The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-08-17
Our Intemperate Newspapers.
Anderson Daily Mail.

newspaper of the State are losing thel
influence upon the people by their vic
lent and intemperate utterances upor
public questions. People can be LEI
into almost anything, but they canno
be driven.
We have in mind the manner ir
which some newspapers have con
demned the people for the crime o
lynching. We have no sympathy, O
course, with "mob law" save in one
instance, and in that the proof must
always be clear and unmi>takable
But, while we cannot sympathize
with the lynchers, will it do any good
to condemn them 80 unqualifiedly, to
hold them to public scorn? Can
not the newspapers stand for law and
order more effectually by some other
method?
Juries fail to convict criminals OF
crime. We all know this and all de-
plore it. But does it do any good to
advertise our shortcomings, the er-
rors and faults of our courts and ju.
ries, to the outside world-and to our
selves?
Cannot the newspapers find instan-
ces of where the law has been upheld,
where justice has triumphed over
wrong, and right over might, and tell
the people about these things, rather
than paint forever the dark side of the
picture?
A people or q community are not
likely to have very high regard for the
majesty of the law after they have been
denounced as outlaws, cuthroats, fends,
etc.
Of course, when wrongs are commit.
ted the newspapers must speak out
with DC uncertain sound. But arc
they not going too far with their bit
terness and vituperation Are they no!
doing harm where they are trying to
do good? Are they not adding feul to
the flames rather than helping to
quench them?
And in losing their influence in this
one particular are the newspapers not
losing their influence in other dir.
ections?
These are unpleasant reflections but
they are forced upon US by recent ev.
ents. Newspapers have denounced
lynchings and lynchers in the most
bitter terms, have denounced juries
and Jurors for failures to convict in
language as harsh as can be found in
the dictionaries. And yet lynchings
continue and juries are no better than
they have been for years.
A duty cannot be shirked. No hon.
est newspaper can afford to tempOrize
or make terms with wrong. But can
not we editors who want to he leaders
of public opinion and who ought to be
leaders of public opion in fact as well
as theory-can we not find some better
and more efficient manner of discharg-
ing our duty than we have been practic,
ing? 49,,
If evils exist, if wrongs are committed
as surely they are can we not dis.
cuss them in calmness and reason, and
point the better way by appealing to
mems better judgement and better nat
ures rather than inveigh against the
wrong aud condemn the wrong doer
to everlasting damnation without a
hearing? Can we exert a good in
fluence upon the public after we anger
the public, hold it up to scorn and ridi-
cule, and declare it to be wholly bad
and depraved because in one unfort-
unate moment some wrong thing was
done?
The newspapers of the State can
lead the people to better things by
temperate methods, hut they cannot
drive them by standing off and hurl-
ing denunciations at them. That hes
been tried time and time again, and it
has never succeeded yet. Newspapers,
while on the right side of public ques-
ton, have alienated the. people from
them and have lost their cause and
weakened influence besides by in
temperate methods and violent meth
DDS.
1t is time for the papers to make
change if they would enjoy the confid-
ence and support of the people-if they
would regain that which they have
lost.