The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-07-27
PROF. SHALER ON LYNCHING.

Prof. N. s. Shaler a member of the
FACULTY OF Harvard, has paper in the
international Monthly on lynching. In
1t he takes the position that this rude
law is not a sign of real lawlessness,
nor of a people given to savage out
bursts of fury. 1t is the mark of
tolk in curious adjustment to their
concept of law and of the nature of
their fellowmen. 1t cannot be taken
as a sign of low moral estate, but
rather of rude; though high concep-
ton of the measure of protection owed
to the defenseless, and, above all, to
women, and of a new, possibly tran
silent, but more likely permanent, loss
of the ancient and noble idea of JUS
tice as something set over and apart
from man, and to which he owes rev.
erence."
This is a radical departure from the
general opinion that obtained in the
North a few years ago, when lynchings
were fewer in that section than they
have been recently. and mob law dem
onstrations with tragedies at the end
of them were regarded as peculiar to
the South and West. With the spread
of the black people over the North
there has come a change; and North
erners are taking a closer and more
personal view of lynching and Its
causes; and they are finding that the
Savage outbursts of fury" do not nee
essarily indicate a retrogression from
civilization towards barbarism, as they
formerly imagined.
80 far as l have been able to judge
the state of mind of lynchers," says
Prof Shaler. lit is useless to talk to
them concerning the dignity of the law,
for they really feel that they are it's
most effective agents." That is to say,
lynchers regard themselves as the rep
resentatives of a higher law and the
dispensers of justice. An example illus
trating the self-righteous feeling of the
mob was seen in New York city only
a short time ago. in the matter of the
pay chairs in the parks. Nobody was
hanged or burned at the stake. IL is
true, but the spirit which moved the
mob to rioting and the destruction of
the pay chairs is identical with that
which leads to the hanging of culprits
to limbs. The New Workers felt that
they had suffered an outrage when
they were charged cents for the privi-
lege of sitting in a chair in the pub
lie parks, and they arose in their an
ger and smashed chairs and struck
chair tenders. And the police looked
complaisantly on. without interfering.
For matter of cents the mob gov
erned in New York, and compelled the
removal of the pay chairs. There was
no waiting for the orderly processes of
the courts.
There is a difference in degree only
between the New York mob that
smashed the chairs and the mob else
where that took the assailant of a wo-
man and hanged him to a limb. In
both instances 1t would have been flu
tile to argue to the mob the dignity of
the law As Prof. Shaler says, 1.-The
only serviceable arguments are as to
the need of the methods Of the court
to prevent miscarriages of justice and
the effect of such spectacles Qynch-
ings) in embruting the beholders. II
is TO these considerations that we must
look for the cure of this national
shame" But in the meantime he in
sists that lynching lis not fairly to be
taken as indicating a degradation of
our people" No doubt many persons
but few of them have had the courage
to give such candid expression to their
thoughts.