The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-29

cry intelligent man must know-what a man in the South will do a man in the North will do under similar prov ocation. We have not one breed of Americans in the North and another Tn the South. The same human nature us all.
 Victor Hugo said he never heard of a crime but he realized that he might have been capable of committing 1t at some moment in his life The self righteous men of the North should look carefully into their own tempera- ments before condemning the South erners in too superior a fashion.
 Can anything be said to excuse the burning alive of those two negro crim- inals at Statesboro7 No. But, while we may not excuse 1t. we must in- the reasons for 1t dispas- sionately.
 We must remember that the mon in the crowd surrounding the burning negroes were average men-any crowd anywhere in the United States would duplicate them. We must realize that there are still within us horrible pos- abilities of brutal cruelty. We know that only disuse and long freedom from violence through many genera tions will wipe out this innate brutal ity. We must see that the brutal sav- age deep down within us is not called to the surface. We must not judge too haughtily those men in the South that struggle to suppress the causes behind the hedious lynchings.
 In the men of the South. the men of the North, the East and the West. there are all the possibilities of the most hideous cruelty. But we have advanced at least to this point. that riv hnrpgflo ffnn can arouse within us that latent bru- tality of the savage.
 There will be no burning alive of negroes the moment that the negro ceases to commit the crimes that mad den and make wild beasts of the low CT types among whom they live.
 Certainly an appeal should be made to the nobler sentiments of the South ern mob--and that appeal Is made ev- cry day by the best and strongest men in the South. The own brother of the murdered man, Hodges. a clergyman, implored the crowd to refrain from vie olence and let the law take It's course. He acted nobly. And thousands of splendid men in the South, whose prov ications and difficulties we little un- derstand. acted nobly in fighting the tendency to lynch law
 But, to understand conditions there, 1t is we'll to transport ourselves in imagination to the scene of the crime, both before and after it was commit ted.
 Look at the family group-the me- groes murdered by the mob confessed that they had murdered and burned all of that family-the father the virtu- ous mother hideously maltreated, the little baby in arms and the other two little children.
 There was the little girl six years old, who saw her father murdered. and then pitifully held up a penny to one of the murderous negroes, begging him to take the penny and not hurt her Her brains were knocked out and she was thrown into the fire. It is we'll to know these things. to, remember that an eloquent orator reminded the lynching mob of that little girls appeal when the negroes pleaded for mercy.
 The South Is struggling manfully with its great problem, struggling against odds, and especially against the cynical. wouldbe superior crit icism of the North. If we can help the South in its great problem we should do so. But any advice we may give. any suggestion we may offer, must take the form of friendship. of sympathy, and of earnest desire to help, rather than condemn
 Suppose that in some big city of tho North there should come a series of chimes, all committed by negroes. Sup pose that one young girl after anoth- CT were murdered after being harri- bly, maltreated. Suppose children were butchered and burned. Suppose that the husband. going to the rescue of his wife, were knocked on the head like a dog Then suppose that the whites in that Northern section lived surrounded by millions of negroes and filled with a constant dread of worse outbreaks Is 1t quite certain that the Northern community would be calm and judicial and always listen to the voice of law?
 The worst thing about these burn ings, these illegal killings, whether they take place in the North or the South, is the dreadful effect upon the minds of the lynchers themselves-es- pecially upon the children.
 It has taken thousands of years for men to rise from utter savagery to comparative civilization. It takes but very few years-or only few weeks for the civilized veneer to come off for the man to become the savage once more.
 A great crime is committed against the State when the murderer butchers his victim. But a greater crime is committed when the civilising work and in fluence of years are destroyed through the murder committed by the mob.
 The problem of the South is a very great one, and the Northern attitude should be one of suspended judgment and sympathetic cooperation. There Is no power that will hold back savage human hatred in the face of certain provocation. and harsh crit icism will hold 1t back least of all. How did our Revolutionary ancest- ors, whom we call heroes, treat the In- dians whose savagery filled them with anxiety? They hunted and murdered them like wolves or weasels. And have you forgotten the mobs of our no- ble early times. capable of enjoying the punishment of witches, or driving re- fenseless women naked through the streets of New England towns?
 Let us remember our own crimes, our draft riots, our race outrages based on nothing at all rather than exploit our superior virtues in the face of the Southerner's stupendous difficulties.