Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-15
LYNCHINGS IN GEORGIA
COURT OF CAPT. HITCH
NOT POPULAR.
His Conviction Might Raise Him to
High Political ofice-Farmers
Approve His Course.

1.-The action of Gov Terrell of Georgia in
ordering a court-martial of Capt. Hitch and
the other officers who commanded the
troops which failed to prevent the awful
lynching at Statesboro' some time back is
likely to make Capt Hitch governor OF
Georgia If he is politician enough to take
advantage of the situation turned his way,
said a prominent Georgian today. Il am
sorry to think this is so, but the fear
among conservative men throughout
Georgia is that this court-martial, from
which the governor could not escape, would
result in greatly honoring instead of hu-
initiating the man who did not show the
qualities of a soldier on the occasion of the
deplora BILE affair.
Among the thinking men of the state
the feeling is universal that Capt. Hitch
failed In every way to rise to the occasion
and show his manhood. and it is generally
believed that he openly sympathized with
the mob, but Georgia is an agricultural
state, and there is no question that the
mass of the farmers approve OF the lynch
ing and burning OF the negroes at States
boro'. In some respects ii is almost impoS-
sible to prevent feeling that they are part
ly right. These men live in the open coun-
try, with no police or other protection that
is immediate. Their families are constant
ly exposed to proving negroes.
"A single man is the only protection to
large family, and when he is murdered and
put out of the way his wife and children
are subject TO whatever hideous orgies the
murderous depraved villains want to put
them.
Organized to Murder.
There is practically no doubt that at
Statesboro the negroes who were lynched
had been members of a Before Day club,
organized to murder and assault white wo
men of the farmer class and to assassinate
the farmers they did not like. That is just
what these negroes did. They brutally
murdered family and started away. They
heard a noise. and. going back into the
house. little hve-year-o girl.
Please don't till me her baby voice plead
ed; I will give 90 all my money and she
held up cents to show them. They seized
her by the feet and swung her little head
against the wall scattering her brains in
every direction. Then they set fire TO the
house and went away TO gloat over what
they had done.
similar crimes by members of Before
Day clubs in the south have created un-
easness among the farmers and their fam
flies and kept them in continual suspense
and fear. They don't know when their
homes may be visited in the stiffness of
the night and their entire families wiped
out. They do not know any better way
of carrying terror to the hearts of the
assassins than by such process as that at
Statesboro'. Conservative men and lovers
of the law do not uphold the terrible pun
ishment melted out to the negroes. but few
people realize the desperate condition of
farmers and the constant menace hanging
over them
mo such n condition exists anywhere in
the country outside of the south, there
are few white men mean enough to at
tempt such crime. II you argue with a
farmer that he should have permitted the
law to take its course, and that IL was
already doing SO, he will tell you that the
legal execution of an ignorant negro is
not a deterrent to similar crimes. He will
tell you frankly that every negro who is
legally executed becomes a martyr dies
the glorious death of a Christian and in
his own estimation. goes straight to heaven
He dies such a happy death that other
negroes do not consider that he is any
worse off. Instant death, without religious
preparation. they will say, strikes awe to
the soul of the law-despising negfo. and
they declare their intention to keep this
lynching up. especially where the negroes
who have committed the murders have