The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-08
TO PREVENT LYNCHING.
Foreign Experience Suggests better
Police Regulation.

To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal
Governor Mount and Attorney General
Ketcham deserve the thanks of the whole
country for the most persistent attempt to
punish lynehing as murder yet made. They
have proven conclusively that no prosecu-
ton could secure the conviction of the Rip
ley county lynchers in The only jurisdiction
where they can be tried. If, then, the courts
cannot punish suci. crimes now can we
hope to prevent their recurrence? One
might infer from the respondent tone of
newspaper comment that we had no re-
source but the slow growth of public opin-
ion, which unfortunately appears to be
growing in the wrong direction, for mob
violence is evidently increasing in frequency
and ferocity. Yet is there not very sim
pie remedy, whose efficiency has been tested
by the experience of other enlightened ma
tions, where lynch law is practically I'M
known except as an American barbarity?
Our neighbor Canada, for example, with
conditions very like own, promptly sup
presses lawless demonstrations. The differ
ence is undoubtedly due to the government
police constabulary which the Dominion has
adopted from England. A force of trained
men is distributed wherever they are needed
to preserve order and maintain the author
ity of law. The working of the system I'M
readers of Klondike literature. Though the
population is mainly rough miners from
our own wild, free frontier, a squad of about
fifty mounted police succeeded in preserv-
ing almost ideal order, according to our
own newspaper reports. Joe Ladue, the
founder of Dawson City, bears emphatic
testimony on this point declaring that no
thieving rioting, jumping of claims or other
disorder was permitted and that gun
was wholly unnecessary item of an outfit.
Everybody knows how different the stua-
ton would have been If the mines had been
discovered on our side of the border. The
truth is, neither our general government
nor our States have any force at command
fit for such duty. Even regular soldiers
make poor policemen, and militia are often
worse than useless. Unfortunately, except
in the larger cities, our oldest communities
are equally unprovided with the means of
dealing with any exceptional disorder or
criminal outbreak. The only excuse offered
for the Ripley county horror is that reign
of terror had prevailed there for years on
account of the total failure of the local
authorities to check the depredations OF the
Levi gang. Now, is there any reason unoer
the sun why the law should be thus per-
eistently ser at naught in thtnly peopled
rural community by an insignificant gang
of local thieves except that no assistance
could be invoked from the State to supple
ment the inefficiency of the local con-
Nor would the five prisoners in the YER
sailles Jail have been butchered, as they
were, had the State of Indiana been pre-
pared to furnish the protection which is
doubly due every citizen. whom It has de-
prived of the natural right to defend him.
self. The Lattimer trial, now in progress,
is another illustration of the inefficiency of
our kindergarten method of preserving the
peace. Sheriff Martin and mis- deputies, ac-
the task of handling a mob of strikers
Only trained men, accustomed to police
duty, ought to have been intru t with IN
Pennsylvania had no force at command fit
for such an emergency. Half the number
of experienced police officers, under compe-
tent leadership, would no doubt have dis
persed the crowd without firing shot. OF
course, States could hardly be expected to
maintain a regular police force, as a mere
provision for unusual outbreaks, and 1t
would be more economical If the federal
government had larger police powers, but
If our local town and county constabulary
are deemed sufficient for ordinary service,
there are a multitude of minor situations
which could be much better handled by
trained men, independent of local influ-
eI.ces The towns of this State and some
times country neighborhoods are almost
periodically infested with thieves, burglars
or roughs, usually home talent, but often
quite shrewd enough to lead inexperienced
tion and contempt for law thus occasioned
could usually be greatly lessened by even
the temporary services of police officials
who understood their business.
But any discussion of details Is beyond
the scope of this article. Whether we relish
the notion of q state police or not, We must
contrive some way to put a stop to this
carnival of white-capping, hanging. tortur-
ing ana burning alive which dlScreditS our
claim to enlightened self-government at
home and abroad. 1t viii never do to let
our children read in Sunday school of
pagan chief of two thousand years ago who
commanded his centurions to make ready
two hundred soldiers, three-score and ten
horsemen and two hundred spearmen in
order to guard safely the midnight journey
OF a single friendless prisoner, because he
was u Roman in Roman custody, for these
same children will presently learn that in
their own country such stern solicitude for
the protection of helpless prisoners from
mob violence is very rare.
J. Q. DONNELL
Kingston, Ind, March 4.