El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-08-24

the wrong they have done. But the
wrong the mobs do to themselves and
10 the communities In which they -four
IRISH 10 something thai can never be
calculated. Mob rule is a reversion to
ssvagery, or worse
Our scheme of organized modern life
IL, IL We consider It calmly and fairly,
crude In the extreme. We ostensibly
found our criminal laws On she old
testament lea OF . life for q life, an
eye for an eye. Yet is it not true that
twenty murderers go scot free for every
one that lie convicted, and that not one
10 forty of those guilty OF killing their
fellow men is deprived of his life under
legal process?
There is o grave fault in our court
administration and in our laws, when
communities resort to mobs In order
to get what they are pleased to call
Justice, and when-worse than that
their anarchy is upheld and excused by
supposedly reputable persons and news-
papers.
The HERALD believes that, under
conditions as they exist today In the
world, wish no hope OF soon having
penal system based on reformatory
ideas, the death penalty 10 needful.
The death penslty should be inflicted
In every case of murder. where murder
10 shown. In case of msoslaug liter.
whatever sentence 10 imposed should
ho 1nt m
upon certain grounds clearly stated In
she statutes. The pardoning power
should be taken out Of she hands of
the governors. except in so far as IL
Is exercised. with little play for die
oretion, under strict provision OF
statute.
Legal quibbllng should be reduced
to the minimum In the courts OF law.
Technicalities, when they are manifest
ly immaterisl, should be largely wsiv-
ed, 10 the effort to get at the truth,
and to administer! strict Justice. Our
society 10 crude, and We musI 60 back |
TO first principles IL we would attain |
the right. We should strive for sim
plicity In making and administering |
our laws. There should be . constant
effort to approximate the naked truth,
rather than to obscure it.
Mobs undo the work of ages. They
have neither right nor reason 70 guide
hem. They are crazy, frenzied, wild,
abandoned. in their desire for venge-
lnoe- That they might make . mis-
AXE never occurs to them. That they
ire murderers, and guilty of arson, .
thousand times over, that they outrage
ustice q thousand times more than did
he original transgressor, does not
inter their minds. Their acsuatinR
principle, in short, is not justice or
ills vengeance, anarchy,
the brute desire of the human
o destroy and hurt. Ii
For the man, black or white, brown ,
II yellow, who has been guilty Of COM ,
hitting any outrage upon q won an, ,
cath is the only possible retribution.
Death in such cases should be swift
nd sure. But It should be through
egal process, and the execution should
e by legal methods and under legal 9
The people of any COM
,unity can compel the courts to act
uickly, II they so desire. There is NO
eason why, In any part Of the coun- !,
~, . man suspected OF having COM .
lifted an assaults should not be a
aught, identified, tried, convicted, :
sntenc ed, and legally executed, with
, the space of three or four days.
pecisi sessions Of the courts should be I
allied to deal with such urgent cases.
o expense lie too great, II thereby the =
rms of law can be observed and the b
brio of society not endangered. q
With quick justice, sentences quick
given and quickly executed, an in Z,
,cent man might lose his o
fe now and then. But as has b
zen said, our social Organization e
ude. However immoral and shocking r.
10 taking Of the life of an innocent q
N may seem, yet such . course of
ocedure IS We have outlined would
proximate Infinitely nearer to justice h
an that at present followed. Il would =.
rtainly be no more immoral than Vi
mo more immoral, according y
human standards, than 10 nature =,