The record-union., 1896-12-28

ever assumes to conduct an exponent OF
public opinion, to cast all possible in
f1uence against the unlawful resort, and
to lend the energies of the paper to
bring about the punishment of lynch
ers. But who can recall an instance in
which such lawless men have ever been
punished? So infrequent is condemna-
ton by the press of lynching that it
will be difficult to recall many instances
of leading journals making vigorous
and persistent effort to bring lynchers
TO justice.
Down in Florida the other day man
was lynched under accusation Of hav-
condemned the crime, -but in per
functory sort of way. The press of the
larger cities was more outspoken in pro-
test and the demand for the arrest and
punishment Of the lynchers. Some of
the local papers argued with the peo-
pie that approval and promotion of
lynch law hurt the county financially
and tended to keep people of the de-
sirable class from coming in and set
tling there But it is submitted that
this is a poor, a feeble and cowardly
reason, of which any decent newspaper
should be ashamed. AS the Jackson
vile Times Union" says, ''mobs will
not quit hanging men out of considera-
ton of dollars and cents diverted from
the county treasury. People moved to
mob violence are not to be bribed to
refrain from terrible crime.
The Times Union declares that the
reason for resort to lynch law in the
South, or anywhere else, is not wholly
or in part due to inefficiency of the
courts or the laws delays. These are
excuses merely, advanced in the inter
ests of and to cover the mob. 1t cites
the case of man in Georgia recently
seized by the mob in the courtroom
where the Judge had just sentenced
him to be hanged That man was ex-
ecuted by Lynch law with special bar
barity and extreme cruelty. 1t was the
spirit of revenge, a sort of blood atom
ing fury that moved the perpetrators.
1t was the animal in man aroused, the
desire to kill instantly, and with it's own
hands, and not the fear that the Of
fender would escape, for in that case
such outcome was wholly improbable,
if not impossible"
The Times Union" strikes the key
note of the whole business. 1t does SO
with such firmness, vigor and eloquence
that we cannot resist the desire to re-
produce it's incisive words, and cite
them as constituting an example all the
press of the country can pattern after
with profit:
The remedy lies in creating a public
opinion so abhOrrent of cowardly muir
der, whether committed by one man or
a hundred, that men will be restrained
from joining mobs and can be punished
If they yield to the temptation to do
so. Under existing conditions. everybody
knows that it is perfectly safe to COM
nit murder if there be company enough
to scatter the responsibility over a con-
siderable number of persons.
For every mob there are apologists,
who confuse public opinion, and in
doing so paralyze the courts. These
apologists, generally themselves much
too good to be guilty of such a crime,
should begin to realize that, without
intending to be SO, they are enemies of
the State, Of society, of civilization.
Why is it that they can see in a murder,
committed deliberately, often with the
utmost brutality, on a perfectly help
less victim, less of a crime because
committed by numerous persons, than
in the assassination, equally deliberate,
of one man by another? Is not the
former far more demoralizing to the
community, in far greater contempt of
the law, far more harmful, and. there
fore, the greater crime against the
State?
Every citizen and every newspaper
can aid in suppressing lynching, by
helping to create a public opinion that
will not tolerate it. The Times Union"
intends to do it's share