The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-06-02

General Watts action the difficulty
would not have occurred Of course
General Watts has not yet made ary
! statement and it is due him to call
attention this fact, but all others i'm
mediately interested have made their
statements in the newspapers.
But those who have been most out
spoken were men who saw the whole
thing with their own eyes, and they
represent all classes of people and all
shades of political faith. 1t is con
sidered not unlikely that military
court of inquiry will be asked for to
investigate the whole thing and re-
port en- the facts What the outcome
of that will be remains to be seen.
Nothing has been said heretofore in
regard to the public feeling because
it was the desire of The State that
all parties be given a hearing before
the people
In the meantime the press of the
State has been speaking in no uncer-
tain tones, relying upon the state
ment of the parties participating
which have already been published.
ALL the papers yet heard from pay
their compliments to General Watts
and demand that the governor as
commander inehief order a full in
vestigation Below will be found
some of the comments referred to.
Yesterday the wounded student,
Mr. McColl. was resting easy and
was said to be getting along as well
as could be expected While his
wound is dangerous one. the best
is hoped for He has many friends
in Columbia who sincerely hope that
he will completely recover. 1t is as
yet little too early to tell what the
result Of his wound will be Officer
Dowie is out again with his head
bandaged up. but is not on duty
he will be at his post again in a few
days
On Saturday Chief of Police Daily
stated to representative of The
State that the names of several of the
students who resisted the officers had
been obtained and they would be
summoned to appear before the
mayor this morning. This was be
fore Mayor Sloan arrived in the city
The mayor came in later, however,
and the students have not yet been
summoned Mayor Sloan preferred
to wait for a few days in order to
look into the matter a little and in
order to await the result of Mr..
McColrs injuries He said yester-
day that the only feature of the un-
fortunate affair with which he will
have to deal under any circumstances
will be the action of the students in
resisting the city officers
1t is ascertained that the faculty of
the college has appointed sub CON-
mittee which has heen instructed to
collect all the testimony and make a
report which will be presented to
the board of trustees
The Charleston Post has this to
say:
"The riot on the college campus in
Columbia yesterday was disgraceful
affair for the State of South Carolina
While we cannot altogether approve
the action of the students in resist
ing the police authorities, our sym
pathies are entirely with them and
we Can readily excuse them for their
violent outbreak The State militia
has been disgraced by its officers
The mem are not to blame, sicce they
only obeyed orders, but the officers
should be courtmartialed and if found
to haze acted without justification,
they should be cashiered.
The right appears to be with the
students and they saould press their
case. The students certainly have
the first claim to college compus and
cannot be expected to vacate it on
the order of any other than the ofa
GERS of the college. The police have
no right to interfere with them un-
less they are in disorder and game
of baseball is no disorder. The State
militia have no right whatever to in
terfere with the students and no right
of presence on the campus save
through courtesy We hope the
matter will be examined into ard that
; some one will be punished
The Greenvlle News in conclud-
ing it's editorial on the subject, says !:
The News does not place the
blame. We do not wish to prejudice
the case against students. military or
plice. The affair was most unfor.
tunate, most deplorable Lives have
been endangered, serious injuries to
person have been inflicted ard the