The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-26
wILL rr CoMr 10 rHATf

Are the authorities and people of Chica- go laying the foundation for the organixa- ton of a vigilance committee in that city? Those who are familiar with the early days of the West remember what these committees were and the reason for their existence, Gambling, thugs and black legs ahounded- Neither life nor property was safe. The. gun of the rufian ruled the community. and peaceable men were
 helpless. No age nor sex was spared, for
 the tough element was without decency or | humanity.
 But there came a time when such con- ditions became unbearable. Such law
 and courts as they had were powerless.
 The officers who should have preserved
 order and afforded protection to the law | abiding were either unable or unwilling | to do their duty. In many cases they
 were overawed, and in others they sym
 pathized with the law-breakers.
 Then it was that in various crime-rid-
 den communities a few good and deter
 mined men decided that the limit had
 been reached and passed. They organized Vigilance Committees and went to work.
 Their work was orderly, but outside the
 law, except that ever-abiding law of self preservation which no human enactment
 can repeal. Known desperadoes, of l whose guilt there was no doubt, were
 arrested and promptly hanged. The eff | feet was magical. The thugs and the
 blacklegs saw the handwriting and heed
 ed 1t Those who were not executed
 quickly took themselves to safer quarters
 or in some cases settled down and became good citizens. The action of these self appointed committees was outside the law | laid down in the books, but it was justi- over the time until an effective system of justice could be put into operation. If the outraged citizens of Chicago 1 should form Vigilance Committee to put down violence and disorder could the world blame them? In many respects conditions there are to the full as bad as they were in the mining camps of the West Nobody and no property is safe unless protected by the Union badge or label. People are not allowed to ride to business or on errands of mercy and humanity if the union is not with them and protecting them. The sacred dead themselves are barred from burial unless the hearse and the coffin belong to the unions. The physician, the minister and the priest are barred from riding to the sick beds in any but unionized carriages. Can such state of affairs continue in one of the largest cities of the coun- try? If not, what is the remedy? The mayor is either impotent or incompetent. perhaps both. He either has no proper conception of his duty, or is too cowardly to perform it. There was once a Gov ernor of Alabama who would have restor- ed order in any city in Alabama, situated as Chicago now is. if he had been forced to order out the entire militia of the State. If that had failed he would have called on the President then in office who had the nerve to put down violence and | disorder. If that ex-Governor were now
 Mayor of Chicago there would be no armed pickets interfering with peaceful | citizens and desecrating the dead. But
 Chicago has no such Mayor and law and
 order are trampled under foot. If the outraged people rise and put down the
 disorder who will blame them?