Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1904-06-23
LAWLESS REMEDIES FOR
~LAWLESSNESS.
FOR

saxon mlnu. After some lmpatlen
; endurance of it out of respect for tn,
formal authorities, the spirit of thu
people acts directly as it did in the
primitive tribes. The history o
California and Montana is full O
big examples of the cure of lawless
ness by lawnessness, which have
been repeated on a smaller scale al
over the west. Colorado has added
to the instances that makeo one proud
of the underlying spirit of the PEG.
pie while he bushes for the present
state of its formal government.
Order has been restored in the
Cripple Creek district by forces act
ing under orders of the governor
and bearing legal commissions. In
this respect they differ from the
earlier ~vigilantes. But these forces
have done their work by methods as
essentially lawless as the equally
healthy and necessary acts of the
military power in the northern states
during the civil war. The governor
declared what he calls martial law.
But martial law is absence of law as
it is understood by a free people. 1t
is the rule of the strong.
This rule imprisoned men without
legal process, exiled men without
trial, outlawed an organization legal
in form. 1t overawed local courts
and annulled their processes. Under
its protection, volunteer associations
like the old vigilance committees
compelled officers elected by the
people to resign under threat of
hanging and drove men believed to
be dangerous out of the country by
menace of murder. Though this is
lawless, it clears the way for restor-
alton of law. No act has been done
for which there is not a remedy in
the civil courts. No life has been
taken. The men accused of the hor-
rible crimes that brought on this
lawlessness await their trials in the
ordinary courts, when these have
been freed from corruption and ter
rorism. The rule of law will return
through the path of lawless violence.
1t is a question whether such law
lessness of the whole people as this
does not leave a worse impression
than the Statutory interference of a
superior authority to support which
the law has to be somewhat strained.
1t was explained from Washington
when federal interference was talked
about that there was no law empow-
ering the president to send federal
forces to protect the lives of citizens
of the United States in one of the
states, except on a call of the gov
ernor or legislature. There was no
law for the presidents interference
to settle the coal strike, but he found
a way to do it and the result was
almost universally satisfactory.
There seemed to be no law under
which President Cleveland could
send troops to Chicago to protect
government property and the
United States mails; but Mr.. Olney
found one.
If the lives of American citizens
continue to be menaced from time to
time by lawless violence which state
authorities cannot or will not con-
troll, we are inclined to think that
some president will find a way to
safeguard them with national troops.
Under whatever decent form of law
this may be done, we are inclined to
think it would be less shocking to-
the public feeling of the country
than the organization of vigilance
committees to remove officers elected
by the people and the substitution
Of the fiat Of q military commander
for the process Of the civil courts
Minneapolis Tribune.
Nr<yNrc AMI HDEEnAxr