The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-12
tco..i..ea from Par. Eleve..,

The white mob murdered him there, and firing the jail to burn his body, de- Yet neither iaw nor public 9b ns sentisnt ass in that community, Is strong enough to indict the offenders and bring them to justice. In the Capital of the State a few years since. negro was taken dered by a mob with the connivance of the police force. In another instance there, a prisoner was taken from the deputy sheriff and murdered. Many of grand jury could be induced to return a true bill. The world knows what has been done here.
 This does not mean that the bulk of the people in those communities are lawless. These communities contain hundreds of courageous, noble and law abiding men. Yet, they have not been outspoken. They have not opposed a stern front to iawlessness. They stood still, because they hoped like occur rences would not again take place. Their forbearance and silence fed the spirit of mob law. until the mob has become stronger than the law in most of those communities. The practical established in those communities, the rule that the law of Alabama shall not be enforced for the protection of a ne- gro. if 1t is necessary to punish a white
 
 one that a state of things is fast aris- ing in these communities. when the ne- gro who dwells among them. will be regarded by the vicious as an outlaw, the head as he would a proving wolf: If this malignant spirit Is not checked and crushed out the poison will surely spread.s and gradually 1t will sweep over the entire State. It takes no prophet to jforetell. if such things are allowed, what woe 1t will bring to the State. and what peril to the Innocent of both races.
 It is no defense or justification for such spirit, or the failure to relent- lessly combat 1t, that the evil is not sectional. It detracts nothing from the enormfty of putting that spirit in prac- tice, to say, as Is true. that under like conditions and surroundings, that spirit mon in one part of the country as in the other. It Is, the evil at our doors which threatens us. It Is no excuse to say that there are men among us who he commits crime and brings on strife. because of that counsel. We can and do punish him and them relentlessly, and when punishment is meted out by the law, it Is ample remedy. How can we expect the negro to keep down the irresponsible and vicious of his own race, or prevent results of his bad teachings, when the dominant race is either powerless or unwl- ling to control its lawiess members who preach doctrines the race condemn? Every incendiary appeal to race pas sion, only arms the bad negro With greater power for harm among his own people. The pathway we are pursu- ing is not safe. It is full of peril The public opinion which throngs in and becomes partaker of the councils of State" and rules the nations of the earth, if promptly and thoroughly aroused, can do more than all the in- strumentalities of the law, to return us to paths of safety and justice. Each of us in our sphere can do much to aid in shaping and putting that public opinion in motion.
 What Every Citizen should do.
 Let us teach in season and out of season that justice meted out by law to criminals is better shield for the home against the assassin. robber and incendiary, than the orgies of the mob around the burning body at the stake, which only incite passions for revenge, and bring down upon us the just con- demnation of the civilized world.