The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-03-18

Washington. March 1e.-In the
House today during the discussion OF
the postoffice appropriation bill, Mr.
Spfght, of Mississippi. discussed the
negro question. He said he desired
to yindicate the South from, the charge
ef barbarism. In the South, he said
the negro had been denied the right
20 vote and to hold Office. but not the
right to work for an honest living,
as had been done in the Northern
States. I'VE sometimes kill them
for outrageous Crimes he said. but
never because they want to work"
AS for the lynchings, he said that
sometimes they have unnecessarily oc-
CURED in the South. He referred to
the Wilmington (Del.) lynching last
year, and to the subsequent attacks on
the negro settlement. This never oc-
CURED in the South, he said. When
the guilty wretch has paid the penalty
of his unlawful crime. that is an end
of It. he continued: The mob is sat
isfied and does not wreak indiscrimi-
nate vengeance upon the innocent be-
as the criminal
He said that unlike the people Of
the North, the people of the South
don't o out with a torch in one hand
and a gun in the other aid shoot in
nocent women and children. as they
fee for place of safety.
He said this had occurred in New
York city in 1900, and he referred to
a number of ivnchings which had oc
eurred in the north, including those
of Danville. Ills. and Springfield. Ohio,
and said such race prejudice finds no
place in Southern hearts"
Mr.. Spight said 80 far as am con-
serned, am opposed to mob violence
as general proposition. I do not
crime than the nameless one against
womanhood ought to occur. In all
others the court Is generally with us,
swift to punish. The one class of
srimes so brutal and destructive of
that dear to an enlightened people, no
man with a spark of manhood in him
can doubt that instant death to the
fllment of such crime
Mr.. Spight recited that the burn
ing at the stake of "such prutes' was
not confined to the South, but had oc-
surred in the North as WE'LL Mr.
Spight spoke OF the attempt Of certain
white persons to put the negro on a
social equality with themselves and
referring to the occasion when Book
er Washington dined at the, White
House with President Roosevelt, said
that this one incident had done more
to inf1ame the passion of the negro
and give him a perverted idea Of his
Importance and his near approach to
social equality than any Ching that
had been done for the last ten years. ."
He said R0nEar bip,<r0D hod
down to dinner with the President as
graciously as If he had been the Cow
ernor of New York" He was, he said,
sorry that he did not have more sense
and self-respect than to accept the in
vitation. 1t would have been much
more to his credit had he refused the
invitation.
Nr. Spight referred to the arrest in
Indianola. Miss, Of white agents of
a Cincinnati picture company who
were selling to the negroes indecent
pictures. In his opinion such agents
should have been lynched.
The granting of subsidies to rail-
roads for carrying the mails was Wig
srously opposed bv Mr.. Robinson, OF
Indiana, who characterized them as a
stain and bot upon the bill.
Mr.. Sibley, Republican, contended
that subsidy would be doing a mani
fest Injustice to the interests Of the
South and heated discussion OF the
subject followed. which was partici-
pated IN by Messrs. Lamb. of Virginia
Holiday. of Indiana and Gaines. o1
Tennessee. Mr.. Robinson had charg-
ed the Republicans with being respon.
sible for the subsidy. which brough
from Mr.. Lamb an emphatic protest
saying there were as good Democrat,
in the house as Mr.. Robinson wht
would support the proposition.
Although the Louisville and Nash
Vile Railway, one of the roads bene-
Ated by the subsidy, passed through
his town. Mr.. Gaines excitcdly declar
ed the subsidy to be a lega1ized stea'
Mr.. Aiken, of South Carolina urges
an increase in the salary of rural car
riers to 5000. Mr.. Finley, OF Soutl
Carolina, followed with an analysis o
postal appointments for the pas
twentv years. He believed in rea
Sonable and Just allowance for clerl
hire for all postoffices, and fle said h
would not condemn any member fo
requesting allowances for separatin
mail and for unusual bfsjl- ess.. Ther
were. he said. rumors of the abuse @
franking privileges and the commits
sion should look into that.
Mr.. Sibley. OF Pennsylvania. sus
gested to Mr.. Finley that II he per
=EenaIly knew OF any such abuse it wa