The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-09-04

4 without soon learning that
what to do with the negro
presents the most discussed and per-
picking problem with which the
Southern people have TO deal. Less
intimately but with scarcely lessenod
force it also concerns the people of
the North and East and West, because
it is national problem. calling for
the best thought, work and counsel of
the best citizenship everywhere. All
| contributions To its elucidatiOn are
therefore of interest and in a recent
issue of the New York sun there was
one from Professor Goodwin Smith
that, by virtue Of it's authors rcputa-
| tiOn, is worthy of review.
Naturally Professo" Smith starts
with lynchings, those multiplying
signs that something is rotten in Den
mark. He notes that they are not
| confined to cases Of rape, nor can they
be explained ON the ground that deli
cacy forbids the examination of the
injured woman in open court The
woman, if she cannot he examined in
court, might be examined i'm camera.
Negroes, che observes, are lynchcd for
murder and on suspicion of completely
in murder. \ negrO's house is burned,
he is shot down, and his wife and in
FAINT child are slain because he has
been made a postmaster a negro
woman has been lynCheG for theft,
and negro women have been cruelty
hOGged for misconduct which in white
| women goes unpunished. Negroes in
other countries are not extraordinarily
| a menace to white women. He rcCOl-
| lccts that during the civil war, while
the men of the South were in the field
and their wives and daughters We're left
in the guardianship of the negro, we
were told that in no case had the trust
| been betrayed. This was the Souths
own testimony.
l'ut what in his opinion is at this time
so fatally significant is not the mere
slaEinE of the negro for rape or any
other Oifensc; it is the attitude of the
I noplc toward the practice. Hundreds,
cyrn thousands, go out to see a negro
| put t. death of torture, to glOat over
| his aPOnies, to carry away momentoes
| IN the shape of burnt rags of his clothes
| or pieces of his Charred bones. Such
| things, he argues, bespeak not merely
| CruG and laWlesS resentment of out
rage, but a deadly hatred and contempt
| Of race with which, the mark of race
! l,cirE indclible, lapse of time can hard
| ly 90 away. Professor Smith does not
| find in the history of the negro in other
| countries much encouragement for the
brliei that he is capable of development
to q plane of equality with the white
man, but even If it We're certain that
| the negro could be developed to equal
the white in every particular of ability
and character, there is still the instinc-
| tive Physical antipathy of the white for
| the black, the Chasm of color to be
| rocKoned WITH and the Toronto pro-
fessor can think of no adjustment
which will overcome this natural source
OF dlscOrd, The most that he can say
is In hope that somehow in a manner
now unforeseen, the average good sense
ot the common people may evolve a
working remedy.
The Washington Post, discussing
| lyuChiEgs, thinks that ii has found a
sure cure in teaching the people where
negro raplsts are found that the out
RACES which they commit "wiu be
| promptly, certainly and terribly
avenged through the agencies Of JUS
tiCe," We also believe that the law
should take a swift though orderly
course in punishment of outrage irre-
srective of the color or geographical
location of its perpetrator; but the
history of punishments does not teach
that severity ceduces crime. Crime is
a symptom OF deep-seated social dis
ease. The disease must he conquered
| and its causes removed before the