New-York tribune., 1902-12-09

treacherous race in active war, but among
American citizens in time of profound peace and
protected by all the guarantees of our constitu-
tion, laws, courts and civilization. Yet IL was
not for anv one OF these frequent crimes under
Mr. Mead's very eyes-the burning of negroes at
the stake for instance. or the proposal to aban-
don what fought for from 1861 to 1863, and
submit now to arbitration the question whether
man has the right to sell his own labor-it
not for things like these that he reached the
climax of his excitement. Not till his little anti
imperialist faction thought they saw an oppor-
tunity to further their political notions by EN-
phasizing the crime of this officer Of the army.
nine thousand miles away. did Mr.. Mead attain
the acme of his fervor in declaring that Gods
earth would shrivei if the secret of doubly
damnable murder went unrevealed. and that
if the War Department could not find law for
it's punishment, the flag of the nation should
be hauled down not merely from the Philip
pine Islands but from Boston Common and the
Capitol.
Mr. Mead strives to show that after all he
has displayed, at any rate. a certain zeal in
calling for the punishment of crime nearer home.
by sending us reprint from magazine publi-
cation of his in October, 1897. From this we
learn that Mr.. Mead's idea of the way to pre-
vent crime and preserve order in Chicago when
President Cleveland ordered out the troops to
check riot and protect the transmission of the
United States mails, to denounce this ac-
ton as an indignity and to say that it served
quite other ends than those of order. His line
of thinking on such subjects is further shown
by his sharp condemnation of the owners Of the
Homestead mine for attempting to protect their
property against the attacks of the strikers; by
his denunciation of the officers of the law for
their effort to stop disorder at Hazieton. which
he ed mas by
strikers for displaying. under the conduct of
officers of the law from sheriffs up to the Presi-
dent OF the United States. such marvellous pa
tience and self-control that they did not precp
tate a. revolt Mr.. Mead seems seriously TO
think the paper containing such views as these
a proof of his own devotion to law and order at
home and evidence that he has been at least
vehement about crime here as about the
crime in the Philippines
We thank him. however. for his article because
of one sentiment which find in it. In view
of his reply to the Secretary of Wars remark,
that since the man has passed beyond the juris-
diction of the War Department. he cannot find
military law for trying him. to the effect that
law always can be found and must be found.
this sentiment becomes of particular interest.
We commend it now to Mr.. Meads prayerful
consideration, and suggest that he reply to him
self before replying further to The Tribune
This is what he thought in 1897 about case for
which it was difficult to find a legal remedy:
"A free people cannot afford to get used to ex-
traordinary and improvised legal operations
and cannot expect, If it does get used to them
and get Indifferent about them. to remain a free
people This is the lawlessness Of law; and 1t
is the most fecund and most fatal kind of law
lessness." We take pleasure in agreeing upon
this point with Mr.. Mead.l