New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1904-08-27
BURNING NEGROES IN GEORGIA

| The newspapers report-with com
ments of varying accuracy and unfair
ness-the burning alive of two ne
groes in Georgia. Many in H.,
| North, filled with sense of tH ir uv
virtue, and comfortably free fr, m an,
negro problem, denounce rs he asts an,
unnatural wild men their fellow -citi
zens in the Southern States. Other
in the South apologize too sweepingl,
for those implicated in the burning
exculpating them too readily.
The matter is seriC us-serious OF
the North rs in the South. For thi,
every intelligent man must know
what man in the South will do 6
man in the north will do under SINH
lar provocation. We have not one
breed of Americans in the North and
another in the South. The same hu.
man nature controls us all. Victor
Hugo said he never heard of crime,
but he realized that he might have
been capable of committing it at some
moment in his life. The self-right-
eous men of the North should look
carefully into the own temperaments
before condemning the Southerners
in too superior fashion.
Can anything be said to excuse the
burning alive Of those two negro
criminals at StatesbOro? No. But.
while we may not excuse it, we must
investigate the reasons for it. dispas-
We must remember that
the men 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 with
in us horrible possibilities of brutal
cruelty. We know that only disuse
aud long freedom from violence
through many generations will wipe
)ut this mate brutality. We must
zee to it that the brutal savage deep
Town within us is not called to the
'n-face. We must not judge too
Iaughtily those men in the south that
truggle to suppress the causes behind
he hideous lynchings.
In the men of the South, the men |
# the North, the East and the West. |
here are all the possibilities of the
most hideous cruelty. But we have
dvanced at least to this point, that
My horried crime, horrible provoca-
ion, can arouse within us the latent
ruiallty Of the savage
There will he no burning al We CT
egroes the moment that The negro
eases o commit the or mes that mad
Ell and make wild beasts Of The low
+ types among whom they live.
|
Certainly an appeal should be made
} the nobler sentiments Of the South
RI mob-and that appeal is made
very day by the best and strongest
lei in the Sonlh. The own brni her
the murde. ed man, Hodges.
ergyman. impiored the crowd to re-
ain from yinlriice aud let 4l,e law
Tie its conrss. He acted nobly Aud
vt. splend I men ~ The
Dutb, whose ,rovocations aud difficult
es we little understand acr nolly in
Citing the tendency to lynch, law
But, to understand conditions there,
is well to transport ourselves in
Imagination to the scene Of the crime,
9TH before and after it was commit
d.
Look at the family group the me-
'oes murdered by the mob confessed
at they Ind murdered and burned
OF that family the father. the
rtuous mother hideousiy maltreated,
e little baby in arms and the other
70 little children.
There was the little girl six years
d, who saw her father murdered,
ID then frightfully held up penny to
q of the murderous negroes, begging
m to take the penny and not hurt
n. Her brains were knocked ont /,
ID she was thrown into the fire. 1t
we'll to know these things, to re-
ember that an eloquent orator re-
lnded the lynching mob of that /.
tie girls appeal when the negroes 4
eaded for mercy. 4
The South is struggling manfully 1
lth its great problem. struggling I,
ainst odds, and especially against I
e cynical, would be superior criticism 4
the North. II we can help the i
nth in its great problem we should :
80. But any advice we may give, \
y suggestions we may offer. must 4
se the form Of friendship, Of SYM I
4 = lr.s