The Columbus journal. (Columbus, Neb.) 1874-1911, 1910-10-19
THE CASE OF JOHN DIETZ.

THE CASE OF JOHN DIETZ.
Except that he has she'd the blaal
of his fellow men. not n single state
ment sent mut concerning the case Il
John Diciz "f Winter, Wis. Indicates
anything else than that he WAS n
shamrfnlIy prosecuted man. One
cannot read the details Of his case
without mourning the decadence If
that common law axiom that man 3
house is his castle, which he has a
right to defend, even to the taking Of
life.
1t was the misfortune of John Dieiz
to become involved in . clash Of
interests with a great lumber COM
pany, a millionaire concern that WAS
all powerful in that section. Feeling
the need of using some of his land, it
simply went ahead and did it, and
when it came to the fixing of the COM
pensation trouble began. In the pre-
liminary bouts Dietz appears to have
got the best of it in the courts, but he
never got pay for the use of his land.
When he undertook to deprive the
company of the further use of it the
latter resorted to the Injunction pro-
cess, SO potential for the corporation.
For six years the trouble ran its
course until the man began to think
that there was no justice for the ir.li-
vidual in conflict with a powerful
company. Then he became desperate.
His wife and children became craze.l
by the same sense of injustice. and the
family was goaded into determined
resistance of courts which seemed to
bring no justice to them.
Hostilities intensified until, an agent
of the company having been sent to
pick a quarrel with him, and having
slapped him in the face. Dietz prompt
ly killed him. Quickly following
that tragedy came the ambushing If
his two Sons and his grown daughter.
the shooting Of the latter in the hack
by a posse and her abduction to
point miles away from the home where
her family was beleaguered.
How for days the recognized min
ions of the law surrounded the Dieiz
cabin and poured shot into it, in spite
of the fact that the family, including
the wife and small children. we're
domiciled therein, is told in the dis
patches, and how it was only when his
son had been probably fatally wound
ed, and Dietz himself 80 injured as TO
make further resistance useless, he
surrendered, sending his little daugh.
ter out to the blood.lusty posse with a
flag Of truce.
The deep sense of injury and injus-
tice that ranked in the hearts of the |
members of that family is best told in
the dispatch wherein 1t is related that |
the wife urged her husband even then |
not to give up, but to fight it out to
the end.
Morally there is no justification for
the taking of life, although the law
does sanction it in the preservation Of
ones own life, the lives of those dear
to him and in the protection of home
and property.
1t is going to require q deeper in
sight into the details of the terrible
conflict that has waged for years be-
tween John Dietz and that powerful
lumber company than has yet been
given in the dispatches from that sec.
ton to convince the world that the
whole affair is not a disgrace to the
whole state Of Wisconsin, and that
John Dietz and his family were not
more sinned against than SHINING.
The law recognizes the terrible force
Of mans passions. and discriminates in
The degrees of homicide in that recog.
milton. 1t DEGREES that he who kills
another in the heat of a sudden passion
is less culpable than one who kills
premeditatedly. Killing in defense of
life and property is decreed to he JUS
tifable. Who of US car say that,
under the circumstances that convert.
I'd John Dietz into a desperate man,
be would not have lost reason far
enough to take the lives of those who
,ssailed him in his home. shot his
laughter in the hack under circum.
stances that seem entirely upjusti6able
md converted the processes Of courts
INTO licenses to murder?-Lincoln Star.