Arizona republican., 1919-06-26
THAT JUSTICE
 MAY BE DONE

Having left the white lights and the mad whirl of Phoenix night life, we relaxed the tight grip on the lines and let the old mare jog her own way along the moonlit road to the ranch while we fumbled around for the can of tobacco in it's accustomed place between the dashboard and the footrail.
 It wasn't there.
 We had left it there before we hao gone into the movie house. Evidently while we were being transfixed by the 'Terrors of Trilby' some more prosaic local villain rifled the rig of our can of tobacco. And here we were, home ward bound on Saturday night, fac ing a Sunday on the ranch without pinch of tobacco on the place.
 The prospect led us to contemplate the greatness of our self-styled civili- zation, the superiority of ourselves over the rest of the world, and the pei lection of our great institution known as Justice and the law"
 1 Take the incident at hand as an H. lustration. Very probably either some vagrant or wayward youngster had seen the can of tobacco in the rig, un- guarded, and had appropriated it. In either event, follow the thing to a | hypothetical conclusion.
 If the vagrant had been caught at it, he possibly would be lodged in jaIi to languish over Sunday. On Monday afternoon, we would have to take our more or less valuable time and appear as a witness against him. Unless some clever attorney succeeded in having the case thrown out of court on a minor technicality, the defendant would be found guilty. And his pun ishment would probably be a sus- pended sentence of a little trick in the local jail, the sentence being suspended on condition that the bum leave town. He would probably accept the condi- tion and hop a freight to the next town and there go through similar pro gram. And so on and so on from one town to another.
 In the second instance, the young ster would get word to his parents. Very probably, as has too often been the case, not only in this town but in others, the boy would "come- of very respectable parents. well-to-do and prominent citizens" If the parents had ample political pull the police would withhold the name of tile young lster from the newspapers. Otherwise, the parents would have to appeal to editors of the papers for protection Same old gag: "Why, it's the first time-comes of very respectable peo- ple-his mother is just simply pros- trated over it-requires the attention of a physician-it would actually kill her if the story were to get out. Etc Etc"
 At the courts. the prosecution would make a half hearted attempt at con- viction. and would even then wind uI with q recommendation for leniency on the part of the court The cour- would announce that he would no pass sentence now, but would "tak, the matter under advisement." Ant police reporters will tell you that i takes a regular sleuth to keep tracl of and find out some weeks or months later just what they did to the pilferer In the meantime, the boy is turned loose on the public, his mother grad ually recovers from the shock, resumes tue interrupted social calendar, an' begins tc prepare her lecture for th' next club meeting on Crime In tn
 Sums of New York" The father be
 gins to scurry around, visiting hi minister the secretary of the local r M. c. A. and other welfare workers in an effort to learn what he shoul'