The sun., 1907-08-04
Special Gable Despatch TO TIVE Sun.

LONDON, mug Os-ht5u tuUoTbHJ mas Dceu
taken here in the trial Of Haywood at Boise.
The Spectator devotes the first leader to It's
consideration. II says:
THAT which makes the Idaho trial so de-
pressing 10 the extent TO which 1t reveals
the depth Of the chasm now visible between
the rich and poor. between the employers
and the employed. They ought in America.
where on the theory that all are equal and
no one can wilfully oppress. to be on terms
Of kindly regard. but they obviously hate
one another TO such an extent that the bal
anoe is lost in prejudice and society shat
tered by what Carlyle called preternatural
suspicion.
AT this moment one-half the people Of
the United States believe that Haywood was
acquitted in defiance of the evidence be-
cause he was the foe Of capitalists. while the
other half are certain that he was only ao-
quilted because the capitalists were deter
mined to break up the trade unions and
bribed witnesses to poison by accusations
of crime the general body Of opinion.
so keen is this division Of feeling that
Immediately after the verdict represe nta-
tive of the anarchists wrote to the President
exulting in the trial as a victory for them
selves and Mr.. Roosevelt quietly published
their letter without comment as proof posi-
tive Of the public danger. He evidently be-
lieved, and was justified in the belief. that
all respectable men would understand why
he submitted the letter to their eyes and
would sympathize with him in his bitter
scorn Of the writer's Of the letter.
Haywood was defended by his counsel
as the victim Of vulture capitalists. and
when he was acquitted. before leaving the
court, he thanked each juryman individually
behaving, in appearance at least, as a soldier
might who appreciated the conduct Of a
forlorn hope and could not be content with
a general approval
"The struggle in truth has all the bitter
ness Of a civil war. and though in that war
the terrorists cannot win, for in the last
resort the freeholders are the masters OF
the union and the freeholders desire order,
still the fact that the contest should have
risen to such height in the model republic
is most depressing for all who retain their
hopes in the future Of humanity. IL 10
almost as depressing to see how respondent
the best Americans are as to the possibility
Of finally reforming the great force to which
they must look for the prevention Of the act
ual war in which, il that force cannot be
created, this bitterness must end.
The root Of the mischief, they cannot
but perceive is the imperfection OF the
system through which they distribute
justice. II the courts could be implicitly
trusted the anarchists, the extreme Socialists,
the labor associations and syndcates OF
capitalists, all alike, would gradually be COM
PEELED to carry on their struggles subject
to the full restraints Of law as devised and
interpreted by civilized mankind.
There can he no necessity for armed
violence When the law is at once just and
irresistible. The law itself is as just in
America as in Great Britain. but in the
republic il s not irresistible. So many
influences of corruption. OF terrorism and
of class prejudice are allowed to defect
what ought to be the immutable. serene
justice Of the courts that their pacifying
effect and the confidence Of the people in
their action are alike destroyed.
1T is distrust in the courts which makes
hatred OF the millionaires for the workman
80 bitter and the fear of them among en-
ployees 90 extravagant; distrust in the
courts which induces the toilers to combine
for purposes of menace; distrust in the
courts which renders verdicts worthless as
instruments for preserving or creating
BcdSt' k'ointhlhie Oi tihdO dioti ube thoy 10
unjust. for there must be scores of honest
Judges within the Union and thousands
of men who once sworn as jurymen would
no more suppress or betray their own con-
sciences than the best of Britisi Judges
would.
But, allowing for that injustice, it 10
clear that in a great portion Of the United
States the judicial system fails, while it 10
not clear that the people. though they
acknowledge the failure, will consent to
any radical reform. They will not raise
their Judges above pecuniary temptation;
they will not confine the jury box to the
classes least likely to be corrupted, and
they will not accelerate the system of trial
till the opportunities either Of corruption
or terror are reduced to the minimum.
Nor apparently will they make crime by a
combination much more penal than crime
by an individual.
These, however. are but suggestions,
and the Americans, who are a sagacious peo-
pie, could If they chose devise much more
effective plans. They do not devise them,
and in that failure is the cause of the hope
lessness even among those who, like our
selves reckon themselves as devoted to the
western as to the eastern branch of our
race. 1t is as possible to get courts beyond
the suspicion of prostituting Justice to per-
sonal considerations as to get regiments
beyond the suspicion Of cowardice, and in
neglecting to get them universally the peo-
Pile OF the United States neglect to secure
the first necessity Of and best guarantee
for successful civilization.
They have secured them in the Supreme
Court. but they should secure them inthe
remotest district of their widest State"
The Spectator also devotes another
article to a pamphlet. which it received
on the convict lease system in America,
quotations from which will he read with
almost incredulous horror in this country.
The convict lease system, the Spectator
declares, reveals many of the same diff
culties laid bare by the Idaho trial, leading
to the same conclusion, that though justice
may be perfeoSy enshrined in theory in
the United States il can only with the ut
most difficulty be procured in practice.
In the Spectators opinion it would have
been we'll if the Federal Constitution had
placed criminal jurisdiction in the most
important cases, or at all events the power