BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1904-10-15
EDITORIAL


wise. our love for truth and fairplay
would cause us to praise the action OF
the police, the day before yerterday
Their conduct in represslng the
audacious attempt TO disturb peacea-
BILE meeting is deserving of the very
highest praise. and was the right thing
in the right place.
Some notorious ruffians, whose
chief business seems to be intimidation
and violence, tried, as sort OF prel1-
minarv test, to create riot, and they
were nicely paid for theire pains.
The conduct of the police the day
before Yesterday was as it should al
ways be, when these brazen attempts
are made to disturb the peace, intimi-
date the public and frighten the peace
full and lawabiding by threats of vio-
lence and brutal assaults.
The very audacity and impudcnce of
these attempts is an insult to every
fairminded and honest man, and one
which the peaceful and lawabiding
citizen will resen: and endeavor to
punish to the best of his ability, with
the aid of the peace authorities, when
they are, as is the case at present,
doing thei1 duty in the proper way.
We do not care to bear any reSpon-
sibility for the acts of violence and
intimidation which have been current
for so long, and we deplore the fact
that the recurrence of these acts of
lawlessness is still possible, and that
it is Sill necessary to suppress them by
force, as was done in the case which
we so sincerely, praise.
We stand for liberty, we profess
the principles of democracy, but the
rule of license and anarchy have al
ways been and will always be the sub
ject of our most emphatic condemna-
tion and censure We cannot tolerate
1aw1eSsness nor condone violence.
If opinions and ideas on public ques-
tions differ, let both sides be presented
fairly and squarely, but with the dig
nifty and seriousness that questions
concerning the betterment of people
deserve; but let us not have the spec
tacle of the imposition of one mans
ideas, or one association or party's
ideas, over the opinion of everybody
else by force.
This we cannot agree to- and we
cannot permit ourselves to remain 81
lent in the face of wrongs, abuses and
violence.
The authorities have conducted
themselves well: have been energetic,
they have been severe, they have been
lust. If this had been done before, if
the period in which anarchy was bred
and engendered had not been allowed
we would not now hear of any attempts
to disturb the peace and int1mldate
voters at election time. The severest
penalties of law should be meted ont
to those who seem to glory in disorder
and mob rule.
We who have protested against the
vesting of the police with extraordi-
nary powers, such as regulating the
right of speech, can do no less than
applaud the exercise of their proper
functions on the part of the police, IN
repressing disturbances; even more,
we believe it necessary, indispensable
that the police should strike promptly
and severely when as in the present
case, they act not in the light OF In
terfereing & with a right of citizen,
but instead are upholding one OF those
rights in its deepest and most vital
sence; and from the acts of mob re-
Yelling in it's lawlessness and crime,
neither the life or safety or property
of the citizen is safe.
The plan of the band of ruffians who
day before yesterday stretched out
their fangs with threats of violence;
came to sorry end.
They met the police and were
promptly squelched; the police saw
them first and showed such a front
that the mob turned like whipped ours
and scurred back to their holes.
The difference between what the re-
suit was and what it might have been
is easily seen. A few arrests on one
hand, on the other determination to
assault and attempt to kill. However
this is but a small matter! We have
seen greater crimes, and been wines
ses of more terrible threats. But 1t is
enough to show the spirit of the mob,
to much to be allowed to pass with
impunity, and demonstrated the I'M
perative necessity of placing the lives
and property of our citizens beyond