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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 1924)
' 1"• _ - - ■ Omaha Vheie the^bst is at its Best "FOR THE REST OF YOUR NATURAL LIFE." Judge John R. Caverly has directed that impris onment for life shall be the punishment for Nathan F. Leopold, jr., and Richard A. Loeb. The reason for this decision is the youth of the defendants, boys of 18 and 19 years. In reaching his decision, Judge Caverly swept aside the testimony of the psychiatrists, the psychologists and the experts in the functions of the pineal and endocrine glands. He declares that “neither in the act itself, nor in the motive or lack of motive, nor in the antecedents of the of fenders can be found any mitigating circumstances.” He places upon these two youths the full intellectual and moral horror of their crime. Through the preliminary investigations which re sulted in the confession of these boys to kidnaping and murder, the atrocity of which shocked the civ ilized v^>rld, they have maintained an attitude out wardly at least careless and even debonair. They scorned the police, laughed at the gruesome evidence of their crime, as it was unfolded in the courtroom, carrying with them always the obsession that they were superior mentalities. They have found, how ever, that the arm of the law is long, that the ma chinery of justice is quick rnd inexorable. • * * They will leave the dingy old building which is the jail of Cook county with the consciousness that their offense against society / ii to be adequately punished. It may be that with their effrontery they will look forward to a few years in the penitentiary and then to a parole. It is not conceivable, however, that the moral conviction, the sense of justice of the people of the state of Illinois will ever permit such a travesty. There still lives in Illinois the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, and of all the great men who have made that state great. That spirit will keep a con stant watch over the prison house where these boys are to be taken. It is the belief of The Omaha Bee that the people of Illinois will seal in their hearts the determination that these ,t'v° youths now con demned, now sentenced, shall never leave the peni tentiary until in accordance with the law each shall have completed his “natural life.” In all the history of crime, society has not felt itself so wantonly outraged as by the crime for which these boys are now to he punished. The pur pose of society in dealing with cases of this kind is not revgnge but punishment. Judge Caverly in de ciding that punishment should be life imprisonment represents the moral courage of society. The sen tence as pronounced by Judge Caverly is that Leo pold and Loeb, both found guilty of murder, shall each be punished for this crime by confinement in the penitentiary at Joliet “for the remainder of your natural life"—found guilty of kidnaping, the sentence is that these two youths shall be “confined in the same penitentiary for a term of 99 years." * • • By way of expressing not only his own moral courage, but the moral courage and moral determi nation of society, Judge Caverly in rendering his de cision turned forever the key that shall lock the door on these two youths after they shall have been conducted inside the penitentiary walls. In these words was the key turned: "It is entirely within the discretion of the department of public welfare never to admit these defendants to parole. To such a policy the court urges them strictly to adhere.” With these words of the court as their guide, the people of Illinois may surely be expected to write over the portalB of the grim prison at Joliet where these two youths may read, the lines that Dante read: “Leave hope behind all ye who enter here.” COOLIDGE DEFENDS THE COURT. The man who so effectually enforced the law, defeated anarchy and restored order and established government when a strike of policemen unleashed crime and disorder in Boston may be depended upon to stand by the Constitution of tho United States. Even if the solemn oath he took so simply, under the light of an old-fashioned kerosene lamp, his ven erable father holding the Holy Bible and repeating the solemn words, did not bind him to do so. Calvin Coolidge’s address at the unveiling of the I .a Fayette monument at Baltimore, therefore, did not come hs a surprise to anyone. It was but the frank state ment of a lifetime of thought and devotion to the gre.-.t charter of human liberty. What is unpleasant to contemplate is that It should be necessary to defend the constitution of the United States and the form of government created by it to the citizens who have enjoyed the blessings and advantages of that government. A candidate for president is gaining support on his promise that he is going to destroy that charter. He Is pledged to an amendment that will render it a thing of political whim, the plaything of political fancy, rather than a statement of immutable prin ciples on which justice depends and without which there can he no real orderly progress. An independent judiciary is the final bulwark r>f freedom. If the courts are to stRnd forever in the shadow of political changes, liberty is corre •pondiugly menaced, .Venal judges will find the way to anticipate popular prejudices. Decision* | will rent on expediency rather than right. The pres ident is committed to the support of the courts os well as the constitution. HIT THIS AND HIT IT HARD. Even the best of laws may become burdensome if twisted from the beneficent purpose that called it into being. The ‘‘I and R” provision in the Con stitution of the State of Nebraska affords an exam ple of this. Under it an initiated amendment will be attached to the ballot in the coming election, the object of which is ostensibly to do away with the party circle at the head of the ballot. In reality, it does away with any and all party designations on the ballot. Its final effect will be to do away with parties, for, if adopted, it will prevent any party from functioning legitimately. When the names of candidates appear on the ballot with no mark or label to distinguish them as belonging to or seeking support from any particular party, the election simply becomes a scramble. In the not im probable event of two men of the same name run ning for the same office, no way is presented for de ciding which of them the voter intended to favor, except as might happen from the fortuitous position of the name in the list. Even then, no voter could tell which was which. When all the agencies of government are de pendent upon the party system, when new parties are forming, why should Nebraska be asked to aban don the experience of the human race and strike out on an entirely untried road? Order and good government depend upon party responsibility. Were no parties existent, it would be necessary to create them, because through that means only can the will of the people at any time be effectively expressed. No party is immortal, none deserves to exist after it has ceased to serve the people. But to abolish parties simply means to create confusion. The initiated amendment being thrust upon the voters of Nebraska does not spring from a great public demand. It is simply the device of self-seek ing men who have attached themselves first to one, then to another of the parties, who have boxed the political compass, and whose beliefs are unstable and highly mutable. They have, of course, the un doubted right to test public sentiment as to any or all of their vagarious notions. In this case we feel certain that when the voters of Nebraska come to realize that the submitted amendment means th^ destruction of all party organization in the state, they will hit it and hit it hard. A MOST EARNEST PROTEST. It is greatly to be feared that Lew ShelleJ, who pilots the destinies of the Fairbury News, often al lows his partisanship to obfuscate his view. We admire partisanship to a certain degree, but when it reaches the point of misrepresentation, or does actual injustice to a deserving man, we are fain to enter violent protest. Hence we could not refrain from making protest when we 'saw in a recent issue of the Fairbury News the following from Mr. Shel ley’s pen, or perhaps it is a typewriter: "We bought gasoline last month for 13 cent* sway up In the timber districts of Minnesota. And the fellow who sold It was a native and never heard of Charley Bryan." The plain intent of that paragraph is to deceive the proletariat, to mislead the hoi polloi and betray the “boorgwoise.” But it wilj not succeed. The whole world knows that Bro. Charley has hut to wave his magic wand and the price of gasoline takes a tu/nble that makes the fall of Humpty Dumpty look like a flight into the circumambient. One mis guided and ignorant Minnesotan does not make a summer. Now and then we feel somewhat inclined to par tisanship ourselves, and ever and anon we have to grab hold of our own coattails and pull backwards to keep from slipping too far in that direction, but never yet have we even been tempted to do injus tice in any degree to one who has saved us more millions than the mints have coined. This being so we feel incumbent upon us the duty of chiding our misguided editorial brother of Fairbury, who very clearly has allowed his partisan ship, and perhaps his personal prejudices, to move him to doing a grave injustice to a Great and Good Man. La Follette says that if elected he will "bring about a more just, a more equitable distribution of wealth.” Stated plainly, he purposes to take from those who will and can and give to those who can but won’t. i South Carolina has turned hack to Cole Blonse for United States senator. This is about the sever est comment yet made on the career of Nathanir] Barkesdale Dial. A Pari* pedologist insists that the big toe Is a sure index of character. A great many young men are convinced that it reflects parental temper. LaFollette has not yet delivered his acceptance speech. If prosperity continues to grow and ex pand he may decide that it isn’t necessary. Doubtless the Klein Klothing Kompany at Wash ington, la., has already landed the contract for supplying white goods to the K. K. K. If there is as much wrong with this government as Rattling Bob says there is, what’s the use of try ing to save the durned thing, anyhow? Sloshing rains fell throughout Nebraska just as thp I.a Follette managers thought they had a crop failure to holster up their cause. Wonder whnt Cy Warman would say it he eould hear that Cripple (’reek and Victor had been cleaned up by dry officers? Judge Patrick says all speeders must* go to jail. All right, judge, and if one jail is not big enough, we’ll get another. Blaine had his Burehard. Davis, hi* eminent supporters who refer to "mummies" and "wooden Indian*.’’ Homespun Verse •—By Omaha's Own Pont— Robert Worthington Davie v - - - J WHKKK IS OIK Glltl, TONIGHT? 0 Where la our wandering girl tonight? I’rlde of our weary year*, /.eat of our Idles In the trying fight, Mope of our amllea and tears. limber of faith Hint tins light erf us liver the unkempt iwth, Angel of truth that h.ia righted ua - Kept ua front grief and wrath. Violet thnt has grared the way Wherever our feet hava trod, Lending the grim a touch of gay, Keeping ua title to God. Under the home aged roof we rest Under Hie mellow light. Asking, Indeed, a thing ungnenscd .Where Is our girl tonight! r-; Sometimes We Despair of Common Sense as a Campaign Slogan _■_—-* ~ IF 1 WAS RUNNIN' THIS ~ government Dy\j kmow WHAT '7 I'D DO 1 I'D GIVE EVERY MAM5!OOe® A Day to start with and charge IT UP TO THE GOVERNMENT, and heyt THING I'd cut YOUR TAY.ES v ’ DOWN ONE HALF THAT! WHAT '!* ID DO 1 -r. , WHEN WE SEE THE CROWHS THAT YELL THEMSELVES HOARSE OVER P! RE Bl'NCOMBE AND MISINFORMATION. — - . JM 50RRS IT ISVT POSSIBLE FORME TO PROMISE All THE THINGS MS RlSAL proposes Put there are still a tesn rules of mathamatics HAmE to observe l_ _ '_id y * ‘ AND THEN WITNESS THE CARKFl I. STl DENT OF ECONOMICS TALKING TO EMPTY SEATS. ✓" ■— - ■ " —— -> Letters From Our Readers All letters must be signed, but name will lie withheld open request. Comraunl catlors of 200 words and less will be given preference. _ __/ To Appease Mr. Gottneld. Omaha.—To the Editor of The Omaha Bee: The editorial appearing in The Omaha Bee, Issue of Sunday, September 7, 1924, entitled, "Land of Opportunity," may have been sp ! predated by some of your readers, hut as for myself and my family this editorial has caused us a lot of un necessary embarrassment. In order, therefore, that the writer of this editorial may he correctly In formed aa to facta, please be advised that I have never appeared before any court for the purpose of becom ing naturalized, and that neither my wife, my young son nor myself come from “that lajid which non' basks in all the glory of bolshevism " Also that the statement which I am quoted as having said is absolutely untrue. We are citizens of these United States by virtue of our birth and no court In the land can ndd anything to our citizenship. We fully ap preciate all the right* and privileges with which wo have become endowed and we cherish our citizenship as a most priceless gift. SIDNEY J. OOTTNEID, 2415 South Twenty-third Street. Note by Editor: The man referred to was Sam Oendelman. The name of Mr. Gottneld was brought In hy some Inadvertence beyond explana tion. Mr. Gottneld is a rlerk In the office of the clerk of the district court nnd has much to do with Tiatur. allsation work. He is well known In Omaha. ------\ Abe Martin 1 * i / H_I Wp often wonder if nnybuitdy ever bought new shoestrings be fore th’ ole ones busted? It’s n poor alienist that won’t work both ways. 1*24 > NET AVERAGE PAID CIRCULATION for July, 1924, of THE OMAHA BEE Daily .74,010 Sunday.74,792 Dnaa not Inrludo roturnt, loft »v#rt, oatnploa or papata apoilod In printing and Includes no apo< ial oalot or froo circulation of any Wind. V. A. BRIDGE, Cir. Mgr. Subscribed and sworn In brims ms this Bib day nf August, 1024 W H QUIVr.Y, OoeQ__ Notary I’nblla Tlie Darling of the Tories. Omaha —To the Editor of The Omaha liee: Through the courtesy of on# of th# ushers I enjoyed a good seat at the democratic pageant Sat urday evening. The spectacular ef fects were a great, compliment to American genius. In fact, the dress parade would have done credit to a New York fashion show. Candidate Davis has one sating grace. He does not pose as a radical. If the product of the Baltimore A Ohio coal fields of West Virginia came to Nebraska to get a breath of the western political air he found him self so completely surrounded that the zephys that hit his nostrils when he got into the parking district was the only first evidence of local atmosphere he secured. * But the speech itself. Viewing the grandeur of the occasion one is prompted to Inquire why should the mountain labor so hard to bring forth such a small mouse? A democratic harangue without loud pedaling of the tarifT question would he as unex preted as a rare track without a yellow dog crossing It. The Kordney Mi Cumber tariff might be viciousness itself, but it ill becomes the darling of those tory democratic senators of the south, who voted for the most i vicious schedules of that law, to spread any of that criticism here. To say that the speech of Repub lican Senator McCormick precipitated the deflation that ruined the nation is adding insult to injury. The po litical patron saint of the gentleman from West Virginia. Woodrow Wil son. and his hand picked federal re serve board, were In full control of the finances of this nation for nearly a year after the .McCormick speech in the senate. , Mr. Davis is trying the same tac tii s that the democrats tried in 1920. He is trying to nose the republicans away from the pole for the plunder bund stakes, but It cannot be done. The press reports declared that Arthur Mullen went to Chicago to help write this speech for the demo cratic nominee. A reading of the speech presumes that to he possible, in fact, it takes on a coloring that would Indicate that it might have hren written In the law offices of the harvester trust. W. H. GREEN. Center Shots Once upon a time, before Mr. Cool idge became president, they thought It was quiet on ths Potomac.—De troit News. We hope the War department will make it plain that those boys who enlist on National Defense day for When in Omaha Hotel Conant 250 Rooms— 250 Rtilis— Rates $. to $5 I SUNNY SIDE UP r <Ja£e Comfort, nor farort [ 9tuU j A cool, crisp September morn Inclines us towards a con templative mood. There are laden plum thickets that denizens of the metropolis wot not of. but which are known to those who live In the vicinity of tho Nemaha and along the various creeks flowing thereto. Hard by the wild crab awaits the gar nering preparatory to the Jelly and butter stage. The Jonathan and the wlnesap hang in scarlet clusters from the bending boughs. Artificial refrigeration can not lm- I part to the watermelon the delicious coldness It accumulates from the cool September nights, and now Is the time to fare forth Into the patch and get this fruit of the gods in all its glory. Nor Is the cantaloupe of commerce to be compared with I the muskmelon one may now garner t/om the vine in the crisp September morn. The sumac on the hillsides Is resplendent in its green and gold and bronze, and Mother Nature laughs to scorn the effort* of all artists to reproduce the colors she spreads with *uch lavish hands. The goldenrod glints In the sunshine that burst* intermittently through the gray of the clouds, and the corn blades are beginning to crinkle and crackle In the September winds. From somewhere comes the subdued creak of a cider press I taking care of the windfalls, and upon the breeze Is borne the heavenly Incense of spice and myrrh, telling of the delicious apple butter in the making. The purple grapes hang In rich clusters from the vines that lace the hillsides, and the rich red of tomatoes glint from the gardens that all summer long yielded their rich stores. Would you see Nebraska st Its best? Then fortify your bodies against the chill and fare forth as the sunlight begins Its westering course. Drive over the roads that wind through the hills, post farmsteads and along the streams. Feast your eyes upon the laden orchards, the browning corn, the stacks of yello* wheat, and the spreading vineyards. See the children trooping home from school, browir as berries and with laughter filled eyes. _ i •* Vision, if you can, in yonder farm home, the long shelves laden with jellies and jams, with pickles and preserves; th* pan of cream so thick a spider could skate across and never leave a track; the cream can ready for delivery. See yonder field ready to yield its store of mealy potatoes: see the yellow of the pumpkins that are the potential pies of Thanksgiving ' and Christmas. And about the barns and feed lots the strutting turkeys soon to be the piece de resistance of many a laden table where foregathers the family in annual Thanksgiving reunion. All day long over the roads has been wending a never ending procession of farm trucks and wagons, bearing to mar ket the golden wheat of an ample harvest. All day long the cattle in the pastures have been adding weight and wealth, and all day long the pigs have been converting corn and aifalfa into concentrated gold. The most glorious month of ail the year, September In Ne liraska Harvest month, bringing the fruition of all the toll of s.sirehing summer days. Nebraska, the Queen of the Sisterhood WILL M. MAUPIN. a___ _.># -- — the dreadful •‘war" need not expect a bonus.—Richmond Times Dispatch The president of the National As •Delation of Pickle Manufacturers has 'old the country it consumes 550,000. 00o pickles a year. Well, we've got to get pickled somehow.—Detroit Free Press. A noted philologist reports that It took the human race 50,000 years to learn to talk, and the simple citizen who has been following the political situation on his radio is wondering BULBS, TREES AND SHRUBS For Fall Planting PUc* Your Order Now if it was worth while.—Providence Journal. Speaking of getting out the vote, what do we pay those campaign ora tors for?—Saginaw News-Courier. The best and easiest solution foi the prohibition problem would be foi lieople to stop drinking.—South Ber.c Tribune. =WANTED= AGENCY DIRECTOR FOR NEBRASKA and IOWA To appoint men to sell our life and acci dent policies, making commission and I renewal contracts direct with the home office and to build up and develop the j | entire state. j| We issue a complete line of both par- jj | ticipating and non-participating policies „nd have several feature policies that are very attractive. Our accident policies are i unexcelled and sell rapidly. The position will pay a moderate salary and traveling expenses with good oppor- j tunity for advancement. ! Applicant’s record must stand a rigid ! investigation and show a successful career ! as an insurance salesman. Write at once j giving age and complete record of employ- j ment and success attained. Only men of experience and organization ability will be considered. * MAKE YOUR FIRST LETTER TELL THE WHOLE STORY All Communication* Confidential TOP COMMISSION CONTRACT FOR LOCAL AGENTS IN UNOCCUPIED TERRITORY Apply The National Reserve Life Insurance Co. Geo. Godfrey Moore, Pre*. TOPEKA, KANSAS IB 1 1 1