The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1906-12-08

Ntiy NAlsstfltc, Tor II the american peo-
process is habituaily abused whether in
ms,ters affecting labor or in matters af-
impossible to prevent its abolition"
The Negro Problem.
The negro problem is given consfdera-
nle 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 perpetration by the blacks of the
crime OF rare. a crime which he terms
admonitions 10 the white people spoken
by Gov. Gambler. of Georgia. some years
ago. and by Gov. Jelks. OF Alabama.
Gently. and then says
Every colored man should realize
that the worst enemy of his race is the
negro criminal. and above all the
gro criminal who commits the dread
iuI crime OF rape; and II should be felt
in the highest degree an oreuse
against the whole country, and against
the colored race in particular. for a
colored man to fail to help the officers
possible earnestness and zeal every
such Infamous offender. Moreover in
my Judgment, the crime of rape should
always be punished with death. is
the case with murder. assault with in
tent TO commit rape should be made a
capital crime. at least in the discretion
of the court: and provision should be
made by which the punishment may
follow immediatsly upon the heels Of
so conducted that the victim need not
be wauionly shaued while giving tss-
tinony. 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 a looscning of the bands of civ
ilization. that the spirit of iynching
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
Americans.
Let justice be both sure and swift:
but let it be justice under the law
and not the wild and crooked savagery
of mob.
Need for Negro Education.
There is another matter which has
4 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. 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
shortsishted 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 II
they only received school facilities
proportionately to the taxes they paid.
l1i c ~ ion,
country as of another. 1t is as true
for the negro as for the white man.
The white man. If he is wise. will de-
cline to allow the negroes in 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-
wards making a man a 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 majority men who have had
they are almost Invariably men who
puts money by out Of his earnings,
like the man who acquires education.
is usually lifted above mere brutal
criminality. OF course the best type
of education for the colored man. ta-
ken as whole, is such education as
is conferred in schools like Hampton
and Tuskegee; where the boys and
men. are trained industrially as well
as in the ordinary public school
branches. The graduates of these
schools turn out wei in the great ma
jority of cases. and hardly any of them
become criminals. while what little
criminality 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
man-who leads life so useful and
honorable as to win the good will and
respect of those. whites whose neigh
Dor he or 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
tit of these schools has been to their
colored pupils and to the colored peo-
pie. 1t may well be questioned whether
great to the white people among whom
these colored pupils live after they
Capital and Labor.
On the subject of capital and labor
the president takes the agitators Of class
hatred to the rich man. such,
to seek to mislead and inaame to mad
ned W6o 1s knd Of
training which will permit them to ap-
preciate the danger in the doctrines
the body polite and to be false to every
worthy principle and tradition Of Amer
lean national Efe.' Continuing on this
subject he says:
1.-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 it to
themselves to remember that the most
damag ging blow that can be given pop
ular government is to elect an un-
and ynenss agd agatSy
Whenever such an issue is raised in
this country nothing can be gained by
finchng from 1t, 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 thing as the tri-
umph of the plutocracy. and to have
escaped one danger avails nothing
-