The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-07-05

w of our contemporaries
plainly sec and say that
the verdict in the Bar
ker trial and the whole conduct of
that trial is an emphatic rebuke to
that spirit of lawlessness which claims
the right Of private vengeance to su-
persede The law--the same spirit that
brings about every lynChing bee of the
great numbers that have disgraced the
fair fame of the United States. 1t
was such a rebuke. one righteous and
just. one that should he repeated in
every case of private vengeance taken
whether by one person or by many.
But We cannot share the hopefulness
of such of these contemporaries as
have discovered in it "a strong trend
Of public feeling against lynChing."
There have been dispatches telling Of
attempts TO take prisoners from the
sheriff to execute summary retrihu-
ton" for crime charged. from more
than one state since the Barker trial
IL a least one instance the dispatch
came from a Pennsylvania town. In
a
shot two members of the mob that
was trying to lynch him on an accu-
sation of crime committed is an
nounced in the dispatches-and. what
is worse. in the headlines of northern
newspapers - as having murdered"
those two would he -murderc-s. and
the dspatCh closes by saying that in
dienation runs high" Indignation"
that lynchers should meet death at the
hands of the man they We're striving
to murder-not al their murderous and
lawless proceedings.
Alabama is one of the southern
states at present holding consttu-
tional convention. on June % the con-
Nention had under consideration a
proposed clause to make sheriff La
hle To impeachment who through ne
Elect, ConniNanCe or CowardiCe shall
permit a prisoner to be taken from his
custody and lynched." In the course
oi the discussion Ex-Governor Jones
declared, that within the past ten
years l2I citizens of Alabama had been
lynChed and that two-thirda of these
persons were not guilty of the charges
against them" This lvnching busl-
ness he added, has grown in Ala
hama until IL, has become a common
thing for persons to be shot down for
petty crimes" and that "two-thirds of
these lynChincs were due to the cow
ardiCe of the sheriffs or their willing
ness for mcha To take prisoners from
them" why should not sheriff die
at his post as we'll as a locomotive
engineer Why not, indeed?
There have been two or three cases
reported from the South recently
where a sheriff has had the courage
combined with sense of his official
duty to defy the mob of would be-
lynchers-in one case the militia hav-
ing Geterminedly performed such
duty, These cases, and Ex-Governor
Jones uttersnces are hopeful signs Of
ar awakening to some degree of
laW-ahiding spirit, on the other hand
comes the return lately made to
Louisiana court by a grand Jury that
really had been trying 10 find an In
dictment in a lynching case. I'VE are
unable TO obtain even the name Of
one member of the mob and conse-
quently found it impossible to frame
any indictment, in spite of our strenu-
Gus efforts" That is an entire COM
munity had made itself accessory af-
ter the.sfaeta., the murder, and de-
terminsd TO shield every actual par
ticipator in 1t,
Says z Philadelphia paper comment
Ing on this very case, lin the past ten
years Bnchings have exceeded the
legal executions by several hundred. :"
As Ex-Governor Jones said of the 127
of these in his own state "two-thirds
OF these persons were not guilty OF the
charges. against them" and a great
many were charged simply with pet
ty crimes" The spirit of murder and
lawlessness grows more rampant with
every successful defiance of law, every
unpunished individual or organized
taking of the law into private hands
No country but America is cursed with
II. 1t is this same spirit which organ
lies mobs and murders workmen who
refuse to join, or obey, the commands
Of union"