The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-06-23

courts or that the force OF 1t can De
weakened there. But many OF them
believe. as several OF them have frank
l., said already. that juries cannot be
found to send a man 10 the peAiten
thar for a year for committing this
crime.
Is this true? We shall wait with
no slight interest for the trial OF this
indictment against whole communl-
*. for il Will be the community, and
not anv law or any public official who
is on trial. II juries should be found
10 forswear themselves. in order that
one of the most vicious pTacuceS
known TO ancient and modern times
might continue to flourish unmOlested
and to corrupt every one whom it
touched. then the brand upon this
civ would be far more disgraceful and
indeIible than any that it has ever
worn.
This is the way Of anarChJ ana
every man who should consent to such
practice would be as guilty OF trea-
son 10 al! government as the vilest
member Of the anarchist bands that
meet 10 plot the death OF the republic.
There may be laws passed sometimes
in Difference to a sudden gust OF pOpu-
lar passion. laws about which there
hangs the suspicion of purchased
vote, laws which are so clearly the
thrust Of class against class and so
c ntrary TO the American doctrine Of
equal rights before the law that they
are deservedlv hated and difficult Of
enforcement Even with these the
/ true policy is to enforce them until
public opinion consents to their re
peal. But the anti-gambling law pre-
sents no such characteristics. and not
one valid reason can be given why the
extreme penalty that il provides
should net be inflicted wherever con-
vincing evidence OF guilt can be pro
duced.
Consider the case of these malcon-
tents. The occupation in which they
engage is economically immoral and
destructive. 1t produces nothing. II
at the same time creates and panders
to a passion which thousands Of
years of human experience have de
monstrated TO be one OF the most un-
cOnuuerable and most ruinOus that
- :, IL /
far more hope of reform for the con
firmed drunkard or the thief with half
a generation of prison life behind him
than for the hardened gambler. The
appetite is almost as tenacious as life
.itself and at the same time it is more
easily created than any other in the
young. We think it no eXaggeTatiOn
to say that today, taking the world as
a whole, there is no habit. practice or
vice so menacing to the advance OF
civilization and so persistent and sue
cesSful in its efforts TO drag mankind
down into the depths as gambling.
The vOtarieS of chance have for
years INDUCED their appetites here
fleecei the unWary, and established
centers about which crimes innumer
able and Internationally vile have
fiOurished in direct defiance Of the
law Local ordinances and state reg
ulatiOns they have Overrid len. hesita
ting TO use 40 weapon found ready tC
their hand. Personal influence, polit-
ical influence, direct bribery. the graft
every form of corruption known tC
: degraded men have been employed
. freely. II was in view of all these
, facts and of the intolerable condi
tons to which they had led that the
last legislature passed the statute
= which is now to be enforced
? What title has the gambler to i'm
> munity? How dare he think tina
any decent man in the community vii
come to his rescue?