Show THE WYOMINGTROUBLES Of ccurse the Wyoming cattlemen who are under the protection of the military ought not to be surrendered to Sheriff ANGUS of Johnson county at this time The sheriff is perfectly right in making n demand for the pnspners Tho law is with I him Tbo cattlemen have violated the laws of the state within the sheriffs jurisdiction juris-diction The offense is against Johnson county of which ho is tho executive officer whoso duty it is to act in such casesto apprehend the offenders offend-ers and bring them to justice his a case which does not concern the United States Tho federal troops ought never to have been asked to interfere and when they were appealed to by tho governor gov-ernor the stale was belittled and disgraced This cannot be wiped nut by all that can bo said in behalf of tho executive who has demonstrated his incompetency and brought shame upon as brave and proud a people as can be found within the borders of the republic re-public Ho has proclaimed to the world that Wyoming is incapable of golfgovern ment and said that the state is unequal to I the task of enforcing the laws end maintaining main-taining order However we say that whilst Sheriff AT > GUS is right in demanding the surrender of the men whose custody lordly belongs to him the milftary is refusing compliance Tnere are obedience I obedi-ence to the strict letter ol uuld be wrong and this seems to be one of those occasions > In the present state of popular feeling in Johnson county tho surrender of thoprJsoners would be equivalent to turning turn-ing them over to the merciless hands of lynchers Such a thing JIB a fair trial would be out of thd question Indeed nobody no-body believes that the case would be car riot E o far as to observe the forms of a trial The people are so indignant over the outrage put upon them and so deeply incensed at the prisoners that they would not wait the processes of law but would shoot down or string up the cattlemen in very short order The law of humanity should prompt the military authorities to protect the prisoners until they can surrender sur-render themto a civil authority which will give reasonable assurance of affording protection pro-tection to the men The mistake having been made of calling on the troops the wrong will have to be continued a little further in order that a great crime may be avoided In this connection it may be remarked that those papers which are finding defense de-fense and excuse for the cattlemen are treading upon mighty dangerous domain It doesnt help matters in the least that the cattlemen are rich respectable and influential influ-ential In this instance they are the guilty parties Without semblance or authority of law they organized an armed force and going into the county began a war of extermination ex-termination shootlne down citizens burning burn-ing houses and doing what they could to drive out the inhabitants If they had not been resisted and speedily checked a good many murders would have been laid at their door and Johnson county been depopulated de-populated as to all save such persons as the cattlemen permitted to remain Wa say it is mighty bad business to attcmptto justify such proceedings asthese and the wealth and social standing of the parties do not i 1 r palliate their lawlessness The Wyoming editors who are excusing the big cattlemen on the ground that small ranchmen and rustlers havo been guilty of wrongdoing and brnndinK mavericks would serve the commonwealth better by demanding that lawlessness be punished by whomsoever committed and by urging the officials to maintain the authority and dignity of the law |