The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1903-07-29
AMERICAS DISGRACE,

ADluNlUA D UlOUNAUU.
1t is beyond our ken how anv we'll
minded American can refer to lynching
with anything but feeling of shame
and lgnomlny whether the lynching
takes place North or South, whether
the victim be black or white, no matter
what the crime, the fact, that lynching
is more common in this country than in
any other is one of the saddest and most
discreditable blots upon our national
life and character.
No less a democratic authority than
The Commoner, quotes the following
figures as to the lynching in the United
States, during the twenty -one years
preceding Jan. l. 1908 there were 3, 22 3333
known lySchings. OF these victims of
moblaw 1872 were blacks and 1856 were
whites, the color of the remaining los
not being stated. AS the proportion of
the blacks to the whites is not more
than | to s it is apparent that in pro-
portion to their numbers there were
nine times as many blacks as whites
who fell victims to the mob,
There is but one possible excuse for a
lynching and that is where it is known
that the law and the courts are made
quate to deal out justice. This is in
itself the gravest possible Indictment of
a oiy,i1iuaf
possibly exist in the far west at an
earlier day possibly it exists in rare
instances to-day.
In the south, and particularly where
a negro is in question there is always a
sufficient feeling of race prejudice to at
least guarantee that justice will be
done. This being true the only excuse
or palliation is taken away
Again the Commoner quotes that but
80 per cent of the negro lynchings
have been for crimes against women.
We are often asked by Southern apol-
ogists, What would you do if your
daughter should fall a victim to a
Negroes lust The question is no more
apropos than the time-honored conuu-
drum of reconstruction, Would you
want your daughter to marry negro?H
Death melted out by an Infatuated
husband or brother or father comes un-
der the head of justifable homicide
not lynching. Lynching is term ex-
pressly coined for such cases where
community or portion thereof takes
the law into it's own hands and it may
or may not include those directly in
jured. Indeed, the fearful! lynching at
Wilmington Del. took place h spite of
the'protests of the victims family.
The effect of the numerous lynchings
has not boen to decrease crime, but
simply to lower the general civilization,
lessen respect for law and add to the
numbers of the lawless class.
For an impersonal and impartial
court it has substituted a reckless rule
of might. 1t has inflicted penalty be-
You'd all measure of the crime as is
shown by the fact that nearly two
thirds OF the negro lynchings were for
other crimes than the one for which
ls claimed such summary treatment
is JUSTIFIED. It has brutalized the peo-
pie of those communities where it has
been rampant and brought back all the
atrocities of the Savage Sioux.
At one time there were 10 England
over 200 crimes for which the penalty
was death. A man could be hanged
for stealing loaf of bread, for killing q
hare or pheasant as we'll as for murder,
or for rape. The result was not to less
en- crime but to increase it, to lessen
the value of human life not to raise the
standard of morals.
Lynching has had the same effect it
has bred arrogance and recklessness in
the whites and sullen vengefulness in
the blacks.
Human justice should be made as
grim, as terrible, as irresistible as
possible 1t should avoid the haste
that hints of passion az well as the
delay that tells OF Indifference. 1t
should be inexorable, but it should be
fair. Its object should be not vengeance
but the prevention of crime and the
protection of the people.
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