Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-12-06

race, is attacked the result is to exas-
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 ap-
piled in dealing with rich men and poor
men-that is, to treat each man, what
ever his color, his creed or his social
position, with even handed justice on
his real worth as q man. White peo-
pie owe it quite as much to themselves
as to the colored race to treat we'll
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
liens. Reward or punish the individ-
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 bad.
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 a
colored man to fail to help the officers
of the law in hunting down with all
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
a capital crime, at least in the discre-
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
the other hand, should understand that
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 man
can take part in the torture of 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 and
therefore just so much additional trou-
bic for the next generation of Amer-
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 a
direct bearing upon this matter of
lynching and of the brutal crime which
sometimes calls it forth and at other
times merely furnishes the excuse for
it's 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
maltreatment 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 good ele.
mentary education, lies at 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
as for the white man. The white man
if he is wise, will decline to allow the
negroes in a mass to grow to manhood
and womanhood without education
Unquestionably education such as is
obtained in our public schools does moi
do everything toward making man 6
good citizen, but it does much. The
lowest and most brutal criminals
those, for instance, who commit the
crime of rape-are in the great major
! ity men who have had either no edu
cation or very little, just as they are
almost invariably men whe own NJ
property, for the man who puts none,
by out of his earnings, like the MAI
who acquires education, is usually lift
ed above mere brutal criminalty o.
course the best type of education fol
the colored man, taken as whole, i.
such education as is conferred il
schools like Hampton and Tuskegee
where the boys and girls, the youn:
| men and young women, are trained in