Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1906-12-10

pie ever become convinced that this
process is habitually abused, whether In
fecting corporations, it will be well-niSh
impossible to prevent its abolition"
The Negro Problem.
The negro problem is given considers
BILE attention, after calling attention to
the fact that no section of the country
Is free from faults, and that no section
has occasion to jeer at the shortcomings
OF any other section, he turns to the sub
Ject of lynchings, and especially as APP
piled to the negro of the south. He says
the greatest existing cause for mob law
Is the preparation by the blacks of the
crime of rape, a crime which he terms
even worse than murder. He quotes the
admonttions to the white people spoken
by Gov. Gambler of Georgia, some years
ago, and by Gov. Jelks, Of Alabama, re-
Gently, and then says:
Every colored man should realize
that the worst enemy of his race is the
negro criminal. and above all the ne
gro criminal who commits the dread
full crime of rape; and 1T should be felt
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 in
tent to commit rape should be made
capital crime, at least in the discretion
of the court; and provision should be
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 tes-
timony, and that the least possible
publicity 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
creatures who dwell therein. No man
can take part in the torture of a hu-
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
trouble for the next generation of
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.
Need for Negro Education.
There il 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
its existence. It is out of the question
for our people as a whole permanently
to rise by treadng 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
class, to prevent the education of an
other class. The free public school, the
chance for each boy or girl to get a
good elementary education, lies at the
foundation of our whole political stu
alton. In every community the poor
est citizens, those who need the schools
most, would be deprived of them if
they only received school facilities
proportionately to the taxes they paid.
This Is as true of one portion of our
for the negro as for the white man.
The white man, if he is wise, will de-
cline to allow the negroes in a mass to
grow to manhood and womanhood
without education. Unquestionabiy ed
ucation such as Is obtained in our pub
lie schools does not do everything to-
wards making a man good citizen;
but 1t does much. The lowest and most
brutal criminals, those for instance
who commit the crime of rape, are in
the great majority men who have had
as they are almost invariably men who
own no property; for the man who
puts money by out of his earnings,
like the man who acquires education
Is usually lifted above mere brutal
criminali@. OF course the best type
of education for the colored man, ia
ken as WHOLE Is SUCH eduCaClOn as
is conferred in schools like Hampton
and Tuskegee; where the boys and
girls, the young men and young wo
men, are trained industrially as well
as in the ordinary public school
branches The graduates of these
schools turn out well in the great ma
jority Of cases, and hardly any of them
become criminals, while what little
crimina1ity there is never takes tbs
form of that brutal violence which in
vites lynch law. Every graduate Of
eaI,n coils fnV ~
that every cher colored man or wo-
man-who leads a life so useful and
honorable as to win the good will and
respect of those whites whose neigh
Dor he she is, thereby helps the
whole colored race as it can be helped
in no other way; for next to the negro
himself the man who can do most to
help the negro is his white neighbor
who lives near him; and our steady
effort should be to better the relations
between the two. Great tho the bene-
colored pupils and to the colored peo-
pie. it may well be questioned whether
the benefit has not been at least as
great TO the white people among whom
these colored pupils live after they
graduate"
Capital and Labor.
On the subject of capital and labor
the president takes the agitators of class
hatred to task and says Ito preach
hatred to the rich man, as such.
ness honest men whose lives are hard
and who have not the kind of mental
training which will permit them to ap-
preciate the danger in the doctrines
preached is to commit a crime against
the body polite and to be false to every
worthy principle and tradition of Amer
lean national life" Continuing on this
subject he says:
THE plain people who think-the
mocha mics. farmers. merchants, work
ers with head or hand. the men to
whom American traditions are dear
who love their country and try to act
decently by their neighbors. owe it to
themselves to remember that the most
damaging blow that can be given pop
uAr government Is to elect an un-
worthy and sinister agitator on a
platform Of violence and hypocrisy.
Whenever such an issue is raised In
this country nothing can be gained by
iinching from it. for in such case dem
ocracy is itself on trial. popular self
government under republican forms is
tself on trial. The triumph of the
mob is just as evil thing as the tri-
umph OF the plutocracy, and to have
escaped one danger avails nothing
whatever II we sucuumb to the other
In the end the honest man. whether rich
or Door who earns his own living and