bjects include, in fact, practically all the
primary benefits which a state ought to confer upon its citizens; and it
is because the states have so largely failed to confer these primary
benefits that the reconstruction necessarily assumes a radical
complexion. It is absurd to discuss American local governments as agents
of individual and social amelioration until they begin to meet their
most essential and ordinary responsibilities in a more satisfactory
manner.

Take, for instance, the most essential function of all--that of
maintaining order. A state government which could not escape and had the
courage to meet its responsibilities would necessarily demand from the
people a police force which was really capable of keeping the peace. It
could not afford to rely upon local "posses" and the militia. It would
need a state constabulary, subject to its control and numerous enough
for all ordinary emergencies. Such bodies of state police, efficiently
used, could not only prevent the lawlessness which frequently
accompanies strikes, but it could gradually stamp out lynch law.
Lynching, which is the product of excited local feeling, will never be
stopped by the sheriffs, because they are afraid of local public
opinion. It will never be stopped by the militia, because the militia is
slow to arrive and is frequently undisciplined. But it can be stopped by
a well-trained and well-disciplined state constabulary, which can be
quickly concentrated, and which would be independent of merely local
public opinion. When other states besides Pennsylvania establish
constabularies, it will be an indication that they really want to keep
order; and when the Southern states in particular organize forces of
this kind, there will be reason to believe that they really desire to do
justice to the negro criminal and remove one of the ugliest aspects of
the race question.

A well-informed state government would also necessarily recognize the
intimate connection between the prevention of lynching and the speedy
and certain administration of criminal justice. It would seek not merely
to stamp out disorder, but to anticipate it by doing away with the
substantial injustice wrought by the procedure of the great majority of
American criminal courts. It is unnecessary to dwell at any length upon
the work of reorganization which would confront a responsible state
government in relation to the punishment and the prevention of crime,
because public opinion