Evening star., 1923-04-19
EDITORIAL DIGEST

was one who committed the guilty
acts. What the Herrin massacre, and
its anti-climax in the courts, amounts
to is that any community will OBJ
tain from it's legal processes the de-
gree Of justice to which it's intelli-
kence and it's civilization entitle 1T.
This leaves the state Of Illinois with
q gre reat, sprawling blot of ignominy
spread across it. That. however. is
the business of the state of Illinois.
Disputing this general line of thought.
the Chicago Post insists the real
problem underlying Herrin is not the
failure of justice in this specific in
failure of American democracy to dis
cover the road of reconciliation and
cooperation in the production OF
wealth. 1t is deplorable that the bit
terne ss engendered by such series
Of episodes as the coal strike pro-
scure the fundamental issue and to
make more difficult an approach to it
in the spirit Of reason and under
standing" The result of this trial
seems ito link Louisiana and the Ku
KluX, Michigan and Foster and Illi-
nois and Herrin in failure to enforce
the law" the Memphis Commercial
Appeal. argues. and I'VE know that
crime unpunished is crime encour-
aged. Yet we wonder when we read
statistics why there should be SO
many and 50 varied instances of
criminal outbreakG The failure of
three states of the Union to assert
their honor and Integrity will be the
cause Of other states suffering similar
humiliation"
after that verdict let US cease to
be censorious to the bolshevists for
their ,butcheries," says the Boston
Transcript. I'm the studied and i'm
mune iniquity. in the unnamable re-
fnements of utter savagery. in the
fine art of raising hell and getting
away with it, Moscow must yield the
palm TO Herrin, and poor old Russia,
only just emerging from medieval be-
nightedness. must take second place
to the great. en1ightened. progressive
very much the view of the ST. Louis
Globe Democrat, which holds tho ac-
quittafs "a blot upon American civil
ixation and American criminal proce-
dure. There are circumstances in
Mhi9h m9b bsn may oner haTe pleas
committed which the law seems. pow
erless or unwilling to punish ade-
Quately. and an outraged community
takes the law into it's own hands.
Even such are to be condemned. But
when men, many of whom at least
had committed no crime at all, are
indiscriminately slaughtered, as was
the case at Herrin, it is an offense
against humanity. against the law
and against civilization which moth
ing can Justify, and the effort to do
so condemns its defenders" Because
this admittedly is so the Philadelphia
Bulletin thinks "time is wasted in
contemplating the lesson of Herrin
as applied to the willfulness of that
community. It will be worth while
for the nation If that atrocfty shall
be recognized in its true relation to
the strike and the lesson of that rela-
ton can be learned"
for this specific weakness of Ameri-
can justice" suggests the Cleveland
Plain Dealer. "In the south change
OF venue to some other county where
a mob case is on trial would do no
good. In the north something might
be gained. Indeed. 1t is very likely
that had the Herrin defendants been
tried in some other Illinois county
the verdict would have been different.
But this idea OF taking a defendant
out of his own county in order to Sc
cure a conviction is abhorrent to- the
American sense of fair play" This
view brings some opposition from the
ever, argues that 'the butchery Of
twenty-twos innocent and, unarmed
men shocked the nation, but the re-
peated failures of justice since then
are even more disquieting than the
original crimes, Murders committed
In hot, blood have been condoned In
cold blood. No community can fout
the law and get. away with it indef-
initely. The pitysis that it threatens
to drag decent unionfsm and good
citisens, ana propesty$ down with 'its
own ruin. -.