The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1906-10-11

tful, brutal and bloody minded
slaughter Of weak and defense1ess
/ people by organized mobs, the same
! bestial torture and outrage of which
Sioux Indians would be ashamed.
| Here in Richmond we have over a
hundred thousand people, third of
/ them negroes. We have not had a
/ race riot or disturbance of any serious
I import since 1870, thirty-six years ago.
Our women walk our residence streets
4 to all reputable times of night unat-
tended and without thought Of fear.
| We cannot recall in ten years an in
/ stance of any violence offered a white
| woman by negro man In Richmond
except the occasional snatching of a
pocketbook or some comp aratively
minor crime of that kind. We do not
believe there is case on record of
any decent negro woman interfered
with in any way by white man. We
get along here in peace and quiet and
with mutual respect for each others
I rights.
We are not thoroughly informed as
to the inside facts and the details of
/ this Atlanta affair Probably we never
/ will be. We do recall that about three
weeks ago an infamous little news
/ paper in that city publicly and edi-
ltorially applauded some lynchiugs in
4 South Carolina and offered thousand
dollars reward for a similar occur
I a Is 20 E0
that the reward never will be paid,
but we felt at the time that it was
about the most hagrant1y villainous
bid for notoriety and sensation we had
| ever seen in print.
| We ask the fair minded people of
the Union to remember that Atlanta is
known as the Yankee metropolis of
/ the South. We believe it boasts of its
Northern and Western element. 1t is
not and IN thirty years has not been a
| Southern city. THERE'S nothing typi-
cally or epresentatively Southern
kabout it. Very likely most of this
rioting and murder that has been done
was instigated and accomplished by
/ imported lackguards and ruffians and
sincerely repudiated by the really rep
1 resentative people there.
| We ask the country to call the roll
of the large Southern cities Rich
mond, Norfolk, Savannah, Macon,
Charleston, Birmingham, Mobile,
! Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans,
Austin, Fort Worth, Galveston,
Vicksburg, .Jacksonville-and say
whether any such shameful outbreak
as this has occurred in any of them.
If we recall correctly every one of
them could stand up, point to a record
1 Of forty years since the war and plead
not guilty.
The negro problem is hard one,
crowded with complica tions and irri-
tations. Ia the face of it the great
masses OF the Southern people, even in
the larger cities where mobs and riots
are possible, have borne themselves
with dignity, discretion and human
ity This outbreak liz Atlanta is the
first serious departure from that
course. Where negro in infatuation
on fanaticism have undertaken to
control communities they have been
depressed sternly and promptly and
the offenders among them have been
! dealt with. We cannot recall a pre-
vious instance, however, of indiscrim-
mate persecution and murder of mem
bers of that race in any Southern city
or county even under the most ag-
gravating and horrifying circum-
stances. In this Atlanta case there is
no excuse or alienation. If some Of
the negroes guilty, accused or even
suspected, of the reported assaults on
white women had been caught and
hanged it would have been bad
enough, but there would have been
some justification. For the murder Of
innocent and unoffending negroes go
ing quietly to their homes, of BARRIERS,
innocent and inoffensive men earning
their livings by honest work and close
personal service to white people there
is no possible apology or explanation.
We assume that nobody will be pun
ished. All that the people and the
newspa pers of tie South can do is to
repudiate responsibility for the crime
and to express promptly and dis.
tinctly their horror of it and their
sense of shame that it should have
occurred on our side of the line.
Atlanta, we are glad to say, never
has been or will be typical Southern
: city. Its methods, its morals, and its
standards are not Southern. This out.
break could not have occurred, WE
: think, in any other i'm portant city this
side of the Potomac river, and the
South as a section Of the Union has
the right to disclaim res possibility
for it, to relieve itself Of the shame. !
| The managers Of college athletics
are worrying for tear the public vii
J not pay it's good money to see football
) with the danger eliminated, but The
casualty list So far shows that the
game is not any too safe yet.