The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-30
OBEY THE LAW.
Justice Brewer Says It Is First
Civic Duty.
Addresses Large Audience at
Auditorium Theatre.
CRIME IS 4 RUSTNFSG
CRIME is A BUSINESS.
For That Reason He Says 1t
Seeks the City.
Touches on the Rights of Em-
plOye and Employer.


or strength over trivial differences conk
corning modes and methods Enlist un-
der the single banner of civic purity.
righteousness, and obedience to law
Enlist not for one campaign only, but
for the war" This was the remedy for
the publication of vice offered by JUS
| tice David J. Brewer of the United
States supreme court, in an address
here last night Under the auspices OF
the Municipal Lecture association Jus
tice Brewers theme was Obedience to
Law, the First Civic Duty" and his
discourse was listened to with marked
interest by an audience that filled the
Auditorium theater. Justice Brewer
spoke as follows:
There is more crime in the city than
in the country. There are many reasons
for this. One is, the city is the abiding
place, the habitat, of the criminal The
opportunities of escape and the means
of concealment are greater. William
NJ Tweed sat in room in Brooklyn
and looked out of his window at the
great city of New York for months
while the police and detective force
were yainly seeking to find and arrest
him.
FOLLOW PATHS OF BUSINESS.
Again, criminals follow the paths of
business. You never think Of looking
1OI d wholesale dry SOOCS store Tar O5lt
on the prairie The merchant locates in
the city, where he is the most accessi-
Die, and the larger the city the better
Now, vice and crime are business, and
they go where property is and the null
titudes are. There also they find their
friends and sympathizers. In such To-
calities and amid such surroundings
their business fiourishes. 1t is lone
some and dangerous to steal horse in
the country. Detection is easy, pursuit
is quick, and friends are wanting But
larceny in the city is not half so dan
gerous, assistance is near, and the re-
wards are greater. One thing especially
provokes crime, and that is the mob.
Let a strike be announced and a body
of employees attempt by force to coerce
their employers and how quickly a raob
gathers The criminal crowds to the
front to profit by it and plunder or do
violence in the excitement. / do not
turn aside from any thought to discuss
the reciprocal rights of employers and
employees. There are some things too
plain for argument. That in the abb
Sence of a contract binding to the con-
| trary, there is a legal right on the part
OF employees, singly or in body, to quit
work; that in case they quit there is an
equal right on the part of employers
| to seek other employees to take such en-
ployment when offered, are propositions
too plain for argument with those who
have any conception of the meaning of
the Declaration Of independence or be-
/ lieve that each man has an inalienable
| TlSIll 10 lie, liberty ana the pursuit OF
+ happiness. Force and violence to pre-
vent the exercise of those unquestioned
rights are criminal A mob is itself
criminal; mob almost always appears
in a city.
A SHOT AT DOWIEISM.
"A kindred fact is that the crank and
! the fanatic hasten to the city to find
the material upon which they can most
| easily work Barnum, the Snowman,
| divided the world into two classes the
humbuggers and the humbugged, and
certainly the representatives of those
| two classes are more abundant in the
city than elsewhere. Every visionary
deluded with an idea-and he always
calls it new idea-which he fancies
may revolutionize the world rushes to
the place where he finds the multitude
to whom he 4nakes known his reveia-
tion. There also are the constantly
! increasing crowds who seek city life
| under the hope of acquiring newspaper
nOtoriety, position in life, or riches.
They are the gullible ones, members
of Barnum's humbugged branch of the
human family. Chicago, in respect to
both classes, has been conspicuous.
| Here were the Free Love cranks who
| would destroy marriage and the home,
and here came the leader of the mod
| ern Zion. No crank stays in a village
or in the country to advertise his va
carries, but each goes where he can
the more easily reach the many The
ancient Elijah went out into the Soli-
tudes of the brook, Cherith, and was
| there fed by winged couriers of the air,
but the modern Elijah seeks the great
city, there to be supported by bipeds
clothed in pantaloons and skirts, and
having every attribute of men and wo-
men save common sense. Every SWfnd-
ling corporation, every get-rich-quicIx
i concern makes its headquarters in the
! city. What do they who are engaged
in such schemes, whether crank,
fanatic or swindler, care about the re-
j quirements of the law? And how in
/ different are the ores gullible enough
regulations which experience has
| shown are necessary to protect the un-
wary against the wiles of the design
ing.
A "CHET THOMAS" STORY.
/ Another thing which is also poten-
tial is the rapidity with which life is
/ lived in a city. It's people are in 4
hurry. There is a constant pressure to
| do something and to do it at once.
l-Tine with them flies at marvellous
speed, and in their haste they feel that
| they cannot stop to obey (to them)
| trivial regulations which are needed to
| preserve the general peace and order.
Their measurement of time is illustrs-
ted by a story of a prominent Kansas
| politician One March he sold a horse
to a farmer, warranting him to be only
5 years old. The farmer afterward
ascertained that he was IA years old.
He failed to see the vendor until thu
following July. and then upbraided
him for selling a 14-year-old horse as
| only 5 years old. The politician. look
ing at him benignantly, said: Is that
so? Is that horse which was years
old last March IA years old now? -dy,
how time does fiyl
Accompanying the rapidity of living
lis the changed manner of life The
marvellous inventions have revolution