Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1894-09-21
DID POLITICS PROMPT 1T?

DID POLITICS PROMPT 1T?
To the Editor of The Herald
see it stated that an English com
mittee has bcen sent 'lo Investigate
and denonnce lynchingsin the South. "
just who sends this committee, and
whether or not it comes as an ad
jnnct to the management of the Re
publican campaign, is not yet clear.
at any rnte, the committee is prepar.
ell not only to investigate, bat to do.
nounce.
This last feature Of its duty could
have been attended to Just rs well in
England rs in America, and no doubt
tho function of investigation could
have beon performed MS satisfnct orilv
ut home ms it will be here, for since
the committee comes charged in ad
vance that it must denounce it is
reasonable to suppose that its energy
will be expanded more earnestly in
hunting for something to denounce
than in making II careful, candid and
impartial report of The situation us it
really is in the Southern States.
The English committee, the inves-
tieation md dennncia,ion CT which is
to be confined Ito lyncl,ings in the
South, will naturally be puzzled at
tho very threshold of its proceedings
by the homogeneous and inconsistent
limit Which has been plncod upon it's
researches. 1t will find within few
hours ride of New York ample cp
portunity to investigate the evil
which comes within the province of
ito mission, or it might go to Kansas,
weore only II few months ngo lynch
ing as revolving in detail MS has oc
cured in the South in long time;
or i'll Ohio, where only few weeks
ago another lynchihg occurred; or
tins same committee might turn its
attention TO the horrible crimes re-
Gently exposed in the lumber camps
of Michigan and Wisconsin, or it
might inquire into the butcheries
which frequently take place in the
coal regions of Pennsylvania and in
other States not of the South; or, as
Governor Northen, of Georgia, sug
gests, this same committee might
with good grace and becoming mod.
esty investigate some of the jack the
Ripper mysteriea of their own Lon.
don or assist Scotland Yord in un.
raveling some of the diabolical
crimes which have recently taken
place in the British isles.
A few weeks ago called attention
IN Herald letter to the fact that the
lynching evil WAS not n sectional one,
and that the South was neither more
nor less interested in the remedy for
it than any other section of the coun
try. A lynching occasionally takes
place south of the Ohio river, Just rs
it occasionally takes place in the
States north of it. do not believe
that lynchings, whether North or
South. arc justiIiable, and | believe
that public sentiment, both North
and South, takes this view of it,
There would be much less occasion
for mob demonstrations if tho ael
ministration of justice, both North
and South, was not so often retarded
by technical appeals to the law. The
Charleston News and Courier has
taken strong position on this line,
and l notice that only few days ago
the Governor of North Carolina ex
pressed the opinion in the public
prints that there would be less lynch
ing if there were more speedy notion
by the courts. The laws of but few,
if any, of the States of the Union are
susceptible Of such prompt appllca
ton us are those of some of our Eur
opean neighbors, especially England
and France.
But this is neither here nor there,
for the question which naturally
arises with the arrival of the English
commission is that of propriety, for
its cooked report will have but little
effect one way or another. 1t is here
to denounce, and It will denounce.
1t can scarcely be more intense in its
dennnciation than other Republican
agents and organs have been.
Completely ignoring crimes of a
similar character that occur at fire..
qnent intervals in the Northe, n
States, partisan prejudice has beer
appealed to so long for the purpose
of obtaining partisan advantage by
dfhouncing the South that the cry Of
"wolf" against tho South has long