The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-08-04
CURRENT COMMENT.

There's a smile tina won't come off
today. and it extends all the way from
Charleston TO San Antonio. It IS
caused by the announcement that the
terrified negroes are fleeing for safety
from Indiana to Kentucky" We have
a good deal to say up here in the
north, and with voices trembling with
horror and indignation, about the out
rageOus treatment of the negroes down
south, but with the recOllections of the
outbreaks in Illinois, Indiana, and
Delaware, and with the fact before Us
that the negroes are seeking safety
among the very people whom We ave
regarded as their prosecutors, it may
be advisable for US to suspend iudg-
ment and let the south work out the
problem in its own way" We COM
mend the colored brother to the hos
pitality of Kentucky, and we ask for
his an asylum n refuge until our hot
northern blood has cooled sufficiently
to allow him to return to Indiana
Chicago Post.
Mr.. James r. Keene, who was
caught by the bears last week in Wall
Street, is reported as saying that it IS
a shame for holders of stocks to dis
pose Of them at less than their actual
value. He then intimates that some
action by the treasury department to
relieve the financial tension would be
appreciated. This is the same old
story. The government is expected to
get the spectators chestnuts cut Of
the fire. Such conduct as Mr.. keene's
is the most serious barrier to the ac-
cOmpliShment of needed CURRENCY i'm
provements, because many good men.
noting the cries of the Wall Street
spectators for government assistance
in their operations, regard every bill
designed to furnish a more elastic cur
rency system as inspired by this selfish
class. Happening to be a bull today,
Mr.. keene IS greatly outraged at the
employment against himself of the
very tactics which he has USED SO
Often.-NOrfolk Landmark.
This mornings news contains the
daily quota of lynchings, or attempted
~lynchings, to which we nave so unhap-
PLY grown accumtOmed. But il also
includes some very encouraging H1gns
that the best elements in our American
life are awakening to a realization Of
what this reign of Judge Lynch means.
In Danville, Ill, for instance, the bar
association has warmly praised Size
| courageous sheriff who fired On me
mob and successfully defended the
negro criminal entrusted to his care.
| We share Professor James belief that
the lynching mania will not be stay
ed until some 'prOminent citizens
| are hung as common murderers for
their participation in mob violence.
| But one of the best ways to check the
evil is to uphold and to praise the
! honest sheriff whose sense of duty
cOmpels him to shoot, and to shoot 10
kill. We hear too much of the official
who would rather have a guilty negro
lynched than fire on a crowd Of in
nocent' white men. Governor Durbin
of Indiana removed a sheriff Of this
type asst year. The mayo Of Dan
vile, If his utteranceS are correctly
reported, is equally unfit for officeN
and should be condemned by ev ~
reputable citizen. This method OF
punshing every guilty official and sus-
tanning all who do their duty lies at
every ones hand. 1t calls for nothing
more than the vigorous expression OF
an indignant public opinion. We are
glad to note that the press in this
city and elsewhere is giving deserved
recognition to Danville's sheriff.-New
York Post.
1t would be a very remarkable, no
to say humorous, spectacle should The
! present upheaval IN Panama force the
United States government into the 20
Sition of an accessory to secession
but such a result can now be assigned
a place in the front rank of the pos
siblities. There seems to be LITTLE
doubt that the people as we'll as thu
government of Panama are resOiutel!
bent on having the ship canal, and i
is equally clear that the party anc
the classes in power at the natloaa
capital, Bogota, are bitterly opposed
to it. We have been RECALLED from
time to time with Very gaudy ant
alluring fairy tales, many Of then
dressed up in their finest diplomatic
clothes, but the real facts are 9 W,
state them. The "clearical party,
which controls the federal government
of Colombia. is evidently hostile to tn,
canai-at least with the United States
as it's owner-whereaS the Liberia
party, which holds the ascendency II
the state of Panama, ardently desires
the ratification of the treaty. Whether
the overthrow of the Panama govern
ment last Sunday night was q mere
local emeute or a regularly ordained
coup d'etat, conceived and organized
at Bagota, with a view to crushing the
not with certainty be alleged, but al
the indications point to the latter
inference. 1t is easily conceivable that
the general government, knowing The
| sentiment in Panama and apprehenG.
ing a forcible if not q violent assertion
| thereof, Oul seek the overthrow 81
| the state government in order to de-
! prive the ~pro-canal movement of all
| appearance of official sanction. III
| deed. it has been rather freely rumor-
| ed for some time past that Panama
| rather than lose the very substantial
! benefits certain to accrue in case the
| canal were constructed, would not
| hesitate to Secede from the United
| States of Colombia n hen in its ca
| pacity as an independent state, deal
| directly and finally with the govern
1 ment at Washington. UGH being the
| sean there is reason to believe it
the policy of Bogota would be-. OBJ
| viously, to eject the Panama officials
| and set up instead a regime Of its
| own choice-a regime under which a
| demonstration in V of the ana
would be robbed of every appearance
| of authority and reduced to the status
|! of a mere revolutionary outbreak
| Washington Post.