The age-herald., 1901-08-22

inheritance as 1t were. It must be so in Kansas, and fin a fred hot' campaign especially in one for President there must be some pretty spirited arguments between man and wife. and perhaps slight coolness on election day. It is easy to believe that Kansas women as a rule do not subordinate their domestic affairs to politics. Mrs Leases, Anna Diggses and Carrie Nations are the exception, for the average woman shrinks from notorie- ty and self-exploiting. whether she can vote or not. That women who participate in politics are generally actuated by pure motives should be conceded even by those who would deny them the suffrage. Wom- an is the mainstay Of the church and the keystone of the home, and character in a candidate as well as decency in leg isaton are sure to attract her support. On the other hand. women are probably more easily mised by designing politi- clans than are men. If it is true that sen- timent moves them more than the cold presentations of reason. they are not to be trusted as suffragists to the same ex- tent as men, On certain legislation no
  have suffered incidentally from the drunkenness of men, and gambling they must regard as legalized robbery of their families. If they are bitterly opposed to the latter, and demand, restriction, and even prohibition of the liquor traffic, cer- tainly man cannot criticise them. Never theless, the thickly settled eastern states, where there is a large urban population, continue to resist woman suffrage It may work we'll in the bucolic communities of Kansas, where the temptations to vice and corruption are comparatively few and neighborliness is the rule; but in great cities where a certain type of politician would turn woman suffrage to his own purposes, and even be willing to degrade the sex to suit his ends, the test will not be hastily made.
 and we'll informed person in the State that a negro who is proved guilty Of crime against a white person never es- capes conviction in the courts The juries stand ready to convict if the evil dence warrants conviction, and invaria- OeAD1fP
 Nothing can be more misleading there- fore than the suggestion that the mob supplements some deficiency in the ma chinery of the law, for the mob invaria- bly and uniformly hangs the only class of criminals who are always convicted and punished promptly by the courts of, the State.
 On the other hand it is interesting and instructive to observe the significant fact that the mob never touches the only class of criminals that escape the clutches of the law, and that are set free by the verdict of the juries who are called upon to try them.
 Men of influence social or personal. or of popularity. or of peouniary means suf- f1cient to fee criminal lawyer, are the only class of criminals who escape pun ishment in the courts of the State. And singular as it may appear, from the arguments of the advocates of mob law it never occurs to the mob to lynch these red-handed offenders against the law.
 Every community in the State has it's homicide, who would shoot down a fel- low being for slight affront without any computations of conscience. But he enjoys an immunity not only from the law and the courts, but from the mob as well.
 A tency is the spectacle of virtuQusly in- dignant mob iynching the class Of crim- inals who are certain to be convicted by the courts, and granting immunity to that large class of homicides who escape the meshes of the law, and whose bloody crimes go unpurished.
 The argument for the mob is all non- sense and rubbish. It ought not to inn pose upon anybody's incredulity.
 (,0VnrnOr .TOnea of Alabama in hia ye- cent addres to the constitutional conven- ton now in session in that state, told the bedrock truth that lies at the bot tom of the case, when he said that the class of people who are the victims of the mob are lynched, not because they committed a crime, but for the reason that the crime they committed is against a white person. '
 Public sentiment that now sustains the mob will not improve until the subject Is stripped of all it's fa1lacies and sophis- tries and considered on it's facts from the true standpoint of morality and Christian civilization.
 There could be no greater delusion otherwise we'll meaning people impose up- on themselves. than that the mob is en- gagged in punishing criminals who would escape punishment In the courts.
 There is no ineffeciency in. the admin istration of the criminal law of the state against the class of people who arc lynched by the mobs.
 When the people of the state admit candidly, that this class of criminals are lynched, not because there is the least probability of their escaping justice at the hands of the law, but for the simple reason that the mob chooses to take the law in its own hands. and usurp the func- tions of the courts. there will be an im- provement in public sentiment on this subject.