The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-08-30

that now confronts our people. There IS moth
ing more demoralizing than lynch law. I'VE can
not encourage a hundred men to disregard law
without encouraging the individual to disregard
law: we cannot encourage law-breaking to crafty
vengeance without encouraging laW-oreaklng to
eratify greed or hate or lust" In this connection
the article prepared by the writer for a recent
number of the Atlantic Monthly, and published
in mart in these columns last week, may prove
suggestive to some readers-and we may be par
doned for reprinting here the concluding para
graph:
owe must excuse lynching under no conditions,
for as certainly as a fire, famed to a fury in one
room, will sweep on to other rooms, so certainly
will the mob, if generally encouraged to punish
one crime, sweep irresistibly on to %supplant the
court at all points. Instead of excusing 1t where
the crime is horrible and the guilt of the criminal
undoubted, we must teach that in such cases mob
low is the more ndefensible-becau of the in
creased certainty and speed OF legal punish
ment. ..... We need to teach that, if Satan him
self should commit a crime, we should try him
in legal form,-not for Satan's sake, but for the
sake of law and order and civilization; not that
he would have the right to a court trial, but that
our courts alone would have the right to try him:
and that trial by any other body is, and will ever
be, usurpation and minority rule,-un-American,
undemocratic. and unendurable."
The Sale of the S. A. l.. Railway.
Nearly ten years ago Thomas f. Ryan, of New
York, began a skilful and hard-fought campaign
to get control of the Seaboard Air Line Railway.
He has never lost his ambition, and ten days ago
it was announced that he had purchased for him
self and his allies the 400 O shares of Seaboard
stock formerly held by Williams & Middendorf.
1t is understood that Messrs. Ryan, Blair and
Coolidge now own about $25, O0O, 900 of the Sea-
board stock, and that their friends, including G.
Sidney Shepard, own $3.50 O 900 more, making
about $40, 900, 900 out of a total capita. of $685.
600, 600. In regard to the policy of the road, Mr..
Ryan makes the following announcement:
"The Seaboard Air Line will be operated indie
pendently of the other railway systems in the
South. The suggestion that has been variously
expressed that the Atlantic Coast Line, or the
Southern, or any other railroad interest is directly
or indirectly interested in the purchase of the
Seaboard, or that the managers or owners of such
properties will in any way influence the manage
ment of the Seaboard, is without the slightest
foundation"
In spite of this statement, however, the public
generally has regarded Mr.. Ryan as the represen-
tative of Southern Railway Influences, and the
new deal doubtless means that the two great sys-
TENS will work together even more tremendously
than heretofore.
Just here it may be interesting-even if not
pertinent-to recall that a few months ago the
writer spent a night in the old house in Loving
ston, Va, in which Ryan was born, and from
which Ryan went out in his early teens with only
$50 as capital with which to face the world. He
is now probably worth several millions. The
splendid farm on which he worked as a boy he has
since bought, and his improvements have made it