, but not
we think to the extent of killing off the
people at the rate of 10000 month.
The Republican Senators were in eau
Gus again on Saturday on Hawaiian
matters. Nothing definite was agreed
upon, but the debate must have been
very interesting, judging from the
sketch that comes by wire 1t is not diff
ficult to read between the lines the
growth of the sentiment in favor of re-
tention of the reciprocity treaty in its
present form at least for another year.
Even the most formidable opponents of
the treaty conceded something to this
sentiment, a few only holding for per-
amptory abrogation. These were replied
to spiritedly and with facts and figures
in a way to justify the expression, that
the treaty's friends are gaining in num-
Der and aggressiveness, which stiffens
the hope that the compact will not be
abrogated. The news dispatches con-
clude with the statement that while
It is probable there will not be abro-
cation of the treaty. the Republican
caucus will agree to advise that
the President give notice of the desires
Of our people that new treaty shall be
negotiated with Hawaii modifying in
some respects the terms of the present
treaty. This will at least give the sugar
trust an impetus backwards. and enable
10 still better missionary work in its in
.erest.