The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-08-11
HOW TO PUT DOWN LYNCHING.
The Question is Hardly Discussed
Before More Crimes Follow.

~ 49,
example of it came to prove his
had said that %lynching is now in this
country "a profound social disease"
and that it is certain to become en-
demic in every corner of our country.
north and south, unless heroic rene
dies are swiftly adopted to check it,
He added hat the north is already
almost as fully inoculated as the
south, and predicted that such riots
as that at Evansville might be ex-
pected any day in any other northern
city.
Danville, in Illinois, on Saturday full
filled Professor James prophecy al
most as soon as it was -'lblished.
h northern city of $1,000 people,
amply provided with schools and
churches and newspapers. the home OF
the designated speaker Of the Gus
Of representatives of the United
States, suddenly found itself at the
mercy of a booldthirst~ mob. 1t was
the usual story. A negro accused of
Infamous crime; the officers of the law
duly arresting him.; a frenZied mob
Shrieking for his blood: collisions and
murders in the streets; the Jail attack
ed and a courageous sheriff fighting
Vii SiAC ISop1NloSAS lllS i IL 1bl
ter rushing off to glut their fury on
another negro, who was lynched with
every circumstance of atrOcity: tho
militia called out. n Danville saved
by military rule from being sacked by
it's own citizens-it is the familiar and
~diSgraceful round that was run. The
same newspapers that make US sup on
these horrors bring also news of two
simultaneous lynchingS in the south
n of e of a woman the other of
the wrong negro'-and of another
| threatened and barely averted IN
Pennsylvania.
The whole phenomenon. with the
steady march of lawlessness and fero-
city to the north, is enough to stag
ger the StouteSt patriot. We are in
the presence of q new national peril.
| Senator Tillman is quite right in main
tanning that lynching a no longer be
said to be sectional. AS a nation. we
| are disgraced by it. AS a nation. we
! are ais put in imminent danger by
| 1t. For let no mar attempt to deceive
the people with smooth words. Pro-
fessor James is i~rrefragable. A plague
worse than the cholera is upon us.
| Epidemic lawleSsneSs. stamped all over
with iendish brutality, is a thousand
fold more to be dreaded than epidemic
| disease. There is no need to waste
breath in either describing or denounc-
ing the frightful evil. Every man not
L SlcSpcO LII 1S1lO1dIlCe oI ldppe III ue-
| fusion knows what it is-knows that
it is not merely making us a kissing
| n ScOrn in the eyes of the world, but
is undermining our own safety, n
| causing American society to revert to
| the time when on man knew at What
moment a savage foe might not spring
upon him from ambush. The time has
passed to apologize for lynching, or
even to explain it; and we must all
unite to put it down if We would not
see it topple all our laws and courts
| into the abyss.
That the sharpest and sternest mea-
sures against l%ynching mobs hould
everywhere be adopted by the officers
of the law, goes without saying. Pro-
| fesSor James seems to desire some
form of special legislation ad hoe. But
| there are laws enough. The statutes
| against murder are amDle-and lynch
ing is murder. If governors and sher-
ifs and police officers will enforce the
present laws up to the hilt, we need
ask no further enactments against
lynchers. Let them be shot down like
the wild beasts they are. Let aver
| officer who refuses to parley with the
mob. n talks to it in the only Ian
| guage it can understandable bullets
receive a special NEED Of praise from
his fellow citizens. That sheriff in
Danville who stood to his gum and
laid a dozen of the rioters writhing
4 on tie SiouilO RESERVES well flOI OILY
| Of his county and state. but of the
entire nation. He did what he could
to strike down an enemy more fOrmi-
dable than any foreign levy. It was
upon the fanged head of the new do
mestic treason that he set his heel.
If the citizens of Illinois know what
becomes them. at such a moment. they
will find some means Of %testifying
their gratitude % Sheriff Whitlock for
| his great public service. Sheriffs ev-
| eryWhere must be given to understand
that this is what is expected of them.
1t is said that an "ungOVernable hOm-
icidal instinct takes possession Of the
mob: a vision of blood is before them.
But if they are made to know that
the blood will. in every case. be their
own. and not that of a trembling and
helpless victim. they will find a way
to govern their instincts. 1t is good
psychology as we'll as good patriotism
which calls for the putting down eV-
erywhere Of the lynching madness with
an iro inland that knows no faltering.
But there is also a great duty laid
upon every law-abiding citizen. wheth-
err directly in contact with the lynch
ing spirit or not. He must do his
part to bring about a correct state of
public sentiment. Against all forms
of race discrimination he must set his
face like a flint: for he Will see. if he
keeps his eyes open. that the prime
Initiative of all this access
of lynching has been. as Professor
James says, the notion which has
spread with "appalling %rapidity."
that ANY negro accused of crime is
public spoil, to be played with as long
as the fun lasts" This is the fruitful
mother of all our woes. Even if we
thought the negro always brute be
yond the pale of the law. we should be
bound not to assert it. or ever to say
h0nphtlpSS1V 'Sorvpi him riphf'
since through the negro the licensed
mob is striking at our national life,
and no man will be safe if the thing
goes on. So we affirm that every form
of apologize reference to the lynching
Rob is, as the case stands today. a
kind of participation in the crime from
which every good citizen Will refrain.
Let US hear no more about tpassi0nal
crimes" and IF we were only in their
places or could We but see the wo-
mans face" The terrible fact is that
we are face to face with a kind Of ma