The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-08-24

Instead of protecting the law-abiding
and honest, our laws are so enacted, and
the practice of our courts is of such char
acter. that every guilty man has his chance
Of escape and only one criminal out of five
a chance of punishment. Therefore, lynch
ings have become an absolute necessity in
many quarters Of this country to protect
the pure and highest, and the law-abiding
classes''
mon preached on why This Flood of
yesterday morning in the Glendale Chris
tfon Church, He continued as follows:
As we look abroad over the land and no.
q yeer and many other attempts by mob
violence which fail in their object the
highest tribunals in the land are often
try to stop Niagara as to step the 1ynching
IN our country at the present time, or as
long as our, courts are here to protect Grim
of the Expense to Franklin County. Mis-
souri,. and money expended for the capture
q the bank robbers al Union And then
ern city. brought to the city of st. Louis.
tncarcerated at the Four Courts. all Of our
low then. to escape instead of trying them
and hanging them for murder and highway
robbery, as the laws of the State demand.
EXPENSE OF BIG TRIALS.
When. in 1864. the people of Virginia City.
Mont. took Mr.. Plummer, the Sheriff of the
county. together with sixteen others, and
hanged them as road agents. they had no
law in their own hands to establish justice.
The law. being in the hands Of thieves and
murderers- had become useless.
some years ago Hade Brown was hanged
at Moberly, Randolph County, Mo-, for
murder. His trial cost the county nearly
5000. Everybody knew he was guilty, yet
PEELED to pay this enormous sum to get rid
of one criminal. The law-abiding citizens
OF this country are tired of such state of
affairs. and mob violence will certainly in
duced In the enactment of laws and the
practice of our courts.
Regular habits and regular work are
distasteful to many men. Incidence pro-
duces crime and fills our land with Grim.
inals.. The man who is not producer and
has no means of livelihood must either beg
or steal to live As begging is a small bust
ness. stealing is generally resOrted to. This
produces the many thieves of our cities.
tact There seems to be a flood of them at
the present time in our city. Every morning
and every evening the metropolitan press
It does not matter how many the police ar
rest or how many are punished for their
crimes or how many are driven out OF the
Der of these rascals pilfering our homes or
r0bbinz the people on the streets.
THIEVES IN HIGH PLACES.
'sBut there is second class of "hold-ups."
These are thieves in high places. These
men. under the guise of being servants OF
the public. and who are supposed to take
care Of and look after the public good. are
selling legislation and SO robbing the peo-
pie Of vested rights only 70 satisfy their l.
indicates more largely the corruption that is
abroad In the land and the low state of
morals that exists. When State, county
of this class can be selected to positions of
honor and trust, the state Of morals mas
fallen to such low degree that the Gov
But why this flood OF crime? Two years
ago your speaker was at Chautauqua,
where l2,0oo people were living in summer
homes. Two weeks ago we spent few
days at Macatawa Park. Mich, where, it is
said. there were 2.5O0 people for the SUM
met months; Neither Of these places had
force Of any kind for the arrest of crime.
There were no criminals there. Nothing to
restrain men was needed: The reason CIV
Christians They needed nothing of the
kind. Crime will flourish and increase Just
to the extent that there is disrespect for
.sThe $500 saloons in the city Of st. Louis
are openly violating every law of man and
God. They have no respect whatever for
is their business to get every dollar possi-
ble whether it oe made honestly or dishon-
estly, whether it be taken from the weak
and Incompetent or from the strong and
self-reliant. We lave law on our statute
books that every saloon must close on the
first day Of the week, generally called the
Sabbath. Instead of our police force clos
Ing these dens Of vice. many of them OPEN
" aid in the violation of the laws of our
State II the law cannot be enforced why
keep It on our statute books? Why not
repeal It? Common thieves and State boo
dlers and nearly every other crime is
matched out in these dens of vice. They set
the pace for violating the laws. The Gov
eminent winks at them, allows them to
continue in their violations. and from this
cumes 90 per cent Of the crimes of the
land.
SUNDAY CLOSING A REMEDY.
1T Is utterly impossible for a true, repub-
lican form Of government to exist without
Chrtstianity. Force alone. can never destroy
crime IN republican form OF government
II Il Qpd's truth In the hearts OF men that
thsm honest and upright and causes