The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-22
QUESTION OF MURDER
ITS CAUSE AND CURE DISCUSSED
 BY DR. RICE.
EloNuent and Forceful Sermon on the Cause and the Remedy of Mur- der at Court Street
 Church.

Church yesterday the pastor, Rev. J.
 A. Rice, preached a strong sermon
 from the text. Let us search and by
 our ways turn again to the Lord"
 Lamentations 40.
 Dr. Rice said:
 must begin my remarks this morn ing by making a confession. Before
 left my native State I helped to kill
 several hundred people and have help
 ed to murder several scores since
 have been in Alabama. Don't he
 shocked, for you also are involved In
 the same crime. For these murders,
 with whose sickening details the dailS
 papers are filled are the product of the
 social mind, in which we are all fac
 tors. It Is high time we were get
 ting at the specific causes that are pro-
 ducing such disastrous effects and
 seeking to devise an adequate cure.
 The number of lives taken in the Uni-
 ted States as compared with other
 countries 1t Is appalling. England and
 Wales, with a population of 31.750.o0o
 has S22 per annum; Germany with
 population of 53,42S,299 has 249; the
 United States, with 76,000.oo0 has B.
 sS4! These are distributed as follows:
 For every 50,000 population. the New
 England States has an annual average
 of l-2: the Middle Atlantic States.
 6 Is; the Southern. Il 3-S; the Cen
 tral States. 5 3-4; the Pacific. 16 1-4.
 Compare this with the 5,000,000 in
 London. where they had thirteen few
 years ago, eleven of whom were hang
 ed. The most casual thinking on the
 subject will reveal several secondary
 causes at work all over our land. The
 very first to occur to us Is laxness in
 enforcing law. Judge Parker is right
 in claiming that our laws are good and
 sufficient for most cases In matters
 commercial, and the same may be said
 of homicide. But these laws are poor
 ly enforced and lawlessness begets
 lawlessness. We have recently had an example of that in our own community when Sunday base ball advocates plead as an excuse that the law was not en- forced at other points. Who are to blame? In many cases the 3uries. Though sworn to try by law and evil dence they often evade the law, sup press or refuse to consider evidence. and act under the promptings of sickly sentimentality. They are some- times packed or influenced by pressure from without or otherwise juggled with Many a case is settled before | the first witness is heard, In cele- brated murder case last year. 1t is said that the defendant sent pseudo picture agents all over us CouhtAy "Ath o@i" ple photos of a relative of his and un- l der the pretext of exhibiting these | elicited the sentiments of every man | in every family, so that the lawyers could reject every juror opposed to | their client and accept only his friends. Of course the trial, costing thousands | of dollars, was a farce.
 It is sometimes the fault of the court officials. They have political debts to pay or political friends to make or other influences to obey and are mere puppets In the hands of interested par | ties.
 Another curse of our government is the gradual building up of system of l technicalities by which cases are ad- judged instead of by the spirit of the law. Appeals are taken. not on the merits of the case, but on some fine-
 spun point and the higher courts. in- stead of deciding by common sense ana equity and hunting law to back them up, consider only hairsplitting distinc- tions. This system of appeals. intend- ed to guard the rights of contestants.
 is gradually becoming a menace to justice. It goes without saying that those charged with crime can zig-zag between courts almost indefinitely. if only they have enough money to pay lawyers. And when finally sentenced and court recourse Is exhausted, they can fall back upon the pardoning pow CT. If they have influence. or money enough to buy 1t. they can generally count upon a favorable hearing in course of time. They can often either win their cause or down the man that stands in their way again. We have rracticed political frauds till the mor- als of this generation have been cor rupted.
 Another occasion rather than cause | of crime Is the. sale of liquor. Men turn beast and murder their fellows, and the concealed weapon Is generally at hand to do its deadly work.
 We are sometimes told that 1t Is the innate savagery of the human heart But why has 1t not always come out | thusf and why does it not come out equally everywhere under the same provocationsf
 But there must be a cause that lies deeper These things are floating on the surface of tho great deep of human
 society, like the waves on the bosom
 of the sea. What are the forces that | produce these conditions? Why do we elect men that are incompetent or un-
 worthy to office? Why do our turies | prostitute justae? Why Is the par doning power abused? Why do we
 commit fraud at the ballot box, in committees, primaries and conven- tions? Why do we have so much whis- key and so many concealed weapons! | These are themselves the effect oi causes that lie deeper. The other day
 we discovered the mating in the nur-
 sery soaked with water and tried to have 1t wiped off and dried. All such | effect failing, we turned on the electric fan for two days In the hope of evapo- orating it. But in vain. The condi- ton got worse. Every effort to dry the room failed. Then we discovered that | a small leak in the bath tub connec- ton in the adjoining room let little drops of water escape under the mat ting and only upon this discovery and the calling of the plumber. could we dry the nursery. We would otherwise
 have worked ip vain until the 1udg- ment. So we must look for the hidden cause of our trouble and remove 1t or
 we will lament in vain our futile | efforts at reform. Where Is the leak? Let us search and try our ways. Some
 would find 1t in the illiteracy of the people. but Judge Hough has statistics that this is untrue. For Virginia, for example, has a greater number of H. Iliterates than Delaware and Maryland. but fewer killings.
 He has proven that 1t Is not due to race or color, for Nevada, for example, has forty-two thousand three hundred and thirty-fve whites and one hum dred and thirty-four negroes, with an average of thirty y-nine homicides per year. Maryland with four times as many whites as colored has the same rate as Louisiana. where the two races