Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-01-31
Head of Supreme Court Moved to
Make Reply to Recent Pulpit VI
terance Defending the Mob at
Charles City Which Hanged James
Cullen.

Sentinel of this city, and which appears
in this weeks issue. He says in part:
Civilization is impossible without
organized society; and organized socle-
ty cannot exist without law, or with
out citizenship which acknowledges
and respects the binding obligation oil
law on both the individual and the
public conscience. Until the millen-
mum arrives every community will in
clude in it's membership criminal
class of greater or less proportions,
and the nearer this class approNimates
majority the nearer we approach an
archy. public shame and disgrace. He
who consciously violates criminal
law is to that extent criminal; and
this is true whether he be low-bro
ed degenerate whose whole life has
been given to crime, or leading cit
izen' whose loyalty to law and order
has never before been impeached. M ur-
der is a crime of the first order OF
gravity. But let us not be confused as
to what is murder The killing of one
human being by another in malice, an
ger and revenge is made murder by the
law of every civilized state, and this.
too without any regard to the pecullar
circum stances under which the deed is
committed, or the character, standing
or reputation of him who thus stains
his hands with the blood of his fellow
man. Nay. more. the same law which
thus denounces the offense of the man
who strikes the fatal blow makes
equally guilty with him every man who
counsels. aids or abets the criminal
act.
What strange infatuation has taken
hold of the man who, protesting dis
satisfaction over the alleged laxity of
the authorities in Furnishing murder,
undertakes to vindicate (?) the law by
committing the very crime which has
aroused his righteous soul to action?
And how much more inconsistent, how
even less defensible is the social. moral
or religious leader, who, when such
outbreaks occur, instead of counseling
peace and order, lights his torch in the
flame of public excitement and gives
VOICE W Tue IIldu ely lOI DIOOO lac
great apostle Indignantly repudiated as
"slanderous" the charge that followers
of Christ were willing to do evil that
good may come" but that was long
ago, long ago; so long indeed that we
now find among his successors in spir-
itual office those who repudiate the
antiquated philosophy of Paul and
cheerfully assume the burden of jus
tifying the unjustifiable," heaping con-
tumely upon all legislatures, courts
and executives and weaving chaplets OF
honor and praise for the brow of Judge
Lynch.
Every such outbreak sets back the
current of material and moral progress,
renders life, liberty and property more
insecure, encourages disobedience of
and disrespect of the law and exalts
and glorifies the spirit of misrule.
You cannot cure the evil of theft by
theft, burglary by burglary, or MUIR
der by murder. The crime of the mob
was not against Cullen but against the
state of which he was citizen, against
society of which he was a member,
and against the law to which every
member of that mob owed precisely
the same loyal submission and obedl-
ence which Cullen owed to it. The
definition of murder cannot be varied
to fit the social standing of the indivil-
ual offender, and if Cullen was a MUIR
derer because he took human life con-
trary to law, they who took his life
contrary to law cannot be guiltless Of
crime. If so, then by what commits
ste F~n ~ III,
er from his pulpit, the Journalist from
his desk or the sidewalk statesman
from the street corner, extend to men
thus guilty of one of the highest
crimes known to law the compliments
of the clean hearted citizens of Iowa"
repel the statement as a gross as
persion upon the character Of the citi.
zenship of our state.
OF the bitter and indiscriminate as
saults upon the courts by those VINO
assume the role of apologists for the
mob I shall not here speak. Judicial
acts are matters of record and in the
long run will be approved or condemn
ed according as that record shall ap-
peal to the sober and impartial ju ig-
ment of candid men when the heat Of
SAS1lCHlSAI SOOlSu. OOuGlS are uOs
infallible; that desirable attribute
seems to have been reserved for the
critic and "reformer" who is able to
solve the. whole science of government
i'll an hours communion in the quiet Of
his study and come forth with a WI
digested plan for clearing the moral
atmosphere by judiciously executed
mob murder accomplished under the
safe cover of darkness. But until these
things are brought to pass, and until
the foundation theory of the crimina:
law and Jurisprudence of the English
speaking world has been repudiated
and revolutionized by the American
people the courts cannot and will not
assume the guilt of a man charged
with crime and will insist upon ,on-
Quoting their trials and investigations
according to the law which they have
solemnly sworn to administer without
fear or favor. 1t is their duty to see
that an accused person is fairly tried
in an orderly manner, that the verdict
is based upon competent evidence I'M
der correct rules of law, and that this
be accomplished without unreasonable
delay and without being FASTENED in the
slightest degree by the sound of public
clamor.
r. la L. Al -