Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-12-04
I'LL TEXT OF THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE TO CONGRESS


make common cause with the law
| abiding against criminals of any color"
Treat Each Man Justly.
| Moreover, where any crime commit
ted by a member of one race against
| member of another race is avenged in
! the individual criminal, but the whole
race, is attacked the result is to eNas-
perate to the highest degree race feel
ing. There is but one safe rule in deal,
ing with black men as with white men;
it is the same rule that must be APP
piled in dealing with rich men and poor
men-that IS, to treat each man, what
ever his color. his creed o. his social
position with even handed justice on
his real worth as man. White peo-
pie owe it quite as much to themselves
as to the colored race to treat well
the colored man who shows by his life
that he deserves such treatment, for it
is surely the highest wisdom to en-
courage in the colored race all those
individuals who are honest, industri-
Gus, law abiding. and who therefore
make good and safe neighbors and cit
ual on his merits as an individual
Evil will surely come in the end to
both races if we substitute for this
just rule the habit of treating all the
members of the race, good and lad,
alike. There is no question of social
equality or NEGRO domination" in
volved, only the question of relentless
ly Furnishing bad men and of securing
to the good man the right to his life,
his liberty and the pursuit of his happi-
ness as his own qualities of heart, head
and hand enable him to achieve it.
Every colored man should realize that
the worst enemy of his race is the ne
gro criminal and, above ALL the negro
criminal who commits the dreadful
crime of rape, and it should be felt
as in the highest degree an offense
against the whole country and against
the colored race in particular for Il
colored man to fail to help the officers
of the law in hunting down with ali
possible earnestness and zeal every
such Infamous offender. Moreover, in !
my Judgment, the crime of rape should |
always be punished with death. as is !
the case with murder. Assault with |
intent to commit rape should be made |
Il capital crime, at least in the dscre |
ton of the court, and provision should |
be made by which the punishment may |
follow Immediately upon the heels of |
the offenSe, while the trial should be |
so conducted that the victim need not |
be wantonly shamed while giving testi- |
mony and that the least possible pub |
licity shall be given to the details.
The members of the white race, on |
every lynching represents by just so
much lOOsening of the bands of civ
iliZation: that the spirit of lynching
inevitably throws into prominence in
the community all the foul and evil
creatures who dwell therein. No mani
can take part in the torture Of Il hui
man being without having his own
moral nature permanently lowered
Every lynching means just so much
moral deterioration in all the children
who have any knowledge of it ana
therefore Just SO much additional trou
BILE for the next generation of Ameri-
cans.
Let justice be both sure and swift,
but let it be justice under the law and
not the wild and crooked savagery of
a mob.
Negro Should Be Educated.
There is another matter which has
direct bearing upon this matter of
lynching and of the brutal crime which
calls it forth and at other
times merely furnishes the excuse for
its existence. 1t is out of the question
for our people as a whole permanently
TO rise by treading down any of their
own number. Even those who them
selves for the moment profit by such
of their fellows will in
the long run also suffer. No more
Shortsighted policy can be imagined
than in the fancied interest of one class
to prevent the education of another
class. The free public school, the chance
for each boy or girl to get 4 good ele-
education, lies ut the founda-
ton of our whole political situation.
In every community the poorest citi-
zens, those who need the schools most,
would be deprived of them if they only
received school facilities proportion
ed to the taxes they paid. This is as
true of one portion of our country as
Of another. 1t is as true for the negro
rs for the white man. The white man.
f he is wise, will decline to ALLOW the
negroes in mass to grow to manhood
md womanhood without education.
PROFESSIONALLY education such as Is
in our public schools does not
10 everything toward making Il man n
,ooG c1rlzen, but it does much. The
owest and most brutal criminals
hose, for instance, who commit the
rhine of rape-are in the great major
ty men who have had either no edu-
alton or very little, just as they are
lmost invariably men who own no
for the man who puts money
" out of his earnings, like the man .
Who acquires education, is usually lift