New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-08-18
4 NEW-YORK RIOT.

The rioting here, in which negroes suffered
| severely at the hands Of white brutes, largely
| through the unskilful and treacherous conduct
of the police, is not unnaturally made the sub
feet Of comment, and to some extent an occa-
sion for sneers, in the South 1t is just to say,
however. that such utteTaDces have been
quoted from that quarter are on the whole mod
crate in Tone and there seems to be little dis
position there to exult over such displays Of
lawlesSness in New-York as have brought SINH
lar discredt on Southern communities. So far
as this reasonable and decorOus temper pre-
walls, it is worthy of recognition and acknowl-
edgment
Nevertheless, It appears to us that even in
the more friendly and sensible expressions Of
Southern newspapers and public men on the
outbreaks OF violence in this city there is a
failure to take just the right attitude. The
common deduction, that 1.-THE white man in the
North is the same as in the South is one
which we cannot adopt in the sense in which it
is proclaimed. There Is no geographical limit
| to base passions, and we constrained to
| admit that these assaults committed on negroes
| IN our streets were utterly ineXcusabe and out
rageous and that the police Of Southern cities
have seldom, if ever. behaved worse than the
| police Of New-York behaved on Wednesday
night But there is one important fact of
which we respectfully ask Southern observers
| TO take notice. Not a single word has been
said by any reputable citizen of New-York in
defence of the rioters or in palliation Of their
acts. The colOred population Of that part of
the city where the mob ragged and many po-
| Hcemen wickedly betrayed their trust is com
posed to a considerable extent of depraved and
| vicious elements, but nothing is heard about
the propr1ety of administering a little whole
| aiT1in 70 fI1a nd
public instantly and in the most emphatic man
ner condemned the mob and its uniformed
allies. The universal feeling of respectable So
| cety is that the city has been disgraced, and
that every guilty person ought to be vigorously
punished, and the necessity of administering
q large amount Of Wholesome discipline" to
| the police force is widely recognized.
| This general and determined sentiment is the
only gratifying feature of the situation. And
| yet we would not claim any great credit on
account of it. No other state Of the public
mind ought to be conceivable in any COM
munity which calls itself civilized The South
will assuredly learn, sooner or later, that law
lessness cannot possibly prevent lawlessness or
cure any unhappy condition of existence but
| must inevitably produce and diffuse the evils
which ii is invoked TO eradicate. We do not
mean for a moment to imply that we have no
| moral ana CIVIC inconsistencies TO be ashamed
of in this part of the country On the con-
| trary, New-YOrk is suffering at the present time
because of it's consent three years ago to the
installation Of abominable municipal gov
eFnment of which the conduct OF the police this
week has been a striking example, and our peo-
pie uniformly too tolerant of abuses which
an alert and resolute public opinion might re-
dress. But this city does not indulge a tender
ness for mobs whatever the color or national
! ity of their victims, and declines to accept as
true Interpretation of its recent experience the
doctrine that 1.-The white man in the North is
| the same as in the South