Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-08-23
THE BIG THIEVES ANpI,rTLE ONES.


Moody's statement that the federal
laws do not cover all classes of wrong
doing, a Washington paper recalls
{ some notable cases wherein the weak
ness of federal prosecutions We're es-
pecially exemplitied. Not one Of those
responsible for the Slocum disaster are
behind the bars where they belong,
and, the men who richly earned death
on the scaffold by weighing life pre-
servers with iron, are still UNPUBLISHED.
Going back to the Arthur administra-
ton the Washington paper recalls the
star route trials, in which all the big
fish escaped. Two or three little ones
were caught, but the presiding judge
9 let them go because their conviction
and the acquittal of the principal par
ties in the Star Route frauds presented
q .hideous moclkery of justice. A few
years farther back than the Stu
Route episode we find the governme,
trying in vain to punish the stealing
4 Of $4,000 from the treasury. The
money was in $500 notes, but the gov
eminent could not identify them. And,
although large number Of them were
found on deposit in a bank and seized
by the government, they were surren-
dered to an attorney of one of the
thieves.
1t seems as hard to convict proni-
nent criminal under federal law as un-
der the statutes. Few guilty bootleg
gers escape. The postoffice clerk who
sends $50 worth of stamps to cata-
log house is at once under suspicion
and soon under bonds. There is no de-
lay in the prosecution of an infraction
) OF the internal revenue regulations.
So, under the. statute, apprehension of
a common thief is equivalent to sum-
mary conviction and sentence. The
midnight rot,ber of a hen roost gets
three years in the penitentiary while
the banker who stole. smilingly and in
daylight, the last dollar from old men
E and women, escapes with a few
& paltry months.
1t is hard to convict the big thief,
but who makes it so? Not more the
Officers who fail to do their duty than
the public that fails to hold derelict
officials responsible. We hear much Of
the criminal lawyer of whom, as Phil
lips said of Choate, thieves inquire OF
his health before they venture to steal,"
but who ever heard of great thief who
came to trial unbacked and undefend-
ed by respectable following of men
murderer so monstrous that he failed
Ito evoke the sympathy of certain
portion of the public? What municipal
or county officer short in accounts ever
failed of considerable support and
sympathy and what good fellow on
trial for theft lacked friends? Were
Mr.. Machen and his accomplices set
tied in an Iowa city, would they lack
congenial and respectable companion
ship? Would Mr.. Holmes, with the
price of his perfidy in his pocket, be
a social orltcast anywhere in America
Lamentably certain it is that big
thieves escape while small ones suffer.
There is in this no excuse or palliation
of petty larceny The little thief gets
what he deserves: The big one does
MT The public objecting as it is to
this state of affairs, should not pause
in its condemnation of public prosecu-
tors who fail in their duty but should
include itself in the indictment. For
in the last analysis the blame lies with
itself.