The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-29
THE BEAM AND THE MOTE.

Another instance of the scriptural ln-
junction with respect to the beam and
the mote in the eye was given in the
Deseret News last night. The church
organ is able to see clearly the mote
in the Virginia eye, but the beam in the
Utah eye is quite invisible to 1T.
In commenting upon notorious case
now in process of trial in the criminal
courts of Virginia. the News lays down
this doctrine: ''Once admit that every
man has the right to take the law into
his own hands, and 80 act as judge,
jury, ard executioner, and that, too,
upon hearing one side only, the slayer s
justification must follow in any
event. The argument Of the News is
for the enforcement of the law and for
the extirpation Of any pretense that
there is a 'Fbigher law which alb
solves man from his allegiance to
the laws OF his country and that would
prevent the due operation of the
statutes. Such specious pleas of
immunity or higher authority
are to be wholly disregarded.
And the News virtuously eXclaims:
fThere is no place for such higher
Iaw'-really, 'the law Of the savage =
in our civilization
But if there is no room for such q
law, plea, or excuse in our civilization,
much less is there room for the notion
that one is at liberty TO entirely defy
the laws ef the land and follow n
course Of his own which is defiant
alike of the laws Of God and of man.
If il is true that one is not at liberty
to plead the "higher law or the Gun
written law in defense of one who
has executed private vengeance upon
the betrayer OF his wife or daughter,
then surely there is not the shadow of
a reason where a man who, without
provocation and without any incite-
ment save that of mis- own lusts and
willful disloyalty, rejects and violates
and defies the laws of the land, and
also the laws OF God. If it is wrong
for a Virginia father TO plead the
"higher law IN justification for the
ravishIng and debauchment of his
daughter by a conscienceless scoundrel,
much more is it out of the question to
plead any obligation of any kind which
justi6es a man in holding in contempt
the laws against civilization, common
decency and the monogamic home. If
a Virginia father is not justified in
shooting the scoundrel under such CIR
cumstances of extreme provocation, how
shall a man be justified who sets aside,
in his own daily life and conduct, the
laws Of his State without any provoca-
tion at all, and merely yielding TO his
own passions of lust, greed and trea-
SOM
We submit that homilies on the OBJ
servance of the law, the supremacy of
the courts, and of the duty of submis-
sion to authority, due from every good
citizen to the law, come with wretched
grace from an organ of band of law
defers who spit upon the law, who re-
fuse TO come within its provisions,
who defy the courts, and who, by the
mere mass of their controlled vote, ter
rorize the officers of the law so that
lneY 40 not dare W pIucecu against
them IN the just, lawful, and proper
manner that they would be proceeded
against in any community IN the Unit
ed States where the law habitunlly
prevails and where the offender is
brought to his due punishment. Let
us have less Of the sniveling complaints
about what other people are doing in
the way of law breaking, and get
things into lawful shape here in Utah.
And, above all, let us not have any
homilies from law-defyIng lips or pens
in favor of the supremacy Of the law
in Virginia or some other remote part,
overlooking the need of the establish
ment Of the supremacy of the law, the
freedom of the courts, and the proper
enforcement of justice, morality and
decency III our own State.