The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-18
now IT cAx n srorP1D.

now IT CAV III STOPPED. The recent occurrences at Joplin. Mo. and at Shreveport, LA.. where some ne- groes were iynched and others driven out. supply . good text for . newspaper sermon. if any one cares to build t. The acts of the white people are not to De de-
 tended. any more than they are to be wondered at We may theorise tin the end of time without altering conditions.
 We may lecture and preach till we are
 weary. but 1t win change nothing. All
 that we can say about the necessity of
 respect for the laws of the country neith-
 CT changes nor nodines human nature.
 The savsse in the Caucasian has been
 modified by centuries of civilization. but
 1t has not been eliminated. The spirit of savagery which controlled humanity
 wher every man was his own defender
 and his own avenger is yet smouidering
 in our twentieth century civilization. We
 may deplore Its existence. grieve and
 m ,ralize over its outbreaks and shudder
 at its effects. but nothing that we can
 say will stamp it out.
 The occurrences to which we have al
 luded. and others of like nature. cannot
 be prevented by human laws. nor wholly
 abolished by white men. They can be
 prevented by the negroes themselves and
 by no other human power. The crime
 committed by those negroes at shreve-
 port was almost too hideous to be ex-
 pressed in ordinary words. but it was
 not . solitary instance. Something of
 the same kind, differing only in degree.
 is likely to occur wherever there are
 many negroes of what we may designate
 the lowest class. Something of the kind
 does occasionally take place in Southern communities.
 We repeat that no human power but the negroes themselves can abate these
 fearful crimes and the fearful retribu-
 tion which always follows. There are
 good negroes, in all sections of our coun-
 try. There are negroes who, by both pre-
 cept and example. are trying to lift up
 their race and make of them better men
 and women and better citizens. Such negroes deserve the commendation of all white men. but they are in the minority.
 There are not enough of them to control the vicious and brutal of their race. Their precepts and their examples avail little. if we judge by results. Perhaps conditions would be infinitely worse if there were no good negroes. We cannot tell, but we know that conditions at present are not satisfactory or comfort ing.
 The really law-abiding, moral negroes must so a step farther than they now do. They must act as well as preach. They must be the first to punish crime l as well as to counsel against 1t. They must set a good example themselves and lend their assistance in the work of stamping out the brutality of their own | race. We all know that when a negro is l lynched for a brutal crime. he has the sympathy of his race. We all know that when one Is legally executed he is all who witness his end. The crime com
 mitted is forgotten in the glorious triumph of his exit from the scaffold.
 This feeling of sympathy for the crim- inal instead of execration for the crime
 is largely responsible for the fearful and
 brutal offences of the vicious members l of the race. and also for the unlawful vengeance executed by the whites. It Is for the best element of the colored race to set themseIvs resoiutely to the work of bringing to punishment the criminals of their own race. Let them make known
 to the vicious. the idle and the lawless
 that they need not expect eitheroSympathy
 or protection if they commit aa crime.
 Tn short. let the bad negroes beomade to
 understand that they must obey the laws
 of humanity. of morality and of the
 State. or else they will find their own
 people foremost in the work of bringing them to justice. Let those who have it in their hearts to commit crime realize that they are watched and will be appre- hended by their own race, instead of be- ing protected and concealed.
 In this way, and this way only, can brutal crimes and equally brutal lynch ings be prevented. The white man may purish outrages legally and he may pun ish them illegally. but he will not stop those crimes until the negroes become fully convinced that they will get neither sympathy nor protection from their own @nIoP