The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-09
| GOVERNOR TALKING OUT.

Governor Durbin of Indiana, has hand ed somewhat warm one to the people of Bloomington. of that State. Blooming ton Is In Monroe County. and that county is portion of the State of Indiana where the white-cappers have been getting In their york. Readers of The Advertiser remember a recent case where a mob whipped several persons, including two women, using barbed wire to make the whipping more severe.
 Bloomington is also the site of the State University of Indiana, an institu- ton which has existed for more than three-quarters of a century. and which is regarded as one of the glories of that city. Governor Durbin doesn't believe that white-capping in the very shadow of the University is creditable to the latter or to the people. and he has been writing to the civil officers of the county, as we'll as to the officials of the Uni versity, giving them his mind in rather plain language. Among other things he says in communication to the Sheriff of Monroe County:
 Permit me to call your attention to the fact that there is a growing sentiment among the people of Indiana against the of learning in d community where there is either absence of predominating public sentiment in fav) of the suppress sion of violent lawlessness, or, what lousness on the part of public officials to that predominating sentiment. The spec tacle of bloodthirsty mob wreaking it's lawlsss will on helpless women. what ever their offense, within the very shadow of the walls of the State University, with out the strong arm of the law being in- terposed to prevent or punish the out rage, is one not longer to be tolerated, and I shall certainly take cognizance of the situation and of the state of public sentiment above referred to in my next message to the General Assembly unless there Is prompt and effective manifesto tion on the part of citizens and officials charged with this duty, of determined purpose to stamp out anarchy in your community"
 The Governor gives the people of Bloom ington to understand, if he does not &C., tually say so, that they must mend their ways. not only by punishing the white- cappers. but by abstaining from such ex- cesses in future, and the alternative is that the University will be removed from that city and, presumably, located at some point where law and order prevail and where mobs do not whip helpless wo- men with barbed wires. All this Is de- cidedly interesting to people in this sec ton of the Union, and while we do not pose as an admirer of Governor Durbin, we hope he will be successful in teaching the humanities. not only as to this par ticular case, but in various other cases
 where the people of his State have shown such readiness to take the law into their own hands.
 The truth of the matter is that both h. diana and Illinois have developed a mob law spirit not at all creditable to them especially when colored persons are con- l cerned. We believe that but one of the victims of the Bloomington affair was | negro, but there seems little reason to I doubt that there would have been no mobbing if the question of race had not | been involved. There was a negro among
 the alleged offenders and both he and the
 women were treated to, a specimen of l lynch law.