New-York tribune., 1910-07-13
4 GOOD EXAMPLE.

Governor Harmon has set an sdmi-
rable example in calling TO account the
local officers who failed to use due dill
sence to protect ii prisoner lynched the
other day by a mob in Newark. Ohio
The Mayor of Newark has been sus-
pended from office and the Sheriff Of
Licking County, from whose custody the
rioters took their victim. will also be
disciplined. Ohio seems fortunately to
have statutes under which the Gov
ernors right TO punish delinquent city
and county officers cannot be challenged.
Making sheriffs and mayors suffer for
failure to do their plain duty in such an
emergency Will have 4 tendency to over
come q hesitation on their part TO offend
the best citizens" who now and then
assemble in front of Jail, demand the
surrender Of a prisoner and then proceed
to pass upon his case as judge jury and
expcutioner Since these best citizens
have votes. elective local officers have
too often cowardiy put self-interest
above their official oaths. If they are
convinced that they will be punished
for not resisting mob violence they viii
be more inclined 10 take chances in exc
cutting their duty. A Iynching mob is
usually as craven as it is hysterical, and
a stout show Of resistance is generally
enough 10 take all the stomach for fight
out Of it
The Tribune said that a great gain for
order and public morals had been re
corded when the United States Supreme
Court sentenced To Jail for contempt the
Sheriff of Hamilton County. Tenn. who
had allowed a mob to lynch a prisoner
whose appeal to the court for a retrial
had not yet been passed on. The Sheriff
was popular and eaSygoinG, and his fel-
low citizens Of the city of Chattanooga
were disposed To make hero and mar
tyr out of him when he came home after
serving the jail sentence. But there
was more froth than substance in that
demonstration, for though the people Of
Chattanooga may have felt that the
Sheriff had been punished for IN Of
fence chargeable also TO the whole COM
munity they could not but realize that
the Supreme Court was right in holding
him TO a higher sense of obligation to his
trust than he had exhibited. The action
Of the court was exemplary. IT set a
standard TO which the state courts have
been somewhat reluctant 10 adhere
and gave heart to those who believe
that sworn officer of the law is not to
be excused for failing 10 protect per
sons intrusted 10 his custody by the
plea that the men who want to defy the
law are friends and neighbors, against
whom it would be disa greeable to resort
TO violence
If more courts would initiate the SD
preme Court in maintaining the dignity
and solemnity of the laws guarantees,
and if more governors would initiate
Governor Harmon in exercising what
ever powers they may possess 10 punish
sluggish and spineless sheriffs. lynch
ing would soon become unpopular. Its
vogue IN this country is due largely to
the fact that those who practise it count
on no serious resistance from the au-
tbCritieS. IF they were satisfied that
lives would have to be sacrificed before
they could have their own lawIess way
they would in most cases work off their
hysteria at safer distances from the eff
fectiyely guarded walls Of county jails.