Show THE INCREASE OF LAWLESS THE philadelphia press a short time ago deploring the lawlessness prevailing in the city of brotherly love used the following language the suppression or even rep repression 1 of vice and and crime by the regularly constituted legal machinery proceeds so haltingly hal tinsly at the best that the organization 0 law abiding citizens for that express purpose has become a real necessity ces sity these remarks have been echoed by papers in other cities and states and it seems that the confidence of the better members of society in the willingness and capability of the constituted authorities to punish crime and keep the lawless elements within proper bounds is not of the strongest character nor calculated to encourage hopes for a purer state of society propositions lor for the formation of clubs and leagues to support law and order are not infrequent this argues ver very y unfavorable social conditions and official roguery or incapacity he the necessity for a vigilance committee in an established commonwealth is evidence of culpable negligence or criminal fraud on the part of the executive officers of the local government in newly formed or inco hate communities where the reckless and the rude have congregated such organizations izat ions may be requisite as a te temporary in 0 officio offic iI auxiliary to the laws official administration but in older and more stable conditions of society such extraordinary agencies cannot be justified unless the executive powers of the state have drifted into criminal or incompetent hands to such a degree that the changes to be wrought by the ballot cannot canutt be waited waitea for or depended upon that crime is increasing in the united states in spite of all the educational cat ional and religious institutions and facilities in exercise is generally admitted the following extract which appears in the atlanta ge georgia orala constitution ution is but a sample of what exists s ik ia other parts of the union and gives food for serious thought in 1850 there were prisoners in confinement in the united states the ratio was then one criminal in every 9 inhabitants in 1860 the prisoners numbered and the ratio was one in every 1647 in 1870 the number had risen to and the ratio was then one in 1021 in 1880 the number of criminals reached the total of and the ratio was one convict to every free men the condition of affairs in the states we should think is sufficiently grave to engage the attention of reformers and statesmen instead of the mormon question t that seems to worry the souls of so many profess professing lag patriots and we are of the opinion that before very long they will have quite enough on their hands to warrant their giving utah U tab a rest looking at it i n the light the polygamy bugbear is but a small sau speck on toe the extremity of the body politic compared to the blotches blotcher blot ches and blaies blains that disfigure its face and the cancers that are eating into its very vitals there is more lawless lawlessness ss in one city of the east say phila philadelphia alphia in a week than in all utah in a year and more vice rampant under the noses ox of eastern anti mormon rasul maniacs acs in a night vau in all in ill ii decade and those who are so fond of sniffing a t something unorthodox and uncommon thousands of miles away while they have no sense of adap smell for the corruption that is rotting under their noses willston will soon be compelled to pay attention to things which more nearly concern them and the country the morals of which they have set themselves to preserve |