The National tribune., 1906-09-27
ATLaNTa's DISGRACE.

ATLANEt'S DISthAtE.
Atlanta has put a blot upon our his
tory which il Will take long time TO
efface or forget. For days the city was
in the hands of mob. which beat and
killed negroes wherever they could be
found. This is something so absolutely
indefensible in country like ours that
everyone must blush to read the horri-
BILE story. 1t effectually prevents us
saying a word in condemnation of the
Russian and Turkish outrages. We have
done absolutely the same things with
much less excuse. because of our in
| sistent pride that we were a civilized
country where We have full remedies in
the law for every evil. Admitting that
Atlanta has had great provocation.
There has been an epidemic of assaults
upon women which cannot help irritat-
ing men as nothing else can, but the
natural observation comes that as a
| well-governed. well-regulated commun-
ity there should have been found some
way to stop this horrible epidemic
without resorting to mobs and indis'
criminate slaughter. The outbreak was
far worse than the usual lynching af-
fairs. 1t can be said in mitigation of
| lynching generally that tho lynchers
may occasionally hang man who is
| innocent of the particular offense. they
are pretty sure TO hang a man who de-
serves hanging on general principles.
His previous record and character are
such as to mako him reasonably sus-
| pected. There does not seem to have
been any such discrimination or pallia-
ton for the Atlanta reign OF terror.
| II the mobs had visited the low dives
| and cleaned them out, killed and NAL
treated their inmates and had hunted
down negroes of notoriously bad char
acter. the reign of terror would have
had its alienation and possibly justi-
| fcation. All accounts say that the ne
groes were attacked and beaten simply
| because they were negroes. The hon
! est, hard-working, respectable negroes.
of. whom Atlanta has very many thou
sands. and they are exceedingly val
liable to the city, received the same
brutal treatment as was meted out to
the worst and most dangerous of their
race. This cannot help being not only
an enduring stigma upon the people OF
Atlanta, but 1t must be exceedingly
hurtful to the city's business and future
development. The labor of the negro
is absolutely essential to Atlanta and
her industries. Everywhere in the city
the negro must be relied on to carry on
innumerable branches of business. They
are carriage-drivers, draymen, porters
and laborers in every branch of the
activity of the people. Probably 80
per cent or more of these are as good
anywhere. They are honest. God-fear-
ing, faithful and Industrious. To visit
upon these poor men, who are doing all
that they can to raise their race up and
mako 1t worthy Of respect and conf
dencs, and to treat them all as felons
and criminals. is a wickedly cruel re-
turn to barbarism. 1t Will hurt Atlanta
far more than anyone else, because ii
will disorganize and embarrass bust
ness, social life and prosperity and its
Ill effects will last for many years. The
specific cause of the outbreak Was that
there had been IL assaults upon white
women in the space of two months
This is unquestionably awful and in the
highest degree inf1ammatory to the pub
lie mind. Yet other cities have had SINH
lar epidemics OF crime, such as arson,
murder, robbery, and have been able to
meet them without recourse to moi
violence and race wars. The people OF
Atlanta should have been able to dc
the same. A proper police system, o
proper administration of justice anG
ordinary precautionary measures would
have speedily corrected the evil. Ar
exercise Of despotic authority would
have been preferable and would have
been tolerated. In every community
there are only few criminally disposed
men. 1t Is so with the negroes. Prob
ably not five per cent Of the negro men
are actively criminal. These betray
themselves and become recognized a:
bad characters. The simplest, easiest
to have sorted out these rascals from
among their decent fellows, driven
them from the city in some way OIL
another or even lodged them in the
penitentiary. That is the way thai
other crime-infested communities have
purged themselves and secured peace
and order. Atlanta could have done
the same. 1t is a disgrace to her that
her methods of Government have been
so inefficient as to provoke such bar
| barous riot.
| Bishop McCabe, Of the NJ. e. Church,
belongs to the Church Militant, and
was a very good soldier during the war