Viewing page 9 of 23

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[ PHOTO ]]

THE TERRORISTS

  The continued reign of the lynching terror has brought some strong editorials even in the South. The Galveston News says: "Really, the record furnished by the TRIBUNE, nothing the number of people murdered and the number of executions, reads like a grim and scandalous joke. There is no other enlightened country in which any such conditions would be deemed tolerable. Our scheme of preserving order and standing up for the law would seem to be based upon a most vicious and insupportable pretense. The record proves that we as people do not mean what we say; that we do not stand for law and order at all." 
   The Atlanta Constitution adds: "Almost as if foreseeing the indefensible quadruple lynching near Hamilton, in Harris county, is the following comment from the Macon Telegraph upon the evil eminence occupied by Georgia with respect to mob violence:
  " 'To Georgia belongs the uenviable distinction of contributing nineteen, or more than one-fourth, of the seventy-one lynchings in 1911. Such, at least, is the showing of the figures collected by the Chicago Tribune, which performs this service every year, and readers of the daily dispatches are at any rate well aware that illegal executions in this State during the past twelve months were shockingly frequent. * * * It is gratifying to know that in spite of the deplorable increase of lynchings in Georgia, there was a considerable falling off in the country as a whole. The total of seventy-one in 1911 was the smallest since the beginning of the record in 1885, in which year there were 184. The largest total was 255 in 1892.
  "The Constitution heartily agrees with the Telegraph that Georgia's record in this connection is 'deplorable.' Especially aggravated is the instance in Harry county. The four Negroes upon whom the mob wreaked its fury had been arrested and held merely as suspects. Proof to convict had not been secured. Judge Price Gilbert, having jurisdiction over the circuit in which the crime was committed, had agreed to hold a special session of court to try the accused. Beyond a doubt the accused would have been given fair trial, and their guilt even reasonably established, legal execution would quickly have followed. 
  "Upon top of the statistics indicting Georgia, in the face of the grotesque libels placarding this State in the Northern and foreign press, this exhibition of extra-legal vengeance can offer nothing of excuse or palliation. Even the crime that supplied in the provocation was of such nature that testimony concerning it could have been presented in open court without embarrassment or censorship. 
  "Nightmare chapters like the Harris county affair are as so many blots upon the fair name of Georgia. Until they are met by stern rebuke from the controlling sentiment of the State, we shall never rise to that development and that world esteem to which our resources and the innate respect for law of the majority of Georgians entitle us. 
  "The hands of defense are tied when the wantonness of the deed is itself the accuser."
  The Savannah News adds: "For shame, Georgians!  This is not the way to treat people who are under our protection.  Among the victims were two women, and we cannot be silent in the face of such a tragedy.  We cannot escape from the belief that the prompt and vigorous prosecution of all the Harris county murderers would be an incalculable benefit throughout the South."
  The Talladega (Ala.) Reporter calls the lynching at Bessemer: "A disgrace to the State, and another evidence that human life is too cheap, and that people must be taught that the penalty of murder is death.  The State and country must arise in their might and put down such crimes, if it takes hanging to do it."
  The Wilmington (Del.) News declares that:  "It is no worse for a Negro to force his attentions upon a white girl than it is for a white man to force his attentions upon a Negro girl.  There are good Negro girls as well as good white girls.  Every girl, no matter what may be her color or social standing, is the proper ward of all good men.  There was no warrant whatever for a Negro to shoot and kill the 'very popular'

OPINION

193

farmer. That offence was murder. There was no warrant for lynching the three Negro men and the Negro girl. That crime was murder, emphasized at this time in view of the allegation that at least three of the party were innocent."
  Northern papers are represented by the Philadelphia Public Ledger, which says concerning Coatesville: "Despite the utmost endeavors of the authorities, the previous trials have been without effect, and the present step is an earnest effort by the prosecution to avail itself of the last chance to do justice. It is to be hoped that the Supreme Court will grant the petition and that the cases will be pushed with promptitude and vigor. It is quite futile for the white population of the North to preach doctrines founded on mortality and the necessity for conserving law and order to Negroes just 'up from slavery' when at the same time the very heart of civilization displays a savagery that would disgrace Dahomey. 
*****
  "It is all very well for Americans to express horror at Russian brutality and barbarity, to evince amazement and disgust with Santo Dominican or Haitien cruelty and bloodthirstiness, or to pretend that America has reached a plane so high that it may arrogate to itself a proud eminence in civilization; but that is all vain glory as long as Americans permit shocking acts of savagery, such as the Coatesville burning and the Baltimore lynching."
  A new suggestion comes from a correspondent in the Weekly Witness: "Since President Taft has shown such a disposition to reform public evils, I would suggest to him that he send a message to Congress recommending that a law be enacted that a sum of money, ranging from $5,000 up to $15,000, be paid to the heirs of each and every person who has been lynched by a mob, the amount to be regulated according to the guiltiness or innocence of the person lynched; this money to be paid at once by the Federal government, which shall collect it from the State in which the crime was perpetrated. The State is then to collect the sum from the local municipality or from each and every individual member of the guilty mob."
  The New York Sun comments characteristically on the "Referendum in Western Georgia": "According to the Sun's despatches from the scene of this notable referendum, at least two and probably three of the persons so neatly suspended and leaded were innocent; there is 'no convincing evidence' against the fourth. 
  "Aside from cold considerations of evidence, how much more piquant and enjoyable participation in such a referendum must be than in a stupid case, where the criminal is caught in the act and no demand is made upon the imagination of the referees. How can the referees be induced to take part in the hemp referendum if it is not made attractive?"
  Some Southern papers, however, draw other lessons. The Chattanooga Times, for instance: "The attention of colored leaders and educators is called to the story from Cordele, Ga., reciting the fiendish act of one of their race toward an unprotected white lady. We know what the white people are going to do about it if they catch the offender, but what are the Negro leaders and teachers going to do about it? It is about time they were giving this question profound consideration. The whites have obviously made up their minds as to what they will do in all such cases."
  The Southwestern Christian Advocate, a colored paper, writes: "If the Southern white youth is not lawless, it will not be because they have not had sufficient encouragement to be. There are open examples on every hand that make for disrespect of law and order and the demoralization of the youth of the South. 
  "Recently we were on a train which was headed for the city of New Orleans. We boarded it about 2 a.m. In the car allotted to the colored people was a young white lad, not more than ten or twelve years of age. It was an open violation of the law, to start with, for him to be in this part of the train. But what difference did it make? Law was not made for him, and he was learning the lesson. This lad had a cap pistol and was bursting caps every now and then, saying audibly: 'I got him, I got him, I shot a Nigger in the head.' He would then load up his toy gun and fire away again at some supposed black man, who had not wronged him in the least, and repeat again: 'I got him, I got him, I shot a Nigger in the head.' It turned out to be that this lad was the son of the conductor. As soon as he had a chance, the conductor, who was the custodian of the law, came into the colored compartment, took a seat and deliberately began to smoke a cigar. In the coach there were colored women, neatly attired, calm in their demeanor, evidently women who had come out of good homes. What did this conductor care? Was he not of a superior race, superior to law, superior to decent treatment of a humble folk?"
  A Southern white woman writes in a Southern Georgia paper, the Advocate: "Deeper than physical fear must the blow be struck. Look at the hordes of mulatto children swarming in the cities, the towns and even the country, and say how far is the white man responsible for conditions. If he stoops to the black man's