The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1906-09-14
THE REIGN OF TERROR
FOR SOUTHERN WOMEN

movement and freedom Of action
to which they are entitled under
the great and progressive civili-
zation in which they live.
What can we do then to halt
this terrible and appalling crime?
What reasonable experiment
can we try to put a stop to the
mad career of these internal
fiends who haunt every sequested
nook and corner around our cities
Killing, shooting, burning has
seased to terrify them. But we
have never tried any other rem
edy. We have never experiment.
ed with anv other mode Of pun
ishment.
Why can we not establish then
some new form Of punishment
whose very spectacular method
and terror will eliminate the
foulest criminal instincts of our
time. In the past the editor of
The Georgian has advocated the
personal mutilation of the rapist
as a deterrent force, ard we be-
lieve yet resolutely and fearlessly
that the experiment is worthy
of a trial. Let it be understood
in advance that every negro who
commits this crime will be treat
ed to this punishment and let US
see at least a tweylemonth what
effect the new punishment will
have upon the old and frightful
offense.
We have suggested in time
past that some new and mys.
terious mode of punishment-the
passing over a slender bridge
into a dark chamber where in
utter darkness and in utter mys-
terry the assailant to womans vir-
ture would meet a fate which
his friends would never know
and which he himself would never
come back to make them under
stand. Darkness. mystery, un-
certainty have always been de-
terrent influences upon the mind
of this ignorent and supersti-
tious race. We insist that this ex-
pertinent is also worth a trial for
for what it is worth-to be per-
petuated If it is successful and
to be abandoned if it does not
accomplish its purpose. Heaven
knows that a desperate disease
demands a trial of every desper-
ate remedy which tact and the
ory and self defense can dictate
to a people who have borne too
much and borne too long the hor-
rible shadow which rests upon
our society and upon civilization.
But at this time and in this
hour we come forward earnestly
and intensely to arraign the lead
ers of the negro race, their
preachers and their public men
that they have not them
selves co-operated to suppress
this crime. They have met in
conventions, they have passed
resolutions, they have Grated
about lynch law and
they have denounced Southern
men and methods, but they have
been shamefully and criminally
silent in making their voices
heard in stern and persistent de-
nunciation of the crime that pro-
duces lynching. Many men and
individual members of the negro
race who magnify the lawless
ness of lynching above the crime
that produces it, have even aided
the confessed criminal against
the virtue of our women by Sc.
him from the officers of
the law, by providing change
of clothes and by conniving in
every way to aid in his way of
escape from the outraged agents
of society. Upon this basis we
arraign the leaders-the teach
ers, the preachers. the bishops
and the editors of the negro race
as particepts criminis and CO.
criminals with the rapist when
they fail to cooperate fully and
freely with the white race in the
swift punishment of this awful
crime.
Until the negroes are taught
from the pulpit, from the teach
er's chair and from the printed
page to help the white man to
hunt down the scoundrels and
the criminals Of their race, they
are themselves guilty in part Of
the crimes which we revenge.
They make the negroes think
that every black criminal who is
'lynched is q martyr to the pre-
judice of race. They inflame
the minds of the inferior race by
their fierce diatribes and pro-
test against lynching. But neith-
er their pulpits thunder nor their
presses spout preachments a.
gainst the criminal and the crimes
which make lynching possible.
We are getting tired of these
one-sided Jercmiads. We have
no patience with such hypocricy.
The negro must help the white to