The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-27
TUESDAY FEBRUARY s7. 1906.
SOME JERSEY JUSTICE.

We read and shudder over the hor- TOTS of the Inquisition in former days. We are told of the rack and the thumbscrew. the crushing metal boot. the pump, the heated pincers and vari- ous other forms of torture used in other times and other countries to ex- tort confessions or to punish criminals, and wonder at the .nhumanity that prompted and allowed such methods of punishment, but do all of them belong to the past2
 Tn a contemporary we find some de- tails of the treatment of George Small, suspected of murder in New Jersey, by the officers of justice, as we sup pose we must term them. Among other things we are toTd that George Small. tortured in a sixty-hour ordeal which no human being could withstand, broke down and confessed that he was the real murderer" Then we further learn that "during yesterday and last night, Small was pressed beyond the limit of human endurance. by persever- ing officials and his actions indica- ted that he was weakening under the terrible strain"
 Was that not discreditable twen- tieth century exhibition? The fact that the victim-for that is what he was--is a negro, and that this deviIish performance was carried on in State where the people revile southerners for somtimes lynching negro brute. adds to the significance of the incident But that is not the end, for we are further told that "smalrs confession is a disconnected document. and one not wholly satisfactory to the authorities Much work will be attached to the cor roboration necessary before an attempt is made to secure a conviction, as re- quired by law"
 We are not surprised to learn that the confession thus extracted was not wholly satisfactory" Possibly the brutes who tortured the negro wera dissatisfied because he did not hold out longer. so that they might have en- joyed the pleasure of prolonging his sufferings. That the performance only lasted sixty hours must have been a
 
 CTS, and perhaps the reason they didn't keep 1t up until life was extinct was that they hoped to have another chance to witness human suffering.
 But we infer from the language em- ployed that this method of obtaining confession is legal and that 1t was resorted to in order to secure con- vi h,~ Ia, not know what kind of laws they have in New Jersey. but we do know that in most States cruel and unusual pun ishment Is forbidden. and we know that the Constitution of the United States provides that no person shall be forced to become a witness against himself in any criminal matter.
 If the treatment Of this negro was not "cruel and unusual puuishment."' we do not know the meaning of the term, and it is to be remembered that this punishment was not inflicted on criminal but on one who was only suspected. If he had been known to be guilty and a mob had taken him out and put him to dath, we suppose there would have been much uproar over the lynching, especially if it had occurred in the South. The fact that he was merely suspected. and that the object of the torture was to make him q witness against himself, makes the per formance so much tho worse. If that is to be taken as a specimen of Jersey justice We want none of 1t down hero. Lynching Is bad enough.