The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-07-26
BILL ARP.
Lynchings will not Cease Until the Outra.
ges are Stopped.
atlanta Constitution.


We sec that the twenty-four judges
of our circuit courts are going to meet
very soon in Atlanta to confer togeth-
er for the good of the State. That
certainly is good thing to do. In
the multitude of counsel there is safe
ty." Our judges are brainy ana con-
servative men, and if we had about
three on bench instead Of one we
could safely dispense with all the jury
business, and all the hallelujah
speeches, and transact as much busi-
ness in day as they do now in a
week. Nothing in the world but rev.
erence for magma charta" and the old
land marks keeps the old jury system
in use. If we keep learned, we'll
balanced Judge, and learned and elo-
quent lawyers, how much more ilnpor-
tant it is to have jurors of the same
education and capacity.
One thing that these judges are to
consider is whether the courts are to
blame for these lynchings, and if they
are, then to provide remedy by hav-
ing more speedy trials in criminal
cases.
The courts are not to blame for the
lynchings. IL when an outrage is
committed that provokes lynohing
the people knew that the guilty crimi-
inal would be tried and convicted
within two or three months it would
not stop the proceedings. The law $
delay is not the actuating emotion. 1t
is simply the explosion Of gun that
has long been loaded. The newspapers
speak Of lynchings as the act Of a
howling, yelling, demoniac mob. The
newspapers do not know. Editors live
in town and feel secure. Their wives
can visit, their daughters 60 to school
without apprehension of danger. The
police are always within call, and
neighbors, are near. But go to the
country and get close up to the heart
Of farmer who has children, and he
will tell you that the apprehension Of
some horrible calamity is always over
him. That it is shadow that follows
him when he leaves home or his chill
dren have gone to the neighboring
school, not that it makes him mise
BILE, but nevertheless it comes over him
in spite of himself. This feeling is
common to all country people, esreci-
ally the poor-the tenants who cannot
give protection like the rich. / have
heard them talk about it often, and |
know that this fear kept manv little
country girl from school. That dark
path through the woods and across the
creek, and those negroes in the fields
or at the mines or wandering up and
down the creek with hook and line.
tsWho next?' is the thought whenever
they read Of an outrage, and so when
one does occur in their vicinity, she
pent up emotions break loose, and they
join in the pursuit as Putnam and his
men pursued the wolf that had SO long
preyed upon their sheep folds. Such
negroes are brutes and deserve no more
consideration. If his crime affected
anyone who was near and dear to me /
could see him burned and feel no re-
gret, but satisfaction rather in the
hope that I might intimidate some
other brute. .
When will these things stop? |
don t mean the lynchings, for they will
never stop as long as the outrages go
on When will the outrages stop?
They do not seem to be abating, but
are increasing in frequency. Indeed,
the last report of Colonel Jones, t,le
principal keeper, gives no encourage
ment. Crime is on the increase among
the negroes. Within two years 245 have
been added to the number Of convicis.
They now number near 1000, and
within eight years will number 5000 if
the rate goes on. What an army-and
what an army it will take to guard
them! Is there any way to stop or d.
minish this black current of crimes
that is overpowering the land? The
School Commissioner beasts that illit-
eracy is rapidly decreasing in Georgia.
What of it if crime is increasing? 1t
is good citizenship that we want. Ed
ucation: does not diminish crime, but
it increases it-not little, but im-
mensely. That is not controverted
now. Massachusetts, has about twice
the white population of Georgia, ard
her illiteracy is only 8 per cent, while
Georgia is about 20 per cent, Massa-
chusetts has 1850 white convicts in
her prisons and Georgia 1913. Our ne
groes have about caught up with New
England white people in crime, and if
our present system of education goes
on they will soon surpass them. Ec-
ucation without moral training is a
curse instead of blessing. The Com
missioner report shows that so per
cent. of these negro convicts are under
thirty years or age, and Of course
know nothing of slavery; 80 per cent.
are under forty years of age, and only
5 per cent. are over fifty. Forty-one
per cent. of them can read, but the old
negroes who had training while in sla'
very are not in the changing, as u
general thing.
These statistics show that the ne.
groes in the schools are not getting
that moral training that makes good
citizens. The negro teachers fail to
teach them honesty, truth, charity;
obedience to law, and other cardinal
virtues. MANY of the teachers are
leading in these virtues themselves,
and the negro editors and negro
preachers are more exercised about the
lynchings than they are about the outra.
ges provoked them. There ought to be
some special rules prescribed for negro
schools. The decalogue should be
printed in large letters and framed and
hung up in every school-room, and
three of the commandments should be
in larger type than the rest. The race
traits of the negro should be impressed
upon the pupils. They should know
that, out of 1,750 convicts, 1850 are
there for larceny in some form. Their
inclination to steal is natural, and it is
natural to say shat if all who steal
were punished there would be five
times the number in the chaingang
Every family who hires them knows
this. The cooks and housemaids, and