The Savannah morning news., 1900-08-15
BANNA,s PITY EXCITED.

BANNA's PITY EXCITED.
Senator Hanna has been moved to re-
mark that iynching is not party mat
Ter" II seems. according to our dis
patches yesterday. tina. Lillian Clayton
Jewett, the Boston girl who is seeking
rotoriety by posing as the Joan of arc"
of the Anti-Lynehing League of Boston.
called on Senator Hanna on Monday. al
the headquarters Of the Republican Com
mfttee in New York, for The purpose of
getting the Republican party to indorse
the Anti-Lynching League and its work.
After talking with this would-be Joan
Of Arc" for an hour. he cried out. Poor
girl" and told her that he could do moth
ing for her and the cause she represent
ed. because lynching was not party mat
ter.
Lillian Clayton Jewett appears 90 have
created a great amount OF interest in her
self in Boston and thereabouts. The story
has been circulated that "a was her plan
to put herself al the head of LOT of
negro crusaders and march through the
South. She denies that she ever had any
such purpose. but as she doesn't seem
10 be a well-balanced person, il is prob
able that she does not know very clearly
whether she ever had such a purpose or
not
There seems to be a pretty large per-
centage of people in Boston and in the
vicinity Of that city that have nothing TO
do except 10 encourage just such cranks
as this Jewett girl appears to be. Lynch
ings are, of course, to be condemned
but in order TO stop them would il not
be better to begin a crusade against the
cause of them? If these Boston people
who are encouraging the Jewett girl were
as honest as they are jealous. they would
admit without argument that negroes
would be Ynched in any Northern com
munity for the crime for which they are
lynched in the Southern communities.
Only last week a negro came very near
being lynched in the neighborhood of
Madison Square, New York. A negro
was pursued by crowd of people CRYING
Lynch HIM Lynch him. because it
was reported that he had assaulted a
child. He would have been lynched. in
all probability, if the police had not pro-
tected him AS 1t was, he was very
roughly handled.
Let the negro commit in the North the
crime for which he is most commonly
lynched in the South and he would he
lynched there just as promptly as he is
here There is no more consideration for
che criminal negro in the North than
there is in the South As we have pointed
out. the reason there are more Iynchings
in the South than in the North is be-
caues there are vastly more negroes in
the South. If in the North the percent
age Of the negro population were as great
as it is in the South there would be as
many lynchings there as there are here.
As matter of fact the negroes that
are lynched in the South are worthless
creatures The lynching of a decent self
respecting negro is never heard of in the
South.
And Is ID not strange that these Boston
people who are making such a fuss over
Lillian Clayton Jewett have never a word
20 say for the victims of the negroes
who are Iynched? And yet these victims
are deserving Of far more sympathy than
the victims of mob violence.
We are not defending lynching We are
simply showing that there are two sides
90 the lynching question. and that if the
Boston people were TO suffer from out
RACES such as are the cause of most of
che lynchings. the lynching record would
be just as great in Boston as in any
Southern community.