The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1908-11-19
Let Us Stick
to the Text.

to the Text.
The Jacksonville Times Union COM
menting upon the killing of ex-senator
Carmack, quotes with generous ap-
prevail from The Journal on the sub
ject and says:
The Pensacola Journal deplores the
staying of ex-United States Senator
Carmack at Nashville and condemns
the false ideas of honor which led TO
the bloody deed, in scathing language
OF the effect upon the reputation of
the South il says: 'Incalculable, i'm
measurable harm has been done to
MS in all our moral and material in
terests by this foul, cruel and bloody
survival of brainless medieval methods
10 settle q simple personal difficulty,
for. without Disgusting words, the out
side world doesn't regard us as wholly
civilized for that reason and we are
losing along every line in conse-
quence." Brave, ouispoken condem-
nation of the UNANIMOUSLY false stand
ard OF honor and courage that will be
satisfied with nothing less than muir
der to maintain it," coupled with dras-
tic punishment, will convince those
who uphold it that he who takes the
life OF another because OF personal re-
sentiment is no more a hero that was
Cain.
Coupled with drastic punishment"
AYE, there's the rub; Will the Stay
er in the Carmack case get the punish
ment he deserves? Do such ever get
1t when they have influential friends
and social standing, with enough
credit to hire a good lawyer, no mat
ter how foul their crime?
Even BOW the echoes of that fearful
tragedy in Nashville are dying impo-
tentiy away, public sentiment is fall
Ing back into comfortable repose, and
the newspapers which insist on dis
turbing that repose by uncomfortable
reminders of public duty in the premi.
ses are impatiently urged to Give us
something new and don't talk that
Carmack affair to DEATH"
There is just the trouble. 1t would
pay the Southern press and Southern
public sentiment as expressed by the
best people of the South, TO make
that Carmack affair" the leading is
sue in this section for at least twelve
nionths to come; to preach about II
In the pUlpits; to draw the plain les
son from il IN the schools; to make
it. the chief subject of conversation
wherever two or three were met to-
gether, and thus to drive home to the
heart and mind and conscience of
every Southern man the urgent, I'M
peTative necessity of reforming our
civilization without delay and elimi-
mating forever from it the foul, false
standards of honor and courage which
led to the murder of Carmack.
To achieve an end like that would
be worth more than the election of a
dozen democratic presidents in sue
cession, for presidents and their poll
cies are not concerned with the deep
and fearful problems which lie at the
basis of our civilization and which in
volve the safety of every home and
every life in these Southern states
where the deadly weapon is the ready
arbiter Of almost every personal dis
pute
The newspapers of the South might
we'll dispense with politics and even
Industrial progress as leading issue
Cor year TO come and stick to the
text OF the Carmack murder as the
one matter of transcendant import
ance, and it would pay them and
their readers richly to do so if thereby
we might destroy forever the bloody
code of the pistoltoter and all that it
implies.