Enforcement Of The Law

Ex-President Harrison writes on "The Enforcemeut of the Iaw," in Ladies Home Journal, and tersely defines the power vested in the President to sud press organized disorder. The paper briugs under consideration the legal points involved in the railroaders' strikes at Chicago and otlier points in the "West, and subsequent riots by organized mobs, and says :" It was held that a mail train was composed not only of postal cars, but ofsuchother cars as were usually drawn with the postal cars in the same train ; that the railroad companies could not be required to run mail cars, when prevented by violence from hauling with thern other coaches assigned to the train ; and that any cutting out of cars from a mail train was an interference with the transportation of the United States mails. So it was held that the stoppage of trains - freight or passenger- running from one State into another - that is, r.onducting inter-State commerce - or the tearing up of or obstructing the tracks over which such inter-State commerce was carried was an offense against the peace of the United States. Such an offense may be enjoined }y the Courts, and the Army of the United States used by the President to restore order without waiting for any cali from the State Legislature or the Govenor for assistance. It is not ' domestic violence,' in the sense of the Section 4, Article 4, of the Constitution but an attack upon the powers of the Xational Government, and neither the request nor the consent of the State is needed to give the President a right to use the means placed in his hands by the Conatitution, to preserve the peace of the United States, and to see that the mails and inter-State commerce are not stopped nor impeded by violence. A strike of violence affecting a street railway in a city, or a shop or factory, or coal mine, or other local interest, or a riot raised for the lynching of a prisoner charged with an offense against the State - all these must be dealt with by the State authorities, save that, as has been seen, the President may be called upon for aid by the Legislature or Gov ernor."