Evening star., 1912-04-10
President Taft's Address.


I'VE have very good courts If they are
only respected. The trouble about it is
that we don't always have public opinion
strong enough to support the authority
of the courts. We don't always find that
individuals are stiff enough and rigid
enough in their view of the enforcement
of the law and the respect for law to
make the courts respected as they ought
to be throughout the length and breadth
of the land.
Take the matter of lynching. That, as
we'll as the administration Of our criminal
law. form disgraceful page in our social
history. l think it is we'll to take text
on that subject. / know :hat our courts
are not perfect I know that they don't
apply the law with the certainty and
dispatch in criminal cases that they
| ought to. and 1 believe that part Of this
departure from law into lynching and
are not full of dispatch in disposing OF
criminal cases.
Ignore the Law.
But We must not attribute it all to the
courts. There is among our people dis
position to forget the sanctity of the law.
and to ignore the fact that. no civilized
country can live unless the law is re-
spected. Now lynching is justified because
it is said to only apply to one offense that
Is particularly heinous in the minds OF all
/ VI US nat Is uOt SiO"
| that lynching is applied to great many
| crimes.
"The moment that the mob acquires
! that wolfish desire for human blood the
! which that exhibition Of lawlessness is
given. There is not any crime-I don't
care what it is-that justifies departure
| from law in the punishment Of the per-
son who is charged with guilt.
"One of the serious questions we have
| to face in this country is that we have
not among all our people as profound a
respect for the law and the necessity for
obedience to it as we ought to have, and
that is part of the reason why we have
these exhibitions of lawlessness over the
country and these cruel murders, for that
is all they are.
Points Out Remedy.
'It is not any less a murder because
| 400 men take part in it than because one
| man does. Ordinarily, it is accompanied
| by a good deal more cowardice because
! 800 are in it instead of one. The only
way by which it can be suppressed is
| that some time we shall have men as
| sheriffs and as governors and as prose-
that the men who are engaged in pulling
| the rope under those conditions shall
| themselves swing by the rope. We need
| not sit smugly by those of us in any
particular section and think we are bet
ter than those in any other section, be-
| cause that lawlessness has shown it's ugly
| head both north and south of Mason and
DixonS line, and 1t is to be condemned
| wherever it appears, and it is to be sup
pressed only by an improvement in the
! individual opinion of the necessity for the
| enforcement of law.
| "Everything-and I am bound to say l
believe this thoroughly-that goes to min
imize the respect for the courts, the re-
| spect for the enforcement of law and the
following Of law just as it is contributes
| to the continuance of that abuse and to
| the continuance of that lawlessness which
all deplore theoretically, but which. I am
sorry to say, we at times express too
| much sympathy with. 1t is the courts
| upon which our entire civilization rests.
1t is through the courts that our indi-
vidual liberty. our right to pursuit OF
happiness and our right to hold property
| are to be secured.
No Lynching in England.
They don't have lynching in England.
| Now. why don't they have it? 1t is be-
| cause the criminal law in England is en-
| forced with certainty and dispatch. They
punish crime, and they punish 1t prompt
ly. They have the same guarantees with
respect to life. liberty and property. the
| same guarantees as to those accused OF
crime as We have. And yet they go on
and try every case, and convictions fol-
| low.
| They don't have to have murder case
| take six weeks. and have it tried in the
newspapers. with all the headlines and
| all the maudlin sentiment and all the
| flowers tnat are sent to the murderers.
/ When man is tried there, the question
| is, is he guilty or not. They call the
| witnesses. and they don't take four or
| five weeks to get jury. They get =