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Show ENFORCE THE LAW. Last week we drew attention to the deplorable increase of murders in the United States and endeavored en-deavored to assign a reason for this appalling disrespect dis-respect for human life in our cities and rural districts. dis-tricts. It is depressing to have to repeat that in our country the chances for conviction are measurably measur-ably less than in any other civilized land. The police po-lice organization, we are told, in many of our large cities, leave much to be desired. The machinery of detection is less nearly perfect than in Europe or in Canada. Of the twenty or more murders that happen every day in this country it is perhaps safe to say that five are not followed by the arrest of the slayer. Of the other fifteen, ten are not followed fol-lowed by conviction, and of the last five, probably, not more than half are brought to the gallows or the electric chair. Of this half of five, 90 per cent are tramps or persons without money or influence. This failure to punish crime in the well-to-do and the influential is a very strong argument against the republic and is made frequent use of by the radical Socialist in the platform and in radical literature. In other words, failure to enforce the law is the hope and strength of anarchy.' To account for and explain away the lawlessness lawless-ness and terrible assassinations of our country we deceive ourselves with puerile excuses. Wo con- 1 (. tend that the n$pr population; the mixture of races in the groat cities, the ignorance and illiteracy not only among the lower orders of the cities but also in large rural communities are responsible for most of our murders. It was the vogue a short time ago among a certain evangelical and puritanical class to blame the quick temper and ignorance of the Italian immigrants for the increase of murder in our midst, but criminal statistics from Italy, when produced, showed there was a much smaller percentage per-centage of murders in that country than in the Pnited States, and that 80 per cent of Italian murderers mur-derers were hanged or imprisoned for life. The real cause must be faced squarely. Our national disregard of law, perhaps, one might even add, our national contempt of law lies near the foundation of our shame. But deeper than this, underneath the very foundation of crime, is contempt con-tempt for religion and the immutable law of God. Where there is no religion there is no fear of God, where there is ft milk-and-water religion there is no morality, and where there is a society veneered with religion there is no honesty. Waving the necessity of religious truth, then, the voice of the law is not sufficiently terrible. Too many extraneous considerations con-siderations enter into the application of this rigid law which demands life for life. Maudlin sentiment, senti-ment, the plea of a child, the "higher law," the pressure pres-sure of a political machine, the purchasable juryman, jury-man, the expenditure of money on clever lawyirfs, the agitation of the yellow journal all these and many other dishonest agencies have contributed, at times to stay the merited punishment of the murderer. mur-derer. That murders, assassinations and contempt for human life are increasing in the United States is deplorably true. It is time to face the truth, to meet the murderer and put away forever our half measures in the enforcement of the stern, necessary neces-sary law which is our only protection against the slayer. Enforce the law, execute the murderer and protect society. If there be not in the republic a certainty, a sternness in applying the law, such as there is, for instance in Germany, in Canada and Great Britain, then the United States is doomed to disruption. |
