The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-12

duty to come out in the open against mob principles, it's abettors and defend ers, until the mob actually comes to their doors. By silence and inaction. they allow a few men in every commu : nity. to speak apparently for the whole community and thus to create with the victious take to be public sentiment. which will excuse. if 1t does not justify, their atrocities whenever they choose tC commit them. The mass Of men do not appreciate the necessity for the bold ty too often expects the man who prints a newspaper to voice its opinion and scourge offenders, and then giving him nothing more than unspoken mem the brunt of opposition. of the vicious and lawless. We are all too prone. in the face of prejudice. to refrain from speaking our own thoughts aloud.
 There Is one phase of the mob rule which Is sweeping over the country, to which we cannot shut our eyes. If silence would better 1t. we might be si- lent; but silence only helps to feed the evil, and 1t is the duty of all good men to speak against 1t. Leaving aside the crime against woman, the lawiees pun ishment of which has in 1t no trace of race prejudice. and strikes at the crime men, deny that for all other offenses, there is a deplorable tendency to mob black men for crimes and misdemean- ors. which, when committed by white DlcHs aTo diIOWCu tO bO uhRunlHASuf OT left to the courts to punish! what sx- cuse is there for this condition of things? The white race Is superior and yields the power of government. The negro has practically no part in it The laws are made by white men. White men preside in the courts. White men sit upon the juries. The danger is not that a guilty negro Will escape just punishment at the hands Of the law, but that in many instances the inno- cent may meet with unjust punishment. The pretext that the criminal will not receive justice, If the law is allowed to take Its course, Is wholly wanting
 Underlying the whole evil in the be- ginning, was the false teaching, which has taken deep root. that mob violence for every serious crime committed by the negro, Is essential to the safety of the whites in sparsely settled sections. and that it should be inflicted in cruel and unusual ways, lest the lesson would not be effective. Mob violence grows by what 1t feeds on. and soon lessor offenses in some communities began to be dealt with in that way. Attempted justification for this. in place of calm and orderly punishment In the courts. found It's way in public prints and pri- vats conversations Respect for law was thus constantly and greatly less ened. Then there are those with us, who. for notorfety, or to carry some selfish end, always make low appeals to the basest passions of our race, in the which in the slightest degree, touches upon the relations between the races. These men constantly assault the right of equality before the law. by the base teaching that giving negro his right under the law would result in social equality. though they well know thet Justice without respect of persons" in- wolves neither social nor political right. but only that men should do as they would be done by. and maintain a de- cent respect for the rights of their fel. low human befnEN Some of these questions, which is for the highest good and black should be considered closed. and hevond the naie of controversy. have been constantly attempted to be rssonened by such speakers and writers of the voluntary %'' or not forced s.i migration of millions of people oF ~ne ra~e not living together Ir tribal relations, but interspersed common RovernmeNt with millions # another race and forming an inserar- able part of the economic and indus trial fabric of the State. and working its people. The black man viii re- main here. on the same soil with us and with our children. for countless generations: Yet. there are not want inR those who continue to argue In the press and on the stump that it Is the wise and only practicable solution of existing conditions. to force the nigr l. ton of the negro race. or its extermi- nation; and insisting, If it will not r1i-. Erate 1t must be exterminated. The reasons urged In support of this un- Epea kable barbarity have teemed with villihcation and abuse of the negro. and bristled with suggestions which caught the fancy of the ignorant and vicious. and sowed the seed of many a crime.
 The wisdom of the State, realizing If it does not lift the negro up in the scale of intelligence. he will Adrag us down. has adopted a settled uoiicv Of rFovtdinE hberally for hia eomnnn