The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1900-05-16
A MURDER AND ITS STUDY.

negro. was lynched In Georgia. On Sat
urday he had shot to death a popular
young white man OF Augusta in a crowded
street car. The frenzy with which the deed
was committed was without provocation.
Willis and companion had crowded into
the car, already filled with whites. His
companion was told by the murdered man
that there was no room for another on the
scat he sought TO occupy. Willis advised
his friend to take a seat anyhow. The
ill-mannered advice was Immediately acted
upon and the negro crowded down into
the white mans lap. The white man
promptly slapped him i'm the face. Willis
drew his pistol and began firing at the
white man who had but resented a brutal
assault and who fell dead under the first
shot. This is the story as the newspapers
print It, 1t is not questioned. 1t must be
true.
Now look out for a howl from the In
termeddlers. who are ever attempting to
solve for the South its racial problem,
about Southern lynchlngs OF the poor, de-
fenseless negro
We have naught TO say about the lynch
ing of the man Willis except to condemn
It. The law should have obtained and
Willis given hearing before a jury of
his peers, albeit the provocation was so
insufficient as TO have very probably pro-
voked mob violence had the murderer, like
his victim, been white. There are sug-
gestfons growing out OF this affair in
diabollsm OF which 1t IS timely TO treat,
in view of all tho discussion now hing
ing about the race question.
There is a law in Augusta that re-
quires street car companies to provide
separate accommodations for white and
black. Tho company which has violated
this law and the authority which has per-
mtted 1t to do so are grRvely culpabie
with the murderer. in this instance Had
the one observed and the other enforced
the law tho white man would not have
been murdered and Willis not lynched
What was the reason of this law? A
good one and tho same that Is behind the
separate coach law In Texas--to provide
every means within the power of legisla-
tion to avoid conflict between the races,
whenever they are thrown together, in
any save voluntary association. The white
man In the South win not occupy a seat
with a negro II he can avoid IT, The time
will not come within tho life of living
man. and ought not to, when he Will
change his mind on this subject II the
white man objects to companionship Of
the negro IN his travels he resents en-
forced negro contact on street car, rail-
way line or elsewhere with his wife and
children. He Is right about 1t and, wheth-
err hh is. all the rabld rantings Of all the
sensational mongers OF all the Eastern
and Northern centers in America can moi
change his view any more than they can
put aside the work of Deity and recon
struct human nature. The negro lSnowe
this as Wen as does his Southern white
neighbor, He moreover knows that h
must keep the place assigned him IN the
social system by his white nelghbor
Knowing these things It is incomprehen-
sible that members of his race are from
time TO time found who insist upon fore
ing themselves on their white neighbors
on the vulgar theory that they are "as
good as the white man" aud that the
white mans determination to deny them
fellowship is predIcated in brutal pur-
pose to humiliate and discourage them.
No self-respectng white man will in.
trude himself upon his own kind where hi
is not wanted nor does he conclude tina
,.tuh txri,ta
upon to defend is abridged when his neigh.
hor exercises the prerogatlve OF choos ms
his own associates without consulting tn,
tGbooed individual
Every observant man In the South re.
calls with a shudder time when. in al.
NEST all our towns there were negroes
who sought 70 obtruds themselves on tn,
whites. That time, happily for both
parties to the condition, has practical,
ceased TO exist. 1t is only when some
lnsolent creature, mad with superficial
education and swollen with the fancy tina
he is fashioned to do as he pleases. walks
the boards that trouble is engendered be-
tween white and black
The negro must learn that he can moi
rise TO worthy place in American citizen
ship nor in social status except by the
route of merit which has been imposed by
God and man upon every race OF men that
has risen or fallen since the dawn OF crea-
tion. His white nelghbor has attained the
civilization he struggles 10 initiate by that
route, The negro must travel Il too
When he shall plant his feet bravely In
that path he will eventually reach the
goal OF his greater emancipation. Not be-
fore. Meanwhile let him bear we'll in
mind that his white nelghbor of the South
who gives him this advice knows him bet
Ter. and is his surer friend, than the senti-
mental idiot of the North or of his own
race who counsels him to rebellion agains,
social laws as memorable as Divine de-
cree.
-
The Federal and munlclpai authority in
I 1alIaa ha oil