Omaha daily bee., 1896-01-02
ON LYNCHlNG BE SUPPRESSED2

There is widespread sentiment
among all civilized people against sum.
mary capital punishment by mobs of
persons charged with crime. Lynch
law administered by vigilance commit
tees may have served Il salutary purpose
| in mining camps and frontier settle
ments in the absence of regularly or
ganized courts. Mob violence. however.
| is abhorrent and utterly indefensibie in
any community where law officers and
law courts are within reach for the i'm
partial administration OF justice.
But it is passing strange that it should
be deemed necessary or eXpedient for
mon and women in high station in Great
Britain to organize an anti-lynching
committee with Il view to obtaining re-
liable information on the subject of mob
outrages in America and to give
expression of public opinion in
condemnation of such outrages.
This anti-lynching committee. with
the duke of Argyll ut its head, has
just issued report, in which it is
claimed that the exposure and denuncia-
ton by the press of Great Britain and
other European countries, as well as
by the press of India, Australia and
Africa, have greatly diminished the
lynching mania in the United States.
1t is further pointed out on the authority
of Mrs. Ida b. Wells-Barnett ''that
American efforts for the suppression of
the evil increase or relax largely in pro
portion to the degree of publicity given
to the matter"
While the Right Honorable Duke of
Argyll and his associates may take
credit to themselves for the univer-
sally expressed desire TO suppress lynch
ing, it is doubtful whether anything
that has been said on this subject by
Tho press of Europe, Asia or Africa has
had the rcmoteSt effect in rcpressing
the outbursts of popular frenzy that
culminnte in lynching. All that the
British committee and the foreign press
have done or could do in this direction
would have been accomplished without
their intervention in America by local
agitation and the action of The Ameri-
can authorities.
The fact is that lynching is very much
like lightning, it strikes suddenly where
it is least expected and seldom strikes
twice in the same spot. They are more
frequent in the south than in the north,
because southern people are more emo
Iional and the provoking conditions are
more abundant. 1t is equally fallacious
to assume, as does Mrs. Wells Barnett, |
that increased publicity causes proper
tionate decrease of the crime. In no
place in the world is wider publicity |
given to the commission of crime than |
II America. Every murder is chronicled |
Dy telegraph within few hours of its |
discovery in every part of the land, |
)ften with too much horrible detail. |
And yet the number of murders has not |
,een appreciably diminished. The same
$ true in a greater degree of mob out |
Freaks and mob murder. Such reports
command the highest price in the
American newspaper market and every
Ittempt to suppress them proves futile
even in communities where public SEN
iment is intensely opposed to lynch law,
pontaneous outbreaks have occurred to
lyenge the commission of some das-
ardly outrage that rouses men to the
highest pitch of innate savagery.
The most effective barriers to lynch
ngs are fearless and unfinchlng law
Ulcers, who are known to be determined
o uphold the law at all hazards and
rotect the lives of prisoners and per-
ons threatened with mob violence,
whether they are black or white, high
II low. To elect such officers and sus-
ain them in the discharge of duty re-
uires powerful and healthy public
eminent in favor of law and order.
% this end. the enemies Of mob rule