The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-27
LYNcHINos.

From the Nashville Banner.
 The press dispatches this morning re- port another lynching in Georgia. In this instance the victim suffered the old-time fate of amateur hanging, or death by strangulation, instead of the later bar stake. mediaeval practice which has come into vogue with the modern Amer ican mob. Nearly every day lynching is reported from some part of the coun- try, and 1t is to be regretted that nine- tenths of such lawless occurrences are negro lynchings in the south. The prac- tice is becoming intolerably common, and he Is indeed blind who cannot forsee the evil results 1t is certain to entail. It is a sowing of the wind to reap the whirl- wind
 The southern people have received so much unjust criticism from the partisan northern press. especially in regard to the relation of the races, that resent full feeling seems to have been engen- dered In this section towards any ami madversion on southern happenings that may come from that source. But it is not the criticism of the northern press alone that Is to be considered in this matter. It is the gaze of the civilized world that is rivited on the south and the almost daily hangings and burnings of negroes here picture the south to peo- pie of other lands as the barbarous treat ment of. the Armenians pictured to us by the unspeakable Turk. If we explain to them the cause or provocation they will ask simply if we, the proudly dom inant white race of the south, who insist on the making and enforcement of the laws, can give no better example than this of the discharge of that important duty. They will wish to know why the whites, who assert that the negro is mem tally and morally incapable of participa- ton in government, resort to torture and barbarism instead of enforcing the prop CT execution of the laws; why we insti- tute the anarchy of the mob in the place of those laws which are of our own de- vising.
 The south cannot continue these prac- tices and retain the respect of the out
 
 | init such things and retain its own self | respect. One species of lawlessness be- gets another. The increasing number of these lynchings is a proof of their bane- l full effect. They do not check crime, but advertise and encourage it. It Is a duty l the southern people owe themselves to stop this practice They cannot afford to stand in the light in which it presents them to the world at large. They will be the greatest sufferers ultimately from the spirit of lawlessness and the disregard of established authority.
 The reputation for barbarity which these lynchings give the south abroad is attended by another kind of sinister ad- vertisement almost as evil in it's effects. The stated cause of these lynchings has led to the belief outside of the south that the white women are nowhere safe in this section. Such belief is a great ex- aggeration of the true conditions, and 1t causes the south to be looked upon as a plague spot to be summed by many white people seeking homes. It causes immi- grants to dread proximity to the southern negroes more than the pioneers dreaded life among the Indian savages. Such ideas of life in the south are altogether unwarranted, of course, but they are created by the advertisement which these repeated lynchings give our sec ton.
 public sentiment should be created in the south that will put an end to these practices They are in every way per- nicious and exceedingly hurtful. They aggravate the race problem. which Is al- ready great obstacle to southern prog ress and if permitted to continue they will bring a fruitage that must result in lasting injury. The white people of the south who insist on their supremacy should make a supreme effort to main | tain the supremacy of law,