The Washington times. (Washington, D.C.) 1894-1895, 1894-09-23
THE PEOPLES FORUM.


THE TIMES undertakes no responsibility
for opinions expressed in this column. Cor
respondents are requested to limit their COM
munications to $50 words.
Naming Short Streets.
EDITOR TIMES: For the naming OF short
streets, running parallel with lettered streets,
1 suggest that names be given them beginning
with the letters of the streets next to them In
the direction of the Capitol.
To illustrate, the short streets between Q
and streets northwest. now known by the
quartette OF names, Corcoran, Monroe Sher-
man, and Hillyer, in the eight squares be-
tween Thirteenth and Twenty-first streets.
should be called Quincy, or some other name
or names beginning with @.
In the five squares between Fourteenth and
Nineteenth streets and between and T
streets northwest, appear the names Pierce,
Blake, Swan. Oregon, and Cedar, and as they
are on the side OF street furthest from the
Capitol they should be given some name or
names beginning with S.
Fsnton street, between North Capitol and
first streets east and X and l. streets north,
should have some name beginning with K;
and Linden and Wylie, between Twelfth and
Thirteenth streets northeast, and north of G
and II streets respectively. should be given
names beginning with those letters, and so on
throughout the city
By this method it would soon become gen.
orally known that their initial letters indicate
their location, north and south, and that 905
Grant street could be found in at least one OF
four localities, seven and half squares north
or south OF the Capitol and nine squares east
or west instead Of one of as many hundred.
WILL LEsHER.
Mr.. BruceWrites of the English Committee.
EDITOR TIMES: SIR-The announcement
through the public prints OF the arrival in this
country OF number of English gentlemen Of
more or less prominence, whose mission is said
to be to investigate Southern lynchings and
Southern outrageS upon negroes, seems TO
have excited a majority Of the chief executives
OF the Southern States and caused them to
give utterance to sentiments more forcible
than they are logical or reasonable. note par
ticularly the lurid and sulphurous denuncia-
ton of the English, which is credited TO the
Governor of Virginia. in which have looked
in vain for a single sentence that applies to the
question at issue. All that have been ableto
discover in the strong and emphatic utter
ances Of this positive Governor is string OF
adjectives aimed at body OF men who are not
even on American soil, as am reliably in
formed. This Governors answer TO the ques-
ton propounded consists chiefly of recrimina-
ton and abuse of the English. and recrimina-
ton is never accepted as satisfactory answer
TO any charge that can be successfully shown
20 be true.
L have read all the opinions of the Southern
Governors, and / was never more forcibly re-
minded Of that passage OF Scripture which
records the fact that Jesus Christ, when he
cast the devils out of a certain man who was
overloaded with them, was admonished 10 go
away, and informed that he had nothing TO
do with them than l was when / read the
fiery denunciations of these excellent chief
magistrates of the South against the inter
ference of committee of English gentlemen
into the internal affairs of the States. where
lawlessness for the past twenty-five years has
been the rule rather than the exception.
1t is no answer to say TO English people
that they have mistreated the Africans or the
Sepoys, or that they have allowed JACK the
Ripper TO go unhung for his crimes. In the
latter case it IS no fault OF the English peo-
pie that he remains unhung. He will be if ap-
pretended. The question is, do the several
States of the South, where lynching is popu-
lar, exercise due care to apprehend and pun
ish by legal process the fends vino brUtally
murder other alleged fiends, who violate as Is
charged the persons of white women in those
sections? Ale negroes roasted, burned at the
stake, put into barres with nails driven into
them and tortured to death by being rolled
about in them, upon the mere statement OF
some white man or woman that they have at
tempted to outrage white women?
The record is a public one. II committee
Of English capitalists may come to the United
States with view to making investments Of
money and should desire to know somewhat
of the location in which they concluded to
settle and establish their enterprise there
would certainly be no objection from South
ern Governors or southern editors 10 this sort
OF interference; on the contrary they would
extend them every courtesy and hold out
tempting inducements to them 10 locate and
grow up with the country.
The criminal who is charged with an Of
tense generally pleads not guilty. but the
proof of his guilt or innocence is established
by the testimony Of competent witnesses who
have positive knowledge of the circumstance.
The South is at the bar of public opinion. II
is charged against it and proven that it does
commit crimes against the citizen without
warrant of law. 1t pleads, through some of its
chief representatives not guilty, and in self
defense charges its accusers with the COM
mission of crimes equally as grave
The Governor of Virginia, who IS holder
and more aggressive, more defiant than the
others, pleads guilty for his proud old COM
monwealth and then attempts TO justify the
crimes against God and against civilization
by an argument rs specious as it is illogical
and unreasonable.
If the laws of the State are sufficient for all
purposes and to reach all classes of yiolators
why result TO laWlessness? Why the need of
a code of laws TO govern and protect society
and the honor and majesty of the State? The
Duke of Argyle and his committee exist only
in the imagination of the bright newspaper
man who introduced him and it 10 the read
ing public. II was clever hoax, but will
evidently serve to give intelligent Englishmen
very clear idea of the kind OF reception they
would receive in this country should they be
foolish enough to come here on such mis-
sion.
The Southern Governors have voiced no
doubt the sentiment of their people on this
subject, and in so doing they have not helped,
but rather improved the South. Christ drove
the devils out of the man who was possessed
OF them. Public opinion will drive the devil
of lynch law and murder out of the South.
J. E. BRUCE.