The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1892-06-17
CONCERNING LYNcHINGs.

the matter Of lynchings. It has never in ,
any way justified lynching as punishment
for crime in any part of the country. II has |
the too prevalent practice of the
mob taking law into its own hands and
been as outspoken against mob law in its
own neighborhood as when 600 miles away.
1t has not, as some of the Scribes and Phar
lsees of the press have done, lifted up its
voice in condemnation of brutalities of this
kind in another state and kept dead silence
about similar proceedings in its own state
and where it had circulation which free
speaking in the matter might endanger
In this respect its record is conspicuously
different from that of its morning republi
can contemporary of this city, which gets
into white heat of passion over every case
of lynching of colored man in the south
but did not possess the courage to editori-
ally condemn the mob murder of miserable
wretch in neighboring county few weeks
ago, lest it might offend some of its sub
scribers i'll that county.
There is no justification for mob law in
any part of the country, north or south, in
Ohio or in Georgia. The law should be
paramount everywhere and if there is
general failure of justice in any community
it is due to the community itself and not to
the the law or its officers. When public
sentiment has been educated up to respect
for the law and faith in its efficiency to deal
with offenders there will be an end to
lynchings, because when that point has
been reached the lynchers will be themselves
treated as criminals and made to feel that
the law is able to protect the community.
That end will be attained by electing honest
and capable men to administer and execute
the law and by securing competent and
fearless juries 1t will not be forgotten by
the readers of our republican contemporary
that it labored long and strenuously to con-
vince hepublic that the jury system is a
failure and that confidence cannot be placed
in the justice of jury decisions, 1t is the
natural result of such teachings that respect
for legal proceedings is weakened and that
when the public indignation at an atrocious
crime is strong there is a temptation to
hasten the course of what seelrs to be justice
by mob action.
Our republican contemporaries that have
had so much to say about lynchings in the
south and have been so silent about similar
outrages at their own doors have endeavor-
ed to make it appear that the colored man
is the sole victim of mob fury in the south,
and that the real or fancied criminal has
been killed by mob law instead of given q
trial, solely because of his color. lmpas-
stoned appeals have been made in behalf OF
fine colored people against this barbarous
treatment and preparations are even now
making to fire the northern heart" in the
coming campaign with stories of wholesale
lynchings of colored men in the south be.
cause they were colored and presumably re
publicans, no allusion being made to the
crimes with with which these men were
charged except to point out that they have
not been found guilty of them in court. In
its Thursday issue our morning republi-
can contemporary publishes some statistics
of southern lynchings in 1891 and asks fol
democratic comments thereon.
We do not know how authentic those sta
tistics are, but taking them as they stan'
they furnish pointed answer to the col
umns of denuneiation that have appeared il
that paper during the past few months.
The figures show that during last year ther'
were 1859 cases of lynching in the southern
states and that of these LIS were negroe
and 81 whites. This must have been new
to the habitual readers of the paper. VIII,
had been led to suppose until yesterday tha
the victims Of southern lynehings wer
always colored. Now it seems that nearl,
one third of the whole were whites. WheI
it is borne in mind that large proportion
of the crimes punished by mob law wei
rapes of white women and that there Is
disproportionate tendency to this bruta
qualification of the passions among tn
lower classes of negroes the difference in tn
number of of colored and white victims o
Iynchings in the south is readily aecOunte'
tor.
1t is true that the number of lynching
in the south is a reproaeh to its civilization
but it may be pleaded in partial defens
that the south has had a hard experience +
pass through aud is still confronted wit
problems which happily the greatea part
the north has not had to grapp.e with. Tn
way it has undertaken to prevent Grim
does not approve itself to the judgment o
its best friends in the north and il is to b
/ hoped there will be a speedy change for tn
better. But critics in northern Ohio shoul'
bear in mind that we are not wholly with
out sin, whilst we have not the same excus
which the south can plead. 1t will be wei
to remember also that by the statistics o
our republican neighbor and uncompromis
ing assailant of the south one-third of tn
victims of last year 5 lynclings in the soutl
were whites. Cleveland PiaiHdeaIer.