“Why have we built up a complicated system of justice, except to protect indicted citizens?
“‘Those eyes that see everything’ and ‘those ears that hear everything’ have evidently missed the Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
“Once more they would thrust us back on the evidence of passion, and conviction by emotion.
“Once more they would rob the defendant of his right to be heard, to summons witnesses, to appeal to an impartial tribunal.
“Once more they would have punishment decided upon and inflicted by a council that cannot be held accountable.
“Once more they would expose everybody; whether criminal or not, to disguised tyranny.
“And they call it Americanism—this semi-barbaric horseplay that gives its victim no chance, that comes upon him unawares, that shuts his mouth and overpowers him by force.
“Innocent, or guilty, he has no privilege but to accept the inevitable, and that is what they call loyalty to their country and their country’s institutions.
“Two women have been stripped and flogged, and this they say was done in the name of chivalry.
“Their names are written on a secret roster and their faces are covered, and this they assert is in keeping with those traditions of frankness, candor and open dealing which have been essentially characteristic of the United States.