Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1894-11-30

were amazed. They sent committee
to investigate Miss Wells statements.
They found all she had said to be true,
and even more terrible things were
true which she did not tell. She re-
turned to this country and her audiences
are large and composed of many who
turned deaf ear to her appeals but a
few brief months previous. All good
people are coming to her support and
now she counts among her co-workers
leading men in all walks of life, in all
sections of the country and among all
nationalities. The Negro who attempts
to pull down the banner OF complete
liberty and protection of the law to all
citizens alike is traitor to his race :.
The Negro who assails Miss Wells and
Frederick Douglass for their efforts in
behalf of their race deserves the con-
tempt of all decent people.
The agitation of the question of
lynch law is beginning to bear fruit.
The prompt action of Gov. Mckinley
of Ohio in upholding the law will have
benefcient effect His action has
met with almost universal approval.
Even southern papers have given their
approval to the action of the officers Of
the law at Washington Court House.
The trial of the Memphis, Tenn,
lynchers is another evidence of the
| ~ oi1,i1i1affnr anI tho
death of lynch law. THERE'S an earnest
effort on the part of the court to make
thorough investigation of the case
and let the blame rest whereit properly
belongs.
Gov. Jones of Alabama has officially
denounced lynch law and its executors
and given the lie to the ministers in
that country who have been making
excuses for the mobs. saying that the
Negroes were guilty of the crime of
rape The governor cites the fact that
of nine men lynched in that state
during the past two years 'none OF
them involved the crime of rape. For
the lynching of these men not a single
man has been arrested nor has any
grand jury in the state returned an
indictment. Gov. Jones adds:
ssThis would indicate either that
local public sentiment approved these
acts of violence or was too weak to
punish them, or that the officers charged
with that duty were in some way lack
| ing in their performance. The evil
| can not be cured or remedied by silence
| as to its existence Unchecked, it will
continue until it becomes a reproach to
| our good name and a menace to our
| prosperity and peace; and it behooves
you to exhaust all remedies within your
power to find better preventives for
such crimes.
X \ K =
ssSome, indeed, contend that an officer
is not bound in law and honor to fight
in defense Of his prisoner. Il lie thereby
risk che loss of his own Life, or = where
resistance, if attempted, would prove
useless Such standard of duty tindf
no support in the law of either God or
man, and subverts the great law OF
honor, which runs through all the
relations of life, that when a man
becomes another's keeper he assumes
relations which he cannot evade or
throw off at will, no matter what the
personal peril to himself A statute
! declaring in terms that any officer
( intrusted with the custody of prisoners
is bound in law and honor to fight in
their defense against mobs, no matter
what the peril to the officer. or the
probability of successful resistance,
would have a happy effect.