The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-05
PROF. JAMES ON LYNcHING.


Letter of Prof William James. in the
Springfield Republican.
Three years ago / said that unless heroic
measures were adopted we should soon have
civil war between the races. The Evansville
riot is an example of what we may expect
tomorrow wherever negroes are numerous,
and very little later in such cities New
York and Boston and Philadelphia. The
North is already almost as fully inoculated
as the South. and the young white Ameri-
can OF the lower classes is becoming edu-
Gated everywhere with appalling rapidly to
understand that any negro accused of crime
is public spoil. to be played with as long as
the fun will last. Attempts at general mas
sacres Of negroes are certain TO be the next
thing in order. and collective reprisals by
negroes are equally certain.
Negro lynching is already a permitted ex-
ception in the midst of our civilization.
Bloody orgy and diseased idea emotion have
struck an unholy partnership, impunity is
agreed upon, and an anonymous mob is the
power TO which the license is accorded. The
newspapers are doing all they can 10 con-
vert the custom into an established lnstltu-
tion. / first learned Of the recent negro
burning at Wilmington by seeing the scare
head of paper which a man on a seat be-
fore me in car was reading. "Charred In
Chains. Lynching Well Done" was printed
in tall capitals in this Boston daily. One OF
our most influential New York weeklies
formerly an independent journal, printed an
editorial on the same atrocity, OF which the
only influence on susceptible mind couId
be to make Ii seem excusable. Everywhere
We find educated men and women making
light Of the baSeness, as being. after ALL
only rude sort Of justice, just as old-fash-
Toned Christians used to say that Jews must
continue to be baited for the honor of our
Savior. Negro 4ynching claims more and
more the character OF a public right. 1t ap-
peals TO the punitive instinct, to race an
tipathy, and to the white mans pride, as
well to the homicidal frenzy. One shud-
ders to think what roots custom may
strike when a fierce animal appetite like
this and a perverted ideal emotion combine
together to defend it,
One or two real fanatics there may be in
every lynching, actuated by a maniacal
sense of punitive justice. They are a kind of
reversion, which civilization particularly
requires TO extirpate- The other accomplices
are only average men, victims of the mo-
ment when the greatest atrocities are COM
mitted. of nothing but irresponsible mob con-
tagion, but invited to become a part Of the
mob and predisposed TO the peculiar sort of
contagion. by the diaboical education which
the incessant examples of the custom and
OF its continued impunity are spreading with
fearful rapidity throughout our population.
was ever such a privilege onered! dog
fights bullfghts, prizefights, what are they
to a man hunt and negro burning? The IL
literate whites everywhere, always fretting
In their m0noton0uS lives Tor some more
drastic excitement, feeding their imagi-
nations in advance on this new possibility.
The hoodlums In our cities are being turned
by the newspapers into as knowing critics
of the lynching game as they long have
been Of the prizefght and football. They
long to possess souvenirs" They agree on
the belief that any accused negro is their
perquisite and property, and that to burn
him Is only the newest form of white mans
burden. How far this education has already
proceeded we are likely TO learn any day in
a startling manner. And the supineness of
officials and the mealy-mouthed utter
ances of our journals seem to me TO reveal
an incredible misunderstanding of the real
situation. No student of history or knower of
human nature could be so fooled for a mo-
ment.
1 unhesitatingly stand by my prophecy.
for there Is nothing now in sight to check
the spread Of an epidemic far more virulent
than the cholera. The fact seems recognized
that local turies will not indict condemn;
so that unless special legislation ad hoe is
speedily enacted and unless many leading
citizens" are hung-nothing short of this
will check the epidemic in the slightest de-
gree. and denunciations from the press and
pulpit only make IL spread the faster-we
shall have negro burning in a very few
years on Cambridge Common and the Bos-
ton Public Garden.