Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1906-12-12

very existence, for If the American peo-
process is habitually abused. whether in
matters afte citing labor or in matters az
fecting corporations, it will be well-ni1h
impossible to prevent its abolition"
The Negro Problem.
The negro problem is given considers
bic attention. after calling attention 20
IL free from faults, and that no section
has occasion to jeer At the shortcomings
Of any other secticu. r. turns to the sub
tect Of lynchings. and especially as ap-
piled to the negro Of the south. He saws
the greatest existing cause for mob law
il the preparation by the blacks OF the
sven worse than murder. He quotes the
edmonitions 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 eolored man should realize
that the worst enemy of his race IL the
gro criminal who commits the dread
fui crime Of rape; and II should be felt
as In the highest degree an offense
against the whole country, and against
colored man to fail to help the officers
or 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
capital crime, at least in the discretion
OF the court; and provision should DO
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 tes-
dmony, 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
l0OSRninR nf
iization; that the spirit of lynching
Inevitably throws into prominence in
creatures who dwell therein. No man
can take part in the torture of hui
man being without having his own
m neral , nature permanently lowered
moral deterioration in all the children
who have any knowledge of Il, 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 10 another matter which has
a direct bearing upon this matter OF
lynching and of the brutal crime which
sometimes calls ii 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 trsading down any of their
own number. Even those who them
selves Ior 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 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 CT 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. Unquestionably ed
ucation such as is obtained in our pub
lie schools does not do everything to-
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
either no education or very little; just
as they are almost invariably men who
own no property; for the man who
like the man who acquires education.
is usually lifted above mere brutal
criminaliE. OF course the best type
OF education for the colored man, ia
ken as whole, is such education as
Is conferred in schools like Hampton
and Tuskegee; where the boys and
girls. the young, men and young wo,
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
crimiuality there is never takes the
form OF that Brutal violence which in
vites lynch law Every graduate of
these schools-and for the matter OF
that every oher colored man or wo-
man-who leads a life so useful and
respect of those VIII ties whose neigh
Dor he or she is, thereby helps the
whole colorod race as ii can be helped
in no other wav; 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-
fit of these schools has been to their
colored pupils and to the colored peo-
Pile ii may Wen be questioned whether
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,
to seek to mislead and indame to mad
ness honest men whose lives are hard
and who have not the kind of mental
training whicn viii permit them to APP
preciate the danger in the doctrines
preached is to commit 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
mechanics. 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 IL to
themselves to remember that the most
damaging blow that can be given pop
uhr government is to elect an un-
worthy and sinister agitator a
platform of violence ana hypocrisy
Whenever such an issue is raised in
this country nothing can be gained by
fiinching from It, for in such case dem
ocracy is itself on trial popular self
government under republican forms is
Itself on trial. The triumph of the
mob is just as evil a thing the tri-
umph of the plutocrsoy, and to have
escaped one danger svails nothing
whatever IL we sucuumb to the other.
In the end the honest man,whether rich
or poor. who earns his own living and
tries to deal justly by his fellows, has
as much to fear from the insincere
and unworthy demasoE. promising
much and performing nothing. or else
performing nothing but evil, who
would set on the mob to p.under the
rich, as from the crafty corruptioniat
who. for his own ends, would permit
the common people to be exploited ~
the very wealthy. II we ever let this
government fail into the hands II men
OF either Of these two classes. we shall
show ourselves false to America: past
Moreover. the demagog and corrup-
ZIONIST often work hand In hand There
are at this moment wealthy reaction
aries of such obtuse morality that they
regard the public servant who prose-