The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-08-23
EDITORIAL
THE MOB BY STRENGTHENING
~THENCOURTS.*

the most direct of direct ways. We have passed
laws breathing out threatenings and slaughter
against lynchers, only to find that it is useless
to have an anti-lynching law on our statute books
until the people have an anti-lynching law In
their hearts and consciences. In the eyes of the
court every man who kills without warrant of law
whether or not the victim be accused of crime
is a murderer. In North Carolina this principle
was supplemented more than a decade ago by a
special statute making it a felony to break into a
jail for the purpose of lynching a prisoner.
Judges have charged juries against the crime, and
Governor Aycock-risking his political fortunes
for his convictions-recently offered a reward of
$4OO each for the conviction of a party of seventy
five who lynched a negro near Salisbury. But
never yet has the law punished a North Carolina
lyncher.
We may as well admit, therefore, that this plan
of action, unless supplemented by other measures.
is a failure. When the flock is threatened, it is
wiser to unloose the, dogs than try to bind the
wolves. When law is threatened, it is better to un-
fetter the courts than to try to fetter the mob.
And the courts are fettered.
That the law at present is lacking in efficiency
is not an idle assertion, a mere excuse of the
bloodthirsty. 1t is not an unsupported suppose
ton of editors and politicians, and of people not
versed in legal lore. 1t is the testimony of men
who know whereof they speak. One of the finest
and g~entlest men I know, an old-school Southern
lawyer whose tenderness is such that he will not
prosecute a man for his life, said to me two years
ago that with our peremptory challenges, habeas
corpus proceedings, writs of error, changes of
venue, exceptions, appeals, new trials, respites,
pardons, etc., our lawmakers have labored so as
siduously to protect the accused prisoner that
they have become unjust to the accusing public.
"Our civilization has gone too far in these mat
ters." says the Georgia Bar Association, "and has
overdone itself" Enough has been done for
those who murder" says one Chief Justice; "it
is time the courts were doing something for those
who do not wish to be murdered" And Justice
Brewer, of our United States Supreme Court,
who speaks from wide experience and lifelong OBJ
servation, said to the law class of Yale College a
few months ago:
cit has seemed to me at times that legislation
was conceived in the spirit of obstruction to the
punishment of criminals. To obstruct the admin
i~stration of justice, the writ of habeas corpus,
writs of error, and pleas for stays of proceedings
have been resorted to by many LAWYERS, and, last
of all, often and often stand tender-hearted execu-
tives to interpose clemency. 1t is not to be won
dered at that some communities have arisen i'm
their wrath and have inflicted the summary pun
ishment that machinery of the law has delayed,
and which they feared it might delay among them,
too"
1t may be claimed-and I know lawyers who do
claim-that such expressions as these have them
selves encouraged the mob spirit. But the mob
gets ten times as much strength from the fact
as from the publication of the fact; the danger
is, not that the weakness is charged, but that It
exists. Loyalty to law demands that we con-
denim lack of reverence for it, whatever its INNER
fectiOnS: but LOYALTY dema ndc No Loo. .--1