New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-06-25
THE REMEDY FOR LYNCEING.

Tho Roy Mr. Ellwood "deplores' the VIII
n,inc+on 1ynchipg. He "deplore" it! That re-
calls the informer against the Phoenix ParK
n,urderers After the executions he was taken
from Jail and exported for safekeepiDg. Driving
from the jail with a constable, he passed the
house of one of the murderers. His emotions
were stirred, and he began to express sym
uathy for the poor widow. That was TOO much
for the constable, who turned on him and SAID,
Why you scoundrel you put the rope ABOUT MS
neck yourself" The Rev. Mr.. Ellwood's law
less and sensational talk piled the fagots Tor
the burning which he 'deplores" He ought to
deplore it-not with bravado. disclaiming re-
sponsibility and saying that he takes back moth
ing of his Iynching talk, but in deep contrluon
for tie shame that he has brought upon re-
ligion, for the discredit he has done the Master
he processes TO serve by surrendering to the
appetite for sensation and promoting the fend-
ish shedding of blood Nothing that can be said
in extenuation of the Wilmington lynching can
make il anything but fiendsh. The negro de-
served death, and would have met it under the
law Not the spirit Of Christ but of Satan,
prompted the barbarous deed OF that laWless
and awful burning at the stake.
Disgra ced Delaware is making an effort to right
itself One suspected lyncher has been arrested
charged with murder, and it is to be hoped
that more arrests will follow. We fear, how
ever. that there is not much hope of Furnishing
the man burners. The proper time to have pun
ished them was when they were trying TO break
into the workhouSe. The chief of police says
that he did not order his men to fire into the
crowd for fear he would kill many representa-
five citizens" and Governor HUM commends
his restraint. 1t certainly does seem hard to
kill representative citizens in the effort to up
oh,
Nevertheless it looks as if the only way to stop
the spread of the lynching fever is heroic
treatment A volIey fired into a crowd, killing
a score of representative citizens who were
trying TO subyert law, would be good thing
for the whole country. Representative cit
zens'' have been sacrificed before now to the
vindication of law and the perpetuation of order
" government
There are some evils which Il seems tmpos-
sible 10 Danish from society except by battle
and bloodshed. Perhaps the lynching mania is
of them. The germ has been allowed to
spread through fear to hurt the Representative
citizens" infected with it. One good blood let
ting by officers in the performance of their duty
and in defence of prisoners for whose safety
they are responsible might have a wonderfully
wholesome effect Mob rule fattens on toIera-
ton. When officers play with lawlessness and
treat rioters as representative citizens they
encourage crime. If they treated them as out
laws, gave them a warning TO disperse and
shot to kill it would not take many experiments
of that kind TO establish over the whole land
the dominion of law and the supremacy of the
courts; and if things go at the present rate
before long that hard lesson will have to be
taught. Our whole civilization is threatened.
It is not alone the community where an out
broa TUfi cT1ffa oPt bo
evil in one place prompts imitation in others
until law is everywhere brought into contempt.
The mania spreads, and the lynchers become
more and more reckless. Those who at first
would be stirred only to lynch some fiendish
wretch soon find 1t easy to put violent hands
on anybody who offends them, and thus this
becomes government. not OF settled law, but
Of capricious passions. Better few lawns
strewn with the bodies Of hundred "repre-
sentative citizens than the destruction of our
historic ordered liberty"