Show protecting PROPERTY the news newe brought in the regarding the destruction of sheep in bouthern thern aou vo colorado lorado willbo will te accepted an an n evade eTl deooe oe of the incapacity 0 or r unwillingness of county anti and state officials to protect property rights in that part of the coun country tty it if the offic officers erg were doing their duty there would be found no excuse for the wholesale butchery of sheep and the perpetrators of the bloody work would be bunted down and punished it Is not difficult to comprehend that individuals who would in the spirit of re kill four or five thousand sheep belonging to other people would not hesitate greatly in wreaking breaking wre aking bloody vengeance on the owners of the ant ani mals it if opportunity offered whoever has been guilty of this wholesale slaughter committed without a shadow of justification in the uw law and in line with the secret work of the assassin to Is an enemy to public peace and safety and officers who would connive at his hia escape from the penalty of the law belong in the same category it may be urged that the sheep owners nave overrun the ranges to the injury of the cattlemen catt lemens ls interests S that were i true it does not afford any elc excuse use for the cowardly work of which the cattlemen are said to have been guilty it they have sustained an infringement of rights they had a legal means of redress but by their recent action they forfeit any claim to public sympathy the fact that they have hare taken it upon themselves to drive out the sheep men by such means argues that chev have neither law nor J justice notice on their side or they would have invoked these instead of adopting the methods of the border rulan ruffian it is to be hoped that for the fair name of colorado the officials there will rouse from their apathy and sift this matter to the be bottom bringing the culpable parties to justice whether cattle cattlemen woodred or others are at fault they should be made to realize the supremacy of the law jaw and the fact that it to is a guaranty of a republican form of government in america that individuals shall not be deprived of property without due legal process in more than one way this guaranty has been set at naught in the centennial state with this latest striking instance the honor of that commonwealth is at A stake to call a sharp turn in affairs that colorado lawlessness may not become a byword by word in the country |