Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1903-08-13
LYNCHING DEFENDED.
John Graves Speaks About "The
Mob Spirit Of the South"
DESTROY CRIMES WHICH CALL TOUT



among all summer gatherings is tn
mob conference" now In progress
here. The increase of mob spiri
shown by feuds. lynchings. riots. as
sassinations and other lawless hap
penings gives great importance to thii
conference. Among yesterdays speak
ers were John Temple Graves, Of At
lanta, Ca. who spoke on 1.-THE Mol
Spirit Of the South" He defended
lynch law as a remedy for the crime Of
rape, holding that though lynching Ii
crime, 1t is justified by the crime
which provokes 1t, and will never BE-
discontinued until that crime 10 elimi'
mated. He said:
1.-THE problem of the hour is not how
to prevent lynching in the south, but
the larger question: How shall we
destroy the crime which always has
and always will provoke lynching!
The answer which the mob returns to
this vital question is already known
The mob answers It with the rope
the bullet and sometimes, God save
us, with the torch. And the mob ia
practical; its theory is effective to
large degree; the mob is to-day the
sternest, the strongest and the most
effective restraint that the age holds
for the control Of rape.
The lyncher does not exterminate the
rapist, Mr.. Graves continued, but he
holds him nightly in check. AS a
sheer, cold, patent fact, the mob stands
to-day as the most potential bulwark
between the women of the south and
such a carnival of crime as would In
furiate the world and precipitate the
humiliation of the negro race. The
masses of the negro, he held, are mot
afraid Of death coming in a regular
way They love the display and the
spectacular element Of trial and ex-
ecution appeal to their imaginations.
Expediting the processes OF the law
would not be adequate to eliminate
lynching. The repeal Of the amend
ments and the establishment Of the
negro's inferiority In law and society,
said Mr.. Graves, though desirable, are
not sufficient, "for the negro" he
added, "is a thing Of the senses and
with this race and with all similar
races the desire of the senses must be
restrained by the terror of the senses,
II possible, under the law. No infiu-
ence of suppression so mighty and ef-
fective could be brought to bear as q
law making amputation the penalty
for the crime of rape. But this, like
curfew edicts, separate laws for white
and black, or the treatment OF the
crime of rape as separate and outside
of all other codes are but expedients,
he maintained; there is no real remedy
but one. No statute will permanently
solve this problem. Religion does not
solve 1t. Education complexities It.
Politics complexities 1t. 1.-THE truth
which lies beyond and above all these
temporizing expedients," he concluded
"is that separation Is the logical, the
inevitable, the only solution OF this
great problem Of the races"
Discussing the subject Of mental and
moral contagion, DR.. J. M. Buckley, Of
New York, after speaking at some
length Of the various transient and
permanent changes that take place
under different physical and mental
influences in human personality, took
up the question Of crime and argued
that all crime implied the existence
Of society and its attributions, that
sin and vice could be committed by q
person alone in the world, but not &c
crime. He showed the operation Of
this and how far through natural
causes epidemics might spread.
In conclusion he declared that a
laws Of association bring on such gen
eral and feverish criminal tendencies
80 the laws Of association must be en-
ployed to antagonize them.