New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-08-12
JUSTIFIES LYNCHING.
GLAD TO SEE IT SPREAD.
address Of Georgian at the
Chautauqua assembly.
Ipw TELEGRAPH 10 THE TR1BuNE.l

Chautauoua n " Aug 1.-THE five days
conference here this week on the mob spirit in
America Is drawing much attention and large
crowds. President Frosts address yesterday on
Mountain Feuds" was well received. His ar
guments for education as a corrective were i'm
pressive To-day John Temple Graves. Of Geor-
gia, made an address in support of lynch law in
the South as a protection for Southern women.
It was an argument TO Justify the lynching
spirit, and holding that the mob in the South
was the highest form of law.
He rejoiced in the extension of the mob spirit
throughout the North when it evoked to
protect women from rape. He dwelt much on
the chivalry Of the South its high reverence for
womanhood and held that while lynching was
'crime. anarchy. riot, war, awful and appal-
ing" lynching had come TO the South to stay as
long as rape existed. He said that negro and
white pulpits. the press and philanthropists,
should dwell less on the wiekedness of lynching
and more on the awfuIness Of rape. His ad-
dress was. in part follows:
The problem of the hour is not how TO prevent
ynching IN the South, but the larger question; How
aIWsys will provoke lynching? The answer which
the mob returns 10 this vital question Is alreaGg
bullet and some times God save us with the loren,
ARD the MOB Is pTaetcal us theoLS Is ternest
the strongest and the effective restraint that
The iyneher does not exterminate the rapist but
he holds him nightly in check AS sheer colo,
patent fact. the mob stands to-day as the most
potential bulwark between the women Of the South
the world and precipitate the humiliation of the
negro race. The masses Of the negroes are hot
love display. and the spectacular elements of
trial and execution appeal to their imagna55lohs.
adequate TO eliminate lynehing. The repeal OF the
ent of the negros inferiority in law and society,
though desirable. are not sufficient. for the negro
with all similar the desire Of the senses must
5 ~ i1 Ds ~ No inH,,ence of snnnression SO
mighty and effective could be brought to bear as
law making amputaton the penalty for the crime
But this like curfew edicts separate laws for
white and black. the treatment OF the crime of
rape as separate and outside Of all other codes; Is
one. No statute will permanently solve this prob
lem. Religion does not solve II. Education com
plicates. it Politics complicates it. The truth,
which lies beyond and above all these temporizing
expedients is that separation is the logical the IN
the races
There are perhaps one thousand Southern
ers at the Assembly. Many disapprove of Mr..
Grsyes's radical address, and say that he does
not represent the South. DR. J. NJ. Buckley, in
his lecture Mental and Moral Contagon,"
traced the lynching and mobbing mania to
psychological causes. He sharply opposed the
views of Mr. Graves. The Rev. Dr.. Dean Rich
mond Rabbit of Brooklyn, is to answer Mr..
Graves tomorrow in his address on 'Lynchings
and Mobs from an American Standpoint
At the conference on mobs this afternoon Mr..
Graves was piled with many questions. He held
that he represented the South. and said that
highly respectable men and college presidents
and professors took part in Southern lynchings.
He spoke of educational efforts for the negro,
and referred to the United States Census
proof that education had injured the morality of
the negro. Among Mr.. Graves's various sug
gestions was the following:
Men VINO see things they realize that
the mob is here and here TO stay until it finds
substitute for its swift and effective work; Then
why not clothe the mob with authority? Why
not make lynchng legal by enactment? Let us
suppose that the crime Of rape is put outside OF
all other law Let suppose that the posse
which pursues and apprehends the rapist shall
have power there and then to elect from its
ranks judge. empanel jury, select attorneys
for prosecution and defence and try the criminal
the spot. Every mob earth goes through at
least the true and prmeval justice of identifca-
ton The mob is going to act anyhow. Why not
reform the mob by authority? Why not sober
the mob with responsibility? Why not provide
the mob with means of doing instantly and
legally what they would otherwise do in defiance
Of law Why society the shock Of law
lessness by legal concession to its outraged in
digna ton? Why take the sting and stigma
out Of anarchy with statute?