Valdez daily prospector., 1915-09-22
THE LYNCHING SPIRIT.

>~e~>~
is safe while lynch law is being toll
Grated. When lynching begins law
ends. When a mob dominates JUS
tice disappears, and the will of the
stronger prevails.
The State of Georgia may we'll feel
disgraced that it permitted a band
of lynchers to challenge the majesty
of it's courts. 1t is "Georgia's
Shame" as the Atlanta Constitution
confesses.
We have not entered into the mer-
its of the Frank case. We are not
discussing them now, but the fact
nevertheless remains that Franks
trial could not have been impartial
because the proof lies in the fact
that the mob finally took his life, az
it intended doing all the time, wheth-
er the courts pronounced him guilty
or innocent.
But the lesson we are trying to
convey to our readers has nothing to
do in a way with the Frank case. 1t
is the lynching of character and repu-
tation by thoughtless writer's and
speakers that is going on in the Uni
ted States, which is only little less
reprehensible than the lynching Of
men and women. 1t bears the same
relation. Authority is defied, justice
is challenged, the church is con-
demned, while special rights are de-
manded for those who constantly de-
nounce the granting of privilege" to
others.
Frantic appeals to passion are
made by demagogs and at this writ
ing dispatches from Colorado report
that. a judge, upright so far as we
know, has been disbarred at the re-
quest of labor leaders, from presiding
at future trials resulting from disor-
ders in the coal strike. He is to he
punished for sentencing a convicted
murderer-tried and convicted by a
jury, leaving nothing but the SEN
tence for the court to pronounce.
Thus are law and justice subverted.
A few weeks ago the governor of a
great state sat helpless while riotous
strikers were threading with torch
and rife the property of corpora
ton that had provided their susie.
nance during many years of prosper,
ity and adversely.
We live at time when politicians
and public officials are bulldozed by
men falsely claiming control of the
masses of voters, time when lib
erty is distorted into license, when
freedom of action is demanded by a
class that would deny it to the men
they turn their hands against.
The country has been swept off its
feet by this spirit of instruction, in
subordination and selfishness of the
mercenary. Nothing could be more
destructive of patriotism, nothing
could strike a greater blow at the
welfare of the nation than the spirit
of unreason which prevails.
At this moment the American flag
has been driven from the high seas
by law enacted by cOwardly con-
gress, while in fear of the labor vote,
do not realize that the workmen Of
the country, whenever the test has
been made at the ballot box, have
shown that they are as independent
at the ballot box as the banker, the
farmer, the business or professional
man.
.Publicists are paying exclusive at
tention to the so-called uplifter, who,
overlooking the fact that ninety-nine
out of hundred are fairly content.
demand that attention be given ex-
clusively to the one who is discoI-
tented, out of job or will not take
a job because he thinks it is not good
enough for him. During the heavy
snowstorms in New York last winter,
when the soup kitchens were throng-
ed with men asking the city for sus>
tenance, a call was sent out for 40
900 men to WORK for liberal pay, but
only 10000 responded. The bread
line was good enough for the rest.
San Francisco has added one mill
to the general annual tax so as to
create permanent fund for the UNI
employed. We are pensioning the
widows, and now 1t is proposed to
provide permanent aid for the unem-
ployed. In Illinois unemployment
insurance is proposed, and an asso,
citation in New York is working out
the details of similar bill to be
urged upon the attention of the Con.
stitutional Convention.
1t is proposed that throughout the
United States every man who is out
~ work oho II hovo Of 1oaaf SO a wook