The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-14

of the masses. In enforcing the criminal law the humblest citizen commands the largest leniency, and the most exalted official is condemned to the greatest pun ishment. When an official breaks the law to the injury of the people, or the hurt of the empire, he does so at the peril of his life and the confiscaton of his property. No mercy, says their criminal code, should be shown the men and wom- en of the upper class when convicted of crime. Their conduct and their lives should be inspiring examples to the lower classes But the weakness of human na- ture and the wayward tendencies of the uncultured are given great weight when meting out Justice to the lower orders In society
 The method in America unfortunately is the reverse of this: The. higher the citizen in the social scale, the freer he Is from obligation to obey the law and the freer he is from punishment when he disobeys the law. His example, his wicked influence. however demoralizing, is rarely punished by the heaviest pen alties of the law. But recently a rich ranchnan in the west, who had fenced | in thousands of acres of public lands anu thousands of dollars had been spent by the national authorities in his prose cution when convicted, was sentenced to pay a fine of $50 and to imprisonment for two hours in the hands of the United States marshal What a travesty upon justice. In what deserved contempt should the masses hold the law when thus ad ministeIed
 Some of our large manufacturers adul- terate our foods. sell by short weights and measures, put up prices on the neces- raies of life at will, by trusts and combinations, in defiance of law. yet in America today they go unwhipped of tugtire " 1ivfnur ba rule Of the Mlkado of Japan, their lawless methods would instantly cease or be pursued at the peril of their lives and the confiscation of their property Is 1t surprising that the people have a just contempt for the law. the rich, because they can rarely be punished. the poor because they only are punished? The rich as a rule. ride ruthlessly, rough shod over the laws sacred mandates and trample its impotent scorned power un- der their unhallowed feet to the demoral- ization of society, and the wayward and ths weak. while aping their conduct are jailed and imprisoned to be made still more wretched and depraved. In Chicago rich man in April, 1906 who stole thousands of dollars. was given the same punishment a poor boy who stole nickel. What a travesty upon justice.
 The French Methods.
 That France, said to be the most emo tional. impulsive and unstable nation, is growing less antl-social, less lawless, fol- lows from a rational cause-from her methods of dealing with her first of lenders
 Senator Berenger of Paris introduced and had passed by the French parlia- ment in 1892 law by which every per son arrested for a misdemeanor, If con victed sentence was suspended for five years, during good behavior. If no other offense was committed during the inter val, the judgment of conviction was set aside, and the citizen set free without cost If arrested and convicted for an- other crime during the interval. he was punished both for the first and the last offense.
 It was urged in advocacy of this hu- mane law that the suspension of sen tence saved the first offender from the modification of being mulched from the disgrace and infamy of being locked up in iail with vicious inmates. That in putting him on probation his personal pride, self-respect and nobler feelings were appealed to. and his moral manhood called into play That this method of dealing with him was calculated to keep him keenly alive to right living and cause him to prove by his conduct to be worthy of the trust reposed In him. That by observing the law he would stay clear