New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-08-22
SOME LYNCHING STATISTICS.
The White Man and Negro Compared in
Their Treatment of Women.
he Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor OF The Tribune.
Sir: Kindly accept congratulations upon your
editorial of Sunday. August l6 The Vicious Circle"
You conclusively show that the responsibility for
the growth OF the ynching spirit rests upon those
who apologize for it, and. like John Temple Graves.
misrepresent the truth by claiming that lynch.ng
is check to the crime OF rape and protection 10
women. On the contrary, ''lynchlng seems to in
crease the number of such crimes according to
The Charlotte IN c. Observer" This view Of
the matter is also strongly supported by such emf
nent authority Chief Justice Lore, of Delaware,
and Justice Woodward Of New-York
l have this criticism to make of that piece OF
gratuitous (though doubt not well intended adj
vice which President Roosevelt in his letter to
Governor Durbin gives the better classes Of our
cOlored citizens, and which you would seem to
indorse, judging from this paragraph taken from
your editorial:
Spectacle negroes are not sufficiently active IN PVT.
and nteIigent S colored man should be aroused 10
preach in season and out of season morality 5 and
those OF his race who commit crime.
This is good advice for all men, but when par
ticuar is named they vince under it, and very
naturally look about see if the evidence shows
them more guilty than others. You good
enough to show that you see in part why this adj
vice cannot be cheerfully taken when you say:
The benghted blacks are not certain what awful
fate may await one OF their race, innocent or
guilty, when accused of crime 1t is no wonder
Nor is this all. Such advice is not we'll taken by
intelligent colored people, for do would be to
give credence to the charge that the crime of rape
is to which they as are particularly ad-
dicted. This charge comes from the Southern
ton of our country. The white South Will resort
to any subterfuge to justify their domination Of
the blacks. They would have the world believe
that whole race is addicted to a crime so revolt
ing as to put them beyond the pale of sympathy
OF right thinking people, when, In reality, the
facts, so far as they have been asCerta1ned, are
quite 10 the contrary; in fact race as whole
can 10y claim to a tenderer regard for its women.
In justification of what / have said must ask 10
be permitted to quote the following statistics: or
the ninetysX lynChngs that occurred in the United
States in 1907 eIghtySeven took place in the South
and nine in the North. Thirty of the Southern
lynChings a little more than one-third, were
for assaults attempted assaults. There We're
also eight negroes legally executed in the South
last year for the crime, making q total or
thirty-eght crimes OF this kind committed in that
section by colored in 1872. There are less than
United States and consequently the assaults by
cOlored males on Southern white women in 1902
were less than in 100000 of colored males n the
whole country.
dictments as found by the grand jury in the city
of Chicago during the same year. We should not
forget that thirty of the above cases We're not
passed upon by a jury. while all OF the Chicago
cases were. The Chicago Record-Herald' says
that there were siXty-t rec assaults upon Wome n,
or about one assault 10 each 1900 OF the male
popuia ton over i've years of age in Chicago Now
this would seem to show that black men are eight
times less likely to commit this crime than the
white men of Chicago. at least. The men in Chi
spectfu to women than white men are elsewhere.
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. To- 1903. " +. MbSSELLA