The age-herald., 1901-08-31
From the Boston Transcript.

From the Boston Transcript.
 If the Missouri precedent is to be fol- lowed, death by torture of the ceiored man who has committed q crime against q white woman will be succeeded by the punishment of other coiored people not even suspected of participation in or sympathy with the offense, together with destruction of their property. Many ne- groes who are not even under suspicion have been driven from Pierce City, Mo- by the mob and their humble homes been given up to the flames. That crime so atrocious as the murder of Miss Wild .n Missouri, deed so shocking that even at tf1is distance 1t rises to q terrible cnin. ence e1n0nR the evil deeds of the year, should be followed by swift vengearice on the perpctrator is nothing surprising. Had the mob dissolved when 1t had wrecked it's vengeance on her slayer we would think that the occasion called for little comment other than the warning that lynching grows indiscrimirating by what 1t feeds on. The brute who murdered her would have been convicted by any jury, and the law was not in the slightest dan ger of missing its course.
 But when innocent and iaw-abiding ne- groes. living in the peace of the state. are driven out of the town and barely escape from their burning, habitations. the race problem with all its horrible possibilities of blood and fire Is brought before the eyes of the whole country. No longer is 1t one for Missouri alone to deal with; 1t has become a matter of national concern, one that may test the strength and endurance of our constltu- tional fabric. If the property of Amerf- can citizens can be destroyed or taken from them without due process of law; if those who destroy it or confiscate it enjoy immunity for their acts, what be- comes of constitutional guarantees? Are they anything more than waste paper? If this lynching spirit spreads. how long will the worth of these guarantees remain popularly unquestioned? Not long, if lynching spreads from men guilty or sns- pected to men obnoxious to the sentiment of a local mob. People will ask how 1t is that this government which will move fleets and armies to rescue Ameri- cans menaced in China, cannot raise it's finger to protect an American citizen at home from mob violence against his life and property. and how long such federal impotence is to be permitted to endure? This race problem at home Is far more trying to our constitution as 1t is. far more threatening to our social fabric, than the colonial problem, novel and often yexatious as the latter is.
 In dealing with the race problem we must, as in the case of any other problem, recognize clearly the factors to be eliml- mated. It will not do the slightest good to close our eyes to these factors or any of them. We cannot hope for success fl we do not see the brutal colored mans offense, as well as the white mob's ven- geance. We must labor to raise the black man as well as the white man; we must encourage negroes like Booker T. Wash ington and white men like ex-Governor Jones of Alabama if we would see the two races in the South live in amity. Each IS on the right track with his own race. MT Washington is working to lift his people to a level of even industry; MT. Jones to elevate the whites to evenness of temper in considering offenders, white and black Above all. let us not blink at the ugly