The gold leaf., 1910-02-24
LAW BY, FORCE.

Disgraceful and RegrettabIe Affair at
Raleigh Receives Merited Criticism
Plain Case of Where Proper Judg-
ment and Discretion Was Lacking
on Both Sides-Might Does Not
Make Right.
Under this heading the Raleigh
Evening Times of last Thursday, the
18th, published the following editO-
rial to which little needs to be added.
Declaring that ''The Evening Times
81 lands for the enforcement of law, for
m' rails and a clean city ygovernment,"
it proceeds to pay it's respects to the
subject which caused SO much dis
grace and lawlessness on the Streets
of the capital city the night before.
in conservative, common sense de-
liverance, plain spoken and coura-
geOus, as follows:
There are ways and ways to do
things and it seems that the wrong
way was the one taken from the very
beginning by those in charge of the
city, as we'll as by those in charge of
the show. In other large and larger
cities OF the State the play was allowed
to proceed and policemen were placed
on duty to see that the law was not
violated, and the result was that every
paper commended the play and the
officers found nothing that would
give the slightest excuse to stop the
play or cause an arrest. But here it
was ordered that the show should not
be given and that the theatre should
not open its doors. This order, of
course, irritated the managers who
were under contract to use every
power to put the play on as the action
taken by the city must have been a
heavy loss to both the show and the
lessee of the theatre. Both sides did
wrong. From the beginning it was
81 will" and "You will not" and it
went from bad to worse until it be-
came a showdown, and the city was
disgraced by lot of lawlessness that
was a thousand times worse than if
the show had been here solid week.
The theatrical people deserve censure
for making any threats, because
every body knew the mayor had the
power to order out the policemen
and stop the performance by force,
whether he was right or wrong, and
on the other hand the mayor is re-
ceiving criticism from every source
for his action in closing the house.
1t would have been much more
reasonable and upheld the dignity Of
the law just as we'll il the city had
done as was done in other cities and
placed the chief and his men in the
theatre (they occupied box at Char
lotte), and have arrested every per-
son from the manager down who viO-
lated the law in the least. Had that
course been taken the show would
| have been given without a hitch, as
it was in other places, and the hun
d.eds of people who bought tickets
would have felt that nothing but
| Justice was done The theatre has
| just the same right to open and con-
duct it's business as a store Or any
/ other honorable business in the city.
1t is run as such place except when
occupied by meetings labelled For
Men Only" People can be corrupted
| by what they hear as wellas by what
| they see.
| III there was any MOB spirit IN tnaC
crowd Of two thousand men who
gathered on the streets last night it
was brought out and caused by
rash order which could have been left
unissued with much better grace and
certainly more dignity to the city,
and probably with lighter burden
to the taxpayers beforeit is all ended.
Officials should remember that busi-
ness interests and business people
have certain rights which should be
respected.
1t should be said that the police
men who were under orders acted
we'll in the matter and the public at
taches no blame to them, because
they we're under strict orders and did
their duty. The whole thing is one
long to be regretted by all who love
order and decency in this city, and to
think that the whole thing could have
been stopped had both sides exercised
the proper amount OF Judgment and
discretion.
Alton n II n Coup1S nolitar tO foil q