The leader., 1905-09-06
NUMBER OF BALES RECEIVED BY WAGON EACH MONTH AT THE COMPRESS
FROM SEPTEMBER L 1897 TO SEPTEMBER 1 QN5

@ON~
Grand Total
editorial of the Franklin Advocate
and commented ON same,in a spirit
Iof fairplay to all parties we also
copy what Mr.. McGehee says
above and the Advocates reply,
and will submit some editorial re-
marks, which seem to us peril
nent. Mr.. McGehee's sudden
flop on the subject of whitecap
prosecutions, to which the Advo-
cate SO pointedly refers, has been
the subject of no little surprise
and comment. His conversion,
only a little less sudden than
that of Saul of Tarsus, seems to
have taken place last spring about
the time the franklin whitecaps
were threatening to bring certain
prosecutions against him and his
brother in both the Federal and
State courts.
Like the Advocate, we accept
without question his statement that
| he was the writer Of the petition
referred to for the wholesale dis
charge of the persons indicted in
the Federal court, but we happen
| to know that he has not fairly
stated the grounds on which these
indictments were based. As a
member of the executive commit
tee of the Law and Order League
of Lincoln county, and of Fed.
eral and a Lincoln county grand
jury which we're called upon to in
vestigate white cap outrages, the
editor of The Leader has acquired
| q pretty thorough knowledge of
fthe history, methods and opera
tions in Amite, Franklin and Lin
coin ofthe white cap organization,
otherwise known as the Farmers
Protective. Union and Farmers
League. The negro government
homesteaders were warned to va
cate their lands in December, 1902,
(not over three years ago, as Mr..
McGehee would make it appear.
His broad insinuation that these
negroes entered into unlawful col
lusion with the timber agents to
get their homesteads posted with
white cap notices as pretext for
having patents issued, and that
white caps had nothing to do with
the matter, will not command the
respect of the white caps them
selves either for him or his
"gauzy'' plea. One of the cardi-
nal doctrines of the white caps
was that negroes must not be per-
mltted to acquire lands Of their
own. Everyone who is. we'll in
formed on the subject knows that
in December, 1902, a perfect reign
of terror prevailed among the ne
gro population in the greater por-
tion of Franklin county and the
southwestern part of Lincoln, on
account Of white cap activity, and
that the same condition prevailed
again in the latter part of 1903
and early part of 1904, to an even
greater degree, SO much so, that
some localities in the three white
cap counties of Amite, Franklin
and lincoln we're almost depopu-
lated of negroes.
As a member of the United
States grand jury which indicted
'.the first seventeen citizens of
franklin, the editor Of The Lead
er can inform Mr.. McGehee that
negro testimony cut mighty lit
tile iceo in the case. The indict-
ments were returned principally
on the unwilling testimony Of
white men who had not been in
| the white cap school Of perjury
long enough to lose all conscience
and respect fol the trnth,
and whose stories gave a very
different color to the situa-
ton from that suggested BY Mr..
McGehee. The present situation
in Franklin, ,as depicted by Mr.. Nc
Gehee IS indeed deplorable, but it
is only the legitimate fruit Of
whitecapism, which the people
we're many times warned against
lat the beginning Of the IaWiess-
ness. According to Mr.. Niece
lhee's own testimony about the
bitterness and strife, Judge Niles
good counsel has not been needed.
The editor Of this paper has
never favored the wholesale
prosecution of the members Of
Ithe Farmers League or whitecap