Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1919-10-16
LAW AND THE JUNGLE

this world, and there is the rule Of
law
Under jungle rule no mans life
is safe, no mans wife, no mans
mother, sister, children, home, lib
| erty, rights, property. Under the
rule of law protection is provided
for all these, and provided in proper
ton. as law is efficiently and hon
estly administered and its power and
authority respected and obeyed.
Omaha Sunday was disgraced and
Inundated by monstrous object
Lesson of what jungle rule means.
The lack of efficient government in
Omaha, the lack of governmental
foresight and sagacity and energy,
made the exhibition possible. 1t was
provided by few hundred hood
lums, most of them mere boys, or
ganized as the wolf-pack is organ
lied, infiamed by the spirit of an
| archy and license. of plumber and
destruction. Ten thousand or more
good citizens, without leadership,
without organization, without pub
lie authority that had made an eff
fort to organize them for the anti
cipated emergency, were obliged to
stand as onlookers, shamed in their
hearts, and witness the hideous or
gy of lawlessness. Some of them,
to their blighting shame be it said,
respectable men with women and
children in their homes, let them
selves be swept away by the mob
spirit. They encouraged il they did
not aid the wolf pack that was con-
spring to put down the rule of law
in Omaha--that rule which is the
sole protection for every mans
home and family.
1t is over now, thank Cod
Omaha henceforth will be as safe
for it's citizens, and as safe for the
visitors within its gates, as any city
in the land. It's respectable and
law-abiding people, comprising 80
percent of the population, will see to
that. They have already taken
steps to see to it. The first step
was taken when the rioting was at
it's height-taken belatedly, 1t is
true, because they had placed reli-
ance on the public authorities to
safeguard the order and good name
of Omaha. The blistering dis
grace of the riot has aroused them.
There will be no more faltering, no
more recklessness, no more pro-
crastination, no longer the lack of
firm hand The military aid that
has been called in is only temporary.
1t serves to insure public order and
public safety for the day, for the
week. But the strengthening of the
police force of the city, it's efficient
organization under wise and compe
tent leadership is policy that pub
lie sentiment has inaugurated and
that it will sternly enforce. AS to
that there will be neither equivoca-
ton nor delay Nor will there be
any hestitancy or laxness in the or
ganization, and rigid use IL need be,
of civic guards to keep the streets
and homes and public places of
Omaha secure.
The citizenship of Omaha will be
anxious that the outside world
should know what it was that hap
pened and why it happened. Let
there be no installing the plain
facts. The trouble is over now. 1t
was fare-up that died as quickly
as it was born. Omaha is today
the same safe and orderly city it
has always been 1t will be safer,
indeed, hereafter, and more order
ly, because of the lesson it has so
dearly learned. And the fiare-up
was the work-let this fact he en-
phasi7ed--of few hundred rioters,
some of them melted by an outrag-
eous deed. others of them skulkers
in the anarchistic underbrush who
urged them on for their own foul
purposes of destroying property and
paralyZing the arm of the law. IL
the miserable negro, Brown, had
been removed from Omaha in time,
as he should have been; in failing to
remove him, the public authorities
had taken vigorous measures to
prevent the congregation and infiam-
ing of the mob, the riot would never
have occurred. An organized and
inteliigently directed effort in adj
vance would have preserved the
good name of Omaha untarnished
I. would have prevented the lynch
ing. 1t would have saved our
splendid new court house from be-
ing offered up in flames, its defense
with the mob-victim in it, a costly
sacrifice on the altar of law and or
| der. There would have been no
thought, even, of the amazing at
tempt to lynch the mayor of Omaha,
brayely and honorably discharging
his duty as chief magistrate in re-
| sisting the wolf-pack.
For the first time in many years
and for the last time, we hope, for
many years to come-Omaha has
had an experience with lawlessness.
We have seen what it is. We have
seen how it works. We have felt,
however briefly, the fetid breath of
anarchy on our cheeks. We have
| experienced the cold chill of fear
which it arouses. We have seen,
as in a nightmare, its awful possi-
| bilities. We have learned how .frail
is the barrier which divides civiliza-
tion from the primal jungle-and
we have been given to see clearly
what that barrier is.
1t is the Lawl 1t is the might of
the Law, wisely and fearlessly adj
ministered II is respect for and
| obedience to the Law on the part of
| the members of society,"
! When these fail us all things fail
! When these are lost all will be lost.
Should the day ever come when the
rule that was in Oman Sunday night
become the dominant rule, the
grasses of the jungle would over
spread our civilization, its wild dem
liens, human and brute, would make
their foul feast on the ruins, and
I