Arizona republican., 1902-11-15
The Way of the Transgressor.

Yesterday a prominent business man of Phoenix was sent to the penitentiary because he had neglected and deserted his faithful wife and helpless children and openly consorted with another woman The technical language of the indictment did not state the case thus, but undoubtedly the proposition took this form in the minds Of the trial jurors. The so-called "Edmunds act was intended by congress to ap- ply solely to the crime of polygamy in the territories. It is clear from the debates in the senate when the bill was under discussion, that immortality was not aimed at, and the lawmakers themselves were surprised when. short ly after the act went into effect. there was a prosecution and conviction in the District of Columbia for an offense which the senators had supposed was not embraced nor contemplated by the statute. Thereafter. prosecutions were had in the several territories. not only for polygamy, but for fragrant immor- ality.
 That the law as construed in its relation to men is in accord with pub lie sentiment is proved by the fact that there has been no movement of importance for its modification or re- peal. The people of the territories have been content to have an offense classed as a felony which in most states is a mere misdemeanor, and in others no offense at all. Such ob- jections as have found expression are based on the manifesto injustice of the law as applied to women Pro miscuous and notorious offending by women of the unfortunate class does not subject the offender to prosecution miscUous class is reached by the sta tute as generally construed. And in any case public specially western public sentiment-does not ap- prove the imprisonment of unfortunate women The wayward girl or woman can almost invariably charge her mis- fortune to mans perddy and her own trustfulness. Their state is one which appeals always to the best impulses of humanity. Ostracised and set apart, wearing to all iutents and purposes a mark as vivid as Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter" barred at all points from any egress back to the paths of responsibility. doomed to earthly perdition their situation is. in all con science. bad enough without making it worse by sending them to the oeni- tentiary. Nor is society the gainer in any degree. The law merely has the satisfaction of visiting an addi- tional degradation upon poor. lost soul when a woman is sent to prison because of violation oi the "Eimunds act"
 But. as in the case at bar yesterday. when a man is found to have trampled deliberately upon all the canons of organized society-when, worse than everything else, innocent women and children have been neglected, deserted and disgraced. the public demand for justice is not appeased until the guilty one has passed under the lash of the law.
 It is evidence of the healthy state of popular sentiment that a jury of Phoenix men were brave enough to face a disagreeable duty and perform it. And Judge Kent is entitled to the thanks of the community. It was his Onerous duty to fix within a wide range the punishment which should be inflicted. He performed that duty in a way to prove once more, if doubt CTS need further convincing, that the rich and the poor, the high and the low. meet the same even justice in his court, and that evil-doers will be wise to keep out O; the Third district while he is on the bench.