The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-08-10
Philosophy of Lynching.

President Roosevelt S letter W 1oNSlli oi
Durbin of Indiana, in recognition Of his
public spirited and patriotic course as to
mob violence, Is a most thoughtful ana
incisive paper, presenting the suoJect
in it's most hideous aspect as an educatlVe
and suggestive force, destroyer OF the
higher civilization; essentially an express
sion Of anarchy
The president lays bare the vileness OF
the crime of rape, but suggests that 1t is
not more objectionable than the anarchy
which progressively destroys the founda-
lions of law and order, defiles and insults
E, justice in her temple, and blunts the finer
nature and schools the mind to the pro-
! cesses of wanton torture. The president
I would free the law from dilatorness and
expedite the proceeding of justice, &C
cordng any citizen the fundamental right
to be heard in his own defense, and show
that the law is adequate to deal with
crime by freeing 1t from every vestige of
technicality and delay. Of the effect of
continuous practice of the crime of lynch
?. ing, the president says:
-, Every violent man in the community
- eICOuIdSeu ny SNSIy case VI ~ lCIllllS III
. which the lynchers go unpublished to take
q the law into his own hands whenever 1t
suits his own convenience. In the same
to way the use Of torture by the mob in
a. certain cases is sure to spread until it is
applied more or less indiscriminately in
other cases. The spirit of lawlessness
grows with what it feeds on. and when
mobs with impunity lynch criminals for
one cause, they are certain to begin to
lynch real or alleged criminals for other
causes In. the recent cases of lynching
over three-fourths were not for rape at ALL
but for murder, attempted murder and
- even less henious offenses. Moreover, the
history Of these recent cases shows the
awful fact that when the minds of men
are habituated to the use Of torture by
]awless bodies to avenge crime Of a pecul
iarly revolving description, other lawless
% bodies will use torture in order to punish
. crime Of an ordinary type.
- This is a very fearful aspect Of the case
It was the bloody tendency which grew
, into the Roman character and brought
10000 men into the sea fight of the En-
peror Claudius to slaughter each other for
the pleasure Of the emperor and his en-
courage on a single OCCASION; which
drenched the ground with the blood of
5000 wild beasts and thousands of Jews
Tor the dedication of Titus at Berytus.
=. The spendor of pagan Rome was stained
and impregnated with blood. Nero's huge
j., statue, with radiated head and symbolry
OF the sun-god, which lowered hundred
p feet above the Flavian amphithea ter
stood for all that was brutal in the Roman
imperial state. The morbid craving 70,
i blood and torture was the dominant note
n1H
The Roman gentleman and the Roman ar
tlsan, the soldier and the slave, called fol
new novelties Of slaughter, new forms Of
torture. Women descended into the
arena, dwarfs and deformed persons were
turned into 1t armed to fight each othel
unto the death. New wild beasts were
8 sought in Africa to give the spectators a
Rome new forms of pleasure and excite
9 ment, and, during the combats, tn,
screams and shouts Of the audiences wer
no less hideous and ferocious than tn
8 snarling Of the beasts. There was ,
y bunting Of susceptibilities such as cam
to Torquemada's inquisitors, who roaste,
men and women on splits and f1ayed then
alive, after the fashion Of the lynchers o
negroes to-day. All such ~indulgences de
stroy the nerve Of sympathy with suffer
Ing which distinguishes the human from
the brute creation. And to this condition
we are inevitably gravitating. Every ad
" ditional process Of torture by a lawles
mob weakens the moorings of the Law
demoralizes the country, makes a. uoocker
Of justice. 1nsidiously is this desolatin
a, barbarism undermining society. It mus
!, be destroyed or it will surely destroy us.