Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-12-16

I race, who has the welfare and good re
pute of New Mexico at heart. And for
the reason that the killing of a sheriff
and the excitement which it caused,
took place in New Mexico, eastern pa
pers will make the most of it, and fairly
hold up the territory to a breathless
people as a purgatory on earth. If the
occurrence could only be considered in
gers would only treat it in the same
ann as they do similar happenings
in their own communities or states, the
effect on the outside world would not
hurt the territory, but poor New Mexico
will be made to bear the flights of mag
ination of press reporters and sensa-
tional writer's which will be inflicted
somply because she is a territory in the
without any embellishments, but the
trimmings necessary to give the telling
of a story a wild west coloring will be
tackled On, and the farther from home
iliN tbiN 10 Wv AN DiS5Si II II Dio"'
Time and again the New Mexican has
asserted that life and property is as safe
in New Mexico as in the older sections
of the east and south, those assertions
have been based upon statistics furnish
ed by authorities on criminal matters,
and the Taos affair in no wise proves to
the contrary. The number of deaths in
the territory from criminal causes are
fewer in proportion to the population
than in most of the states, and the
cases where persons Who attend to their
own business are molested in any man.
ner, are rare indeed. The cause of the
Taos killing unfortunately happens to
be n of those rare occasions. The
man who was fatally shot was not a
stranger, neither is the man who did
the shooting. In this instance the
strangers suffered only slight ~inconven-
fence while those who are residents are
the ones who got into serious trouble. SO
much for the only affair in New Mexico
in years past that has resulted in in
tense excitement.
How about some of the states?
In Illinois the past summer and fall,
in a number of towns, a reign of terror
existed for months, many men We're
| killed and numbers wounded; even the
| governor of the state added to the IN
safety of life and jeopardy to property
by refusing to do his duty in affording
| protection, and still no one thinks of
Illinois as a state where it is not safe to
live.
North and South Carolina have both
furnished examples of mob rule within
the past six weeks. Men have been kill
| ed by Infatuated citizens, others have
been lynched without even the SEM
blance of an opportunity to prove their
innocence of the crimes for which they
We're swung up to trees, and still others
have been compelled to flee for their
lives, leaving property and interests be-
hind, and they dare not return to their
homes. Nor is that all. Citizens of in
telligence are denied the right Of free
speech, the right to vote as they think
best, as they honestly believe; not per-
mitted to hold office because of political
affiliations, and still North and South
Carolina are not considered dangerous
places in which to live.
In the great state of Pennsylvania,
within the past two years, men have
been shot down on the public highways
in broad daylight for the crime of at
tempting to work for bread and clothes
for their families: rioters have been SUI
preme for months at a time, law defied
and property destroyed, and yet no one
considers Pennsylvania a dangerous
| state in which to reside.
Take the large cities of the north and
east. How many weeks, yes, days, pass
| without some horrible murder being
committed in them, without attacks up
on peaceable citizens attending to the
duties of their positions and business?
Read the records of the courts in all
the centers of population and see the
different kinds of crime committed ev-
cry day, and still people continue to live
in them. They are not considered I'M
desirable places of residence despite
their dangers from the criminal classes.
The enemies of statehood for New
Mexico are using the Taos excitement
| as an argument against the territory
| when in all fairness they must admit
hat a single instance of the kind re-
fleets no more upon the territory and
her people than the countless lynchings
in the southern states; than the innu-
merable murders and lesser crimes
committed in Illinois, Pennsylvania,
| New York and other states in the east.
All that the friends of New Mexico ask
is fair treatment, the telling of facts
concerning conditions here as they act
ually exist. If those two things can be
secured no %reproach will rest upon the
territory or the people. The harm to
| the territory and her interests comes,
not from what takes place from year to
| year, but from the falsehoods which are
circulated, the Misrepresentation that
are made and the de%spicable newspa-
per reports sent out concerning the
people in order that space writer's may
make a few dollars.
The Boy Robbers.
Denver is having another scandal. A