Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-03-09
POURS HOT
SHOT FROM
THE PULPIT
REV. BURT ESTES HOWARD
SCORES PETTIFOGGERS
CHANGED LAWYERS WOULD Les
SEN HUNG JURlEs"
Formidable Than Specific Anarchy.
Pcrverson OF Justice
Are Deplored

IF we had few hanged lawyers we
might have fewer hung .juries," said
Rev. Burt Estes Howard in his SER
mon on "The Lawless Element" yes
terday mornig at the First Unitarian
church.
DR.. Howard in opening spoke Of the
horror of the civilized world over the
recent assassination of the Portuguese
king and crown prince and of the Dem
yer priest also of the attack on the
Chicago chief of police. He said:
I'm our resentment. against specific
individuals and against specific classes
of individuals, we are in danger of
overlooking certain factors that enter
into the underlying question of the
lawless elements in the midst OF US.
For anarchy and it's brood, as well
as for all propagandism that strikes
at order and splits on law, / have no
sympathy. Anarchy and it's allies
should receive short shift at the hands
of society and should be eliminated
from the body polite, root, stock and
branch. There is no place in this
country for this putrid product of an
alien soil.
This swift arousing of public senti-
ment against the few anarchists
whose deeds have made more or less
impersonal impression harden into a
concrete fact, is really of minor mo-
group of anarchists is of far less Inn
portance to this country than the
elimination of that general spirit of
Iawlessness which Is a characteristic
of our modern life.
Disregard the Law
IF there is any one trait which
seems to mark the 1-merican citizen
today, IL Is a fixed disregard for law
and a lack of respect for lawmakers.
zone of the most ominous features
of American life today is the fact that
we are losing faith in the criminal
law. We are also losing faith in our
criminal courts. | do not mean tina.
we are losing faith in our criminal
judges. but we are losing faith in the
administration of justice by our Grim
inal Judges under the methods or
criminal procedure now in vogue. Law,
in order to be respected, must be
respectable.
what wonder we are beginning to
question the capacity of our courts TO
deal out even-handed justice in the
face of perversion after perversion #
the principle of justice as seen In re-
cent occurrences in our courts at law.
What with experts swearing to d.
electrically opposite statements; with
brainstorms' and mixed forms
of insanity; with temporary aberra-
tions and emotional waves of crazi-
ness with shrewd lawyers playing
on the sympathies of the audience,
with sap-headed maudlin women
weeping over the prisoner at the bar,
who adds a bit of fine acting TO the
scene with a judge tied hand ana FOOT
by miserable technicalities and soft
headed jury in the box; with chance
after chance of appeal on the part OF
the accused, If convicted, and no
chance for appeal at all on the part
OF the people IL the accused is ac-
quilted by a palpable miscarriage OF
Justice 1t is not strange that a feeling
of disquietude If not disgust should
fill the breast of the law-abiding
citizen.
perhaps figures do not mean much
to us, but we can get an idea or the
workings of the criminal law of this
country compared with other countri IS
when we note that in Germany the
number of convictions equaled 80 per
cent and a fraction, while in the
United States the convictions We're enc
and third out of every hundred!
at would seem that murder was
about the safest occupation man
could engage in in this free land OF
ours. -,
This subject is great public ques-
tion-one on which an enlightened,
earnest, widespread public sentiment
cannot be aroused too soon. Wnen
public opinion has been SO aroused
and it's Just demand has been felt,
then, and not sooner. will be done the
work of adding strength to our GRIM
inal law-of giving it certainty ana
speed equal to it's Justice; and then,
and not unt'l then, shall we be
cleansed from the shame of lynch law
and become a law-abiding people un-
der a law which protects the innocent
and Furnishes the guilty. If we had
a few hanged lawyers we might nave
fewer hung juries."