Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-01-30
THE WAY OF THE TRANsGREssoR.

Though the wicked may flourish for a time
like a green bay tree, we find evidence quite often
Kin, support of the statement that the way Of the
ttansgressor is hard. Sometime the day Of reckon
! ing seems to approach slowly, and some are apt to
! grow impatient while waiting for its arrival. Never
theless the end comes, and usually it is found that
deliberate wrongdoing does not pay. IT,
The Herald has no intention of discussing sep
arately and in detail the sentences imposed by
Judge Englert at the close Of the recent series Of
criminal trials in the district court here. Those
sentences were in varying degrees Of severity. In
several cases they involved penalties heavy enough
to make them decidedly impressive. Most of the
convicted offenders are quite we'll known in the
community. Some of them have been very con-
spicuously known. And when penitentiary sent.
ences are melted out to persons who are locally we'll
known, and whom Our people have been accustom.
ed to see going and coming with every evidence OF
comfort and prosperity about them, people natural
" sit up and take notice.
Without particu1arizing as to cases, there are
persons among those just sentenced who have not
done an honest days work IN months or years; who
have had no Visible means Of support; yet who have
been able to live luxuriously and to entertain them
selves in expensive ways far beyond the reach OF
the ordinary respectable working man, even if the
latter's tastes had run in the same direction. The
common understanding that these men were engag-
ed in the regular and unlawful ~peddling of liquor
for profit has been sustained by the records of the
court, and heavier sentences have been for this Of
tense or from criminality growing directly out Of it.
Herald has several times called attention
TO the malignant influence exerted on youth by Of
lenders Of this class. The youth who is trying hon
estiy TO make a living by honest labor, and who
finds the way none too easy, is not strengthened IN
hhiis own integrity by the spectacle Of others often
former companions, no more capable than himself,
living luxuriously and without apparent efforts on
~ proceeds Of an unlawful occupation which is as
Available to one as to another. If the-young man
were to look through to the end Of the course and
foresee the inevitable finish, the career would lose
mech Of ifs attractiveness. But youth lives largely
rs fhe present, and is impressed more by what 1t
Esee1 thsnsbys distant probabilities.
I'VE read q great deal OF the duty Of society to
Sthe individual in the removal OF conditions which
comnptstos crime. 'Undoubtedly society has such an
o6iiraation. But many Of the reformers seem to
the position that the way for society to dis
sekasre iitsaobligation = to make such abundant, pro.
ajonf or the comfort and pleasure q the individual
gsgfstEkouf any effort Of any self denial on hts part
thefg viii BE no need for him to violate law IN
sto obtaiinn whatever wifi minister e HE pleas
Hunsansnatu and human society IRE not go
6sfSa a4ented that any such maudiin plan will work.
Gex6csddlhnE pfocess never produced = strong plant
ssa sw0rth-while character. Society's obligation
49, HA&