The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1900-08-31
THF AMERICAN MOB.

at Akron, Ohio. Upon each occasion
the Fundamental trouble was the
race question. In New Orleans a
negro killed a white policeman, and
the mob organized to main and MUIR
der as many negroes as they could.
If the trouble had been between two
white men, 1t would have ended
there or been carried to the courts.
In New York the same thing hap
pened. A negro killed white
policeman, and the mob took it up
just as they did in New Orleans.
In Akron, Ohio, a drunken negro
assaulted little white girl, and a
drunken mob proceeded to avenge
the insult by dynamiting public
buildings and burning private prop
erty. If the offense-heinous as it
wa, had been committed by a
dIunken white man, the drunken
loafers who usually constitute these
city mobs, would have jollied him
doubtless for his bad break ana en-
barrassing exposure.
Soft is the race question, not the
offense, that causes these mobs, and
the race question belongs to the
North nearly az much as to the
South, and to tie East no less than
the West. The North has fewer
negroes to contend with, and they
are more educated as a class. But
the South knows better how to treat
them. So that the race question
belongs alike to all sections, and is a
question time and patience and
prudence must dispose Of
But the mob question Is another
question, and it seems to US should
be treated differently. The mob
cannot settle the race question; they
can only stir up strife and engender
bad feeling. The mob does not want
to settle anything. It is vengeful,
hateful, wicked and malicious In its
purpose. 1t is not intended to
redress wrong or prevent the re-
currence of an evil. 1t is simply the
opportunity bad men embrace to
take malicious revenge upon those
they hate. There may be an oc-
casional, individual exception to
this general rule; but that one when
the cruel work is done, suffers the
tortures of guilty conscience and
would give all but his life to undo it,
The mob solves no question, helps
nobody, but hurts every individual
and community it touches, and the
mob, no more than the Malta,
should be allowed to exist in Amer
lea.
| We believe in revolution, as a
fundamental right of the people.
But for our revolutionary sires none
of US wolld be free. So when the
law had failed them and justice was
cheated, the mob that shot the Malta
to death in New Orleans, was some
thing akin to revolution, and may
have quasi endorsement as such
And the revolt among the people
who would say we will no longer en-
dorse the partial enforcement OF
class legislation that cheats US o.
our rights and entails poverty upor
our offspring, might be condoned al
the impatient, rash act of long suf
fering patriots. And the country
may see this sooner than they think
But the American mob, as it is anC
as it shows its hideous face nearly
every day, should be no longer tenn
porized with, but shot down, SAN
ceremony. The man who shoots
into mob, fires at an enemy of hi
country. The man who takes al
arms to defend the law, howeve
mean a culprit may claim protec
ton under that law. defends his hom
and the peace and safety of his fire
side. The mob breeds disorder
. anarchism, incendiarism, murde
and strife. As well reason with
pack of hungry wolves; as wei
argue with herd of stampeded cat
tie. They are socially depraved ant
fatally bent on mischief, and wher
ever they show their heads the,
should be shot down, and you woult
soon hear no more of the mob.
Then those who are capable Q
thinking, and really want to redres
wrongs, could take hold of the rae
question and settle it. The bette
class of negroes would help the bet
. ter class of whites, and there woul
soon be little or no trouble betwee
| the races in the South, if it were nc
] for the meddlesome interference fror
other sections, and the prejudic
+. and hate, engendered and kept aliv'
: by the mob.
n By agreement, Giles county is a
a lowed to name the floterisl represer