The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-04
The Cry of the Mob.

| So shouted the mob al opiihShOiN' -
 fingered because prisoner charged Wl'n
 a heinous erime-1and now hkey to prove his ffnocence-had been spirited away by the authorities. who anticipated a visit by the moo to the Jah' Il crowd of people grew into a raging multi tude bent on bloodshed and raplne' "Justice!"
 Thus it shouted as it pulled to pieces | the business place of a private cltlzen | who. in obedience to the law and ordered bv the sheriff, loaned his automobile to carry the prisoner to a place of satety. "Justleep'
 Vexing the heavens with racous cry, the mob surged through "the bad lands, torch in hand, giving to the flames the homes of decent citizens with the property of the vile, making hideous the slums of Springfield with its hoarse, insistent demand for blood and doing tremendous damage that innocent tax payers must pay.
 "Justicel"
 Night and day, day and night, went up the awful growl of the multitude, ap- peasing for the moment it's thirst TOT blood bv dragging an inoffensive man or eighty years from his peaceful home, heating the white haired octogenarian as if he were a mad dog of the streets and then gloating over his hanging pooy.
 Thus the Springfield mob, aname with hatred of a race, drunk with vengeance riotous, insane.
 But
 Let us look behind this hateful face Of anarchy. foul with passion lost to human instinct. murderous, and find some ade- ouate cause flor Shis outbreak or maddened people. Surely there must be some final cause the slow, growing sentiment, settled m to plibuo conviction-else the terrlpie spectacle Is meaningless There was a cause.
 For years the miscarriage of justice In | the courts had been countenanceo by sworn officials-for the sake or votes For years the release of known criminals on techinal or political terms had been winl,ed at by those who were set for l law enforcement. - l Public sentiment had been piled up behind the dam until the barriers gave way and the flood put to scorn the puny ! firms that tried to stop it!
 "Justice!"
 The eternal years of God are hers. | Somehow. somewhere, some time ner verdict must be put on recoro-I py he other means than by the mob.
 Does 1t Pay7
 Does it pay to wrong "accordins U law?" legal penalty does it pay to do unrlgnt- i eously?
 This generation, which inclines to pul everything on the pay basis, ought tc have interest in that question.
 It does not pay. Because Then penalty of the statute law is not to be compared with that of the moral law.
 There is a barrier between you ana a dishonest dollar, a dishonest deed' Climb over that barrier at your peril! i Does any one imagine for instance, the command, "Thou shalt not stear IS mere words? It is law-inflexible as any ia" of physics or mathematics
 It is not a law because 1t Is in the Decalogue It Is in the Decalogue be- cause it is law.
 Some of us fail just here. We fail to understand that the penalty inheres Tn the law.
 The penalty will follow, you may be sure. Every mote of the universe IS leagued for it's enforcement
 "Thou shalt not kill" Thou shalt nor commit adultery"
 If won violate those laws you invite the sure penalty If history proves anything 1t proves this: "Sin and it's punishment grow on the same stem.
 The sentence may be carried out In many ways. Eternal justice is not shut I'D to a single method. It has thousand ways to punish.
 The penalty may come through awful strain of mind or heart by way or re- morse.
 Or it may come through the shame Of publicity. Or by that gradual weakening of moral fibre that one day ends in legal apprehen- sion.
 | Or through physical suffering. ' Or through the child. "The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children S teeth are set on edge.' Heredity Is one of the patient officers of the moral law to do its bidding.
 You cannot escape because you cannot get away from yourself. The seeds of the sin are sown in you. The harVesf must be reaped from you.
 This generation needs the stern teach ings of the law of moral compensation. A former generation may have been de- ferred from wrong doing, to some extent. by the preaching of hell fire and brim- stone. In the reaction from this preach ing to that of love and mercy the real terrors of moral punishment have been neglected.
 Let it be thundered- into the ears of ! men today, '"The soul that sinneth it i shall die.'' And the death of the spirit | is infinitely more to be dreaded than physical suffering in literal hell.
 It does not pay.
 Let the warning face every man who l reaches wrongfully for dollar, who be- trays innocence, who robs in the guise of law protection, who wrongs his fellow man.