The Columbus weekly dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 1902-1905, 1905-06-01

gro has been safer in the hands Of
this so-caIIed negro hater than he has
ever been in Mississippi before. This
so-called violent and eccentric man
has enforced the law more sternly
than any of his predecessors, and he
has let the weight of the law fall
upon white and black alike.
A severe test came last winter, one
Of those horrible events which teach
Southerners what they know Under
the very window of the capitol build
ing a black man. still unknown. as
saulted a white woman. upon a light
ed street, at the very window of a
citizens residence. An arrest was
made. A thousand men besieged the
jail An officer was showing his pris-
oner for Identification when Governor
Vardaman rode up. He commanded
the crowd to dispense. telling them
that this was not the right man, and
ordered the iailer to take him back
into the Jail. He had no difficulty in
controlling the mob-as we of the
North call such a gathering. Since
that time every white man in Jack
son has been a guardian of his house
hold, armed, watchful and suspicious.
There is no telling when a similar
calamity may befan any family in
that city, or in any other Southern
city. But when the right man is
found, when the actual perpetrator of
this crime is at last discovered, he
will fall into the hands of no mob in
Jackson The so-called negro hater,
Vardaman, will see that he gets a
trial under the law and that swift
justice shall be his.
Immediately following this crime
at the capital city, Governor Varda-
man issued a proclamation TO the of
fcers of the counties, cities and
towns of the State of Mississippi,
document which ought TO be in the
hands of all Northern men who look
upon the South as a land careless of
the law. Reciting the circumstances
of this horrible affair. Governor Var
daman once more voiced his own con-
victiOn
Forty years of freedom and free
public education have not fulfilled
the Utopian dream of the negrophil-
ist of the North. and the North-f1a-
yored vagarist of the South 1t has
rot improved the negro's morals,
awakened within him an intelligent
love of country, or cultivated an up
Fitting, passion-r0 straining selfre-
spect He is the barbarian still, with
a thin veneering of civilization, and
che education afforded him by the
white mans money, over a period of
forty years. seems only TO have in
creased his capacity for crime. In
his educated condition, his aspira-
ton to rise in the world and stand
on a dead level with the white man
socially and otherwise. manifests it.
self in beastly assaults upon white
women.
The situation is becoming desper-
ate and something must be done"
Remedy for the Crimes.
The remedy suggested by the gov
ernor was simply the enforcement of
the law. There has been begun the
past winter. all over the State of Mis-
sissippi, the NOSE vigorous campaign
against idlers and Migrants. and vi
ciOus characters in general, which
was ever known in the State Of Mis-
sissippi. The river towns are all lit
orally cleaning up. A campaign
against vice and lawlessness such as
has been waged in the cities of Jack
son and Vicksburg during the past
few months would be a model for
Chicago or any other OF the great
Northern centers of population We
have been known such q campaign
In the North We have no Northern
cities in which the law is so abso-
lutely and impartially enforced. This
was not the case under any admins
tration before that of Governor Var
daman. These facts may be taken to
signify what one likes. They are
facts.
Criminal Tendency is Deep One.
Now, it is the belief of Governor
Vardaman that crimes such as that
mentioned above are not cured by
education, but are made more numer-
GUS. The records of the South show
that the criminal disposition of the
negro is more apparent than it was
twenty, thirty or forty years ago
This crime. which put all Jackson in
q horror, was a crime unknown in
slavery days. 1t is a crime exclusive
~ belonging TO education and TO poll
tics The politicians of America have
told the negro that the privileges of
social equality are his. He has his
own methods of expressing his con-
viction. his own notion as to what
those privileges should be. To him
political equality means social equal
ity And what social equality means
to him is something not for these
pages to discuss.
The question is covered when il is
stated that the white population of
the South is an armed population;
when il is said that the fifteenth
has forced upon a SPLEEN
did portion of America a vast, I'M
mentionable horror. a vast lawless-
ness so-called, vast unSolvable
problem, vast Industrial waste
a vast unhappiness. But II has
not forced upon the white race
the first thought of submission TO
that amendment and its conse-