The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-02-12
Upholding the Law

OpHOIQliIS tHC LdW 4
When soldiers, with fusillade of shots. stop
ped an attack on the dignity of the law by a mob
in Lexington, bent on lynching a culprit whose
trial was in progress, they exemplifed the spirit
of the American republic. We believe in law and
order. When mob tries to take a prisoner
undergoing trial before jury to lynch him. it
INDUCES in bolshevism
Justice was moving swiftly and honorably.
The offender, guilty by his own confession of a,
heinous crime, was being tried by jury, and
conviction was assured. The mob was actuated
by passion and determination to set aside the
law, in order that it might take into its own
hands those functions which have been assigned
to properly designated officials of the state.
The officers of the law had assured the citi-
zens of Lexington that the offender would be
tried under the law. They had warned hot
headed members of the community that every eff
fort to lynch the man would be regarded an
open defiance of the power of the state. When
the mob formed, it's leaders were asked not to
make an attack on the court house to obtain the.
prisoner. The mob tried to force the hands of
the men who had been sworn to defend the honor
and dignity of the state of Kentucky and was
repulsed with bloody results
1t is regrettable that lives had to be lost, but
which we must entertain for law and order.
If we go on promiscuously taking the law into
our own hands, our country will soon become
nation of anarchists and bolshevists, bent on hav
ing our own way, irrespective of what the stat
utes prescribe.
Lexington is not the only city that has had to
deal with lawlessness in the last week. Chicago
today presents the shameful picture of city in
ers of another clan, and of police department
that says it believes ten other deaths will result
before the real culprits are brought to justice.
Developments there show that the murdered
man himself had both outraged and defied the
law for years, and that back of him stood an
invisible government, protecting him and his
, followers Many in that city are wondering if
the same invisible government" will be able to
protect the gunner who put away Enright.
An Illuminating sidelight on the cheap value
placed on human life and the open and unreserved
manner in which Chicago gangsters speak of
shooting each other is to be found in a sentence
in an article in Chicago newspaper dealing with
the Enright murder.
Capt. John l.. Hogan of the Stockyards po-
lice station, said he had been informed that
ODonnell had mentioned Murphy (rival of En-
right in connection with Enright's murder and
threatened to shoot him on sight,"
Seemingly the gunner of that city look upon
murder as a petty offense and confidently be-
lieve that their political connections will enable
them to escape punishment for their crimes.
This brazen defiance of law; this flouting of
justice this shameless effrontery, undermines
the stability of our government as readily as does
graft in public offices. The Chicago newspape,
that advocated more hangings" as an effective
cure for the gunman evil, suggested a method
which will not receive the support of every one
But even the greatest sentimentalst in the coun
try should be convinced by this time that an
peals to the better nature of the gunner are in
effectual in checking their attacks on the law
and order of the state.