People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1895 — Big and Little Thieves. [ARTICLE]

Big and Little Thieves.

The conviction of ex-Treanurer Woodruff, of Arkansas, and his sentence for one year to the penitentiary for stealing over >IOO,OOO, is another brilliant example of the method of doling out justice in this country. It is useless tn attempt to disguise the fact that if this had been some poor laboring man, whose family was really in need of something to eat, who had stolen a hog, or anything to else to the value of >ls or >2O, he would have been sentenced to not less than two years. The case of Woodruff is not an isolated case. Nolan, of Missouri, who stole over >40,000 of the state’s money, received but two years’ sentence. Hemmingway, of Mississippi, stole >316,000 and got five years in the pen; if it had been some poor, friendless devil, he would have got the full limit of the law. Now why should Woodruff, Nolan and Hemmingway be entitled to greater leniency than a poor man who is struggling with poverty and hunger? The court records are full of cases where men have been convicted and sentenced to from five to twenty years imprisonment for stealing less than >IOO in value. Such methods of discrimination in the administration of justice are breeding more anarchy in this country than all the Herr Mosts could do if they tried. It is a travesty of justice to send a poor man up for five years for stealing >SO and a wealthy or influential (?) man up one year for stealing >IOO,OOO. The official who steals the public funds commits a double crime. He is guilty of a breach of trust and theft. In no instance can he plead the palliating circumstances that exist in the case of the man who is poor, and whose opportunities for making a living are limited, as is the case with thousands at present. It is this d rimination in favor of the rich and influential* that is undermining our free institutions. Government is only useful so long as it is administered “for the greatest good for the greatest number.” The stability of the government rests upon the respect which the people have for the law and the proper administration of justice. When the courts become engines of oppression for the poor, and citadels of refuge for the rich and powerful,

as was the case in the Dred S ott decision, before the war, and ii recent railroad strikes since, the people lose respect for the law and for government. It is n generally conceded that John Brown ■ n s right, although he was a law breaker, r.nd as such was punished. John Brown and his followers had no respect for the Dred Scott decision. The majority of the people north of Mason and Dixon’s line were of the same mind. All the court decisions in the world can not make a wrong right. Chattel slavery was wrong, and, although it was recognized by the constitution, sustained by the courts, and protected by the lows, the people rose up and shot it to death. So it will be with debt slavery. No chains can bind an intelligent people to slavery, whether they be of iron or gold. Such cases as are cited above are not the greatest that are filling up the cup of iniquity, that eventually must be overturned either with the ballot or the bullet. Just in proportion as the people lose their respect for the law and its administrators, they are approaching the vorte t of revolution. When a government fails in its functions it is iiu good on earth, and if the spirit of the Declaration of American Independence still lives in the hearts of the people, they will “alter or abolish it, and Institute a new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such forms as to them shrll seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”