The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-02-04
wATERBURYs DISGRACE.

Plain Talk by Leading Local Journal
1t was a revelation and shock that
came to the proud citizen Of Waterbury
in the riots Of Saturday night No such
scenes and acts as these, he thought,
could be possible here. They might be
in great city with its large numbers
who have no regard for law or its off,
GERS; they were to be expected in the
coal region, with its many ignorant for
eigners with imported traditions that
all law is tyranny and brute force the
only means of redress. But not in Wa
terbury, where the peaceable standards
of the Godfearing fOrefathers had never
been violated: where, it was supposed.
of there did Turk spirit of anarchy, it
would never dare show its head in such
community.
The humiliating thing about it is that
all of the years of effort that we have
spent in building up record for civic
probity are destroyed in one brief but
terrible night by the ruffian's bludgeon.
To every corner of the land has ere this
been flashed the news that the city of
w a. jul LclS III IL ~ AI~A . - A'AAtaONA
of the lawless element that they have
been able to turn the streets into an in
ferno, trample all order andA decency
under foot, destroy property and at
tempt the public murder Of men who
sought to earn living.
Who and whot is responsible for this
terrible disgrace to Waterbury? Mobs
like this do not spring up in moment.
They seldom spring up at all, under
such circumstances as have prevailed
here, where comparative peace had pre-
vailed for a fortnight and those sworn
to administer the law had ample Oppor-
tunity to strengthen their hands for the
public defence and the preservation of
order. There has been and is some
thing very wrong if bowling mob can
assemble, practically unhindered, in the
very heart of the town and make pup
pets of the few totally unprepared reg
ular officers kept on regular duty in the
vicinity where Saturday nights riot oc-
Cured.
Has there been dedeliction on the
part of those to whom we have commit
ted the duty of doing, not what they
art COIIpEllSu TO 10 uUuCI SlIESS DuI
their utmost to preserve the peace?
Can it be possible, that the police were
ordered on Saturday night not to use
their clubs? Is it possible that while
onlookers saw and recognized the
throwers of bricks by the score the po-
lice were unable to make any arrests
after the earlier part of the trouble?
Above all, is it possible that Waterbury
police officers, sworn to the preserva-
ton of the peace and the protection of
life and property, refused to escort
three men from the Waterbury hispital
yesterday? If this incident, which
seems to be vouched for by good au-
thority, is verified these men should be
stripped of their buttons They are
worse than members of a mob; their
act more nearly spells anarchy.
And while the police have not
emerged from the affair with any par
ticular credit, there are few men in
Waterbury who were more scared on
Saturday night than the men the mob
were hunting. They are the men who
have famed the flames, politicians, ed
itors of newspapers, business men and
others who catch pennies or votes
helped to hatch anarchy.
They did not lead their own riot on
Saturday night They left that to 9TH
ers. They did not try to rescue the
non union man who was being beaten
to death on West Main street, or mount
the platform of trolley car to take it
to the barn. They left it to the strik-
ers to perform such acts of nerve and
skulked home. They will be found be-
hind the back fences for weeks. But
there will be day of reckoning for
them, when people have time to think
it all out This mob kas not formed in
an hour. The thing had been brewing
for weeks. Many hand that was not
raised in violence on Saturday night
had a part in the mixing. And while
Ike neither fear nor respect the mob that
made a cowardly attack, at odds of
hundreds to one, upon few helpless
men, we thank God that it is better
than the men by whom it was misgui-
ded. 1t has passed the climax Of it's
madness, and coming to its senses will
be ready to reckon with the men that
inspired the mischief they will not dare
to father. Throwing a stone from
crowd under cover Of darkness at a
hunted man on trolley car is not par
ticularly heroic, but there are worse
grades of cowardice,-Waterbury Re-
publican, Monday.