The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-02-11
THE NEGRO WHITE d.
"DOCTORED" THE RECORD.

Washington. u. C.. Feb. 9.--fSpecial.)
Some controversy having arisen here
as to what George White, the negro
Congressman from the Second North
Carolina district said as TO the lynch
ing of negroes for assaults on white
women two members Of Congress from
North Carolina have procured from the
notes of the official stcnographer an ex-
act copy OF what White really said in
his now notorious interruption of Con-
gressman Linney. The stelHographer' 5
notes show that White said:
Il have investigated the facts in
regard to these lynchings, for the last
two and a half years, and L: say that
less than seventy-fve per cent of the
lynchings which have occurred in the
United States were chargeable to the
cause stated: and If there were not out
RACES and assaults committed-not upon
white women by black men, but by
white men upon black women those
lynchings would be less than they are
now"
The Congressional Record does NOT
give the same Language exactly. II
makes White say:
Il have examined this question and I
am prepared to state that not more than
fifteen per cent of the lynchingS
are traceable TO that crime, and there
are many more outrages against colored
women by white men than there are by
'colored men against white women"
The Associated Press reported White
as saying:
'T have investigated the fynchings in
the South and find that less than Is per
cent Of them are due to the crime of
rape And / desire to announce here
that if il were not for the assaults of
white men upon black women, there
would be less Of the other class"
1t is asserted here that in consequence
of the fllrore raised by Whites asser-
tion that it was ''doctored" before it
appeared in the Congressional Record.
Now it was not an independent speech
Of Whites hut merely an interruption
in the speech of Mr. Iinney and So
could not. under the rules, be changed
before appearing in the Record with
out his consent. The dismay that
Whites utterance caused among the
cooler white Republicans from North
Carolina is we'll known and il is likely
that Mr.. Linney gave his consent to the
tanning down Of Whites remarks with
the greatest alacrity. if indeed, he did
not suggest it.
An examination of what White says
in the Record and what the stenogra-
piers notes report him as saying shows
that there is quite difference. In the
Record he is made to say merely tina,
there are more outragcS committed by
white men upon negro women than by
negro men upon white women. In the
stenographer's report it appears that he
really asserted that the assaults of ne
groes on white women are in retaliation
for assaults by white men upon negro
wOmen-in other words that white men
are responsible for the crimes o1 both
races!
4 few days later in his diatrbe against
the News and Observer the colored
member modified his statements still
further and tried to make it appear that
he had not said what he did say. Thus
he declared II did not Justify the
commission of assaults by black men
upon white women on the ground that
white men did the same in regard to
black women" The official stenogrn-
piers notes show that that was exactly
what the Negro member did do. as ap-
pears above.