Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1906-12-06
The Neoro Problem.

The Negro Problem.
The negro problem is given considera-
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 ap-
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
admonitions 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
as in the highest degree an offense
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 a
capital crime, at least in the discretion
of the court; and provision Shouts be
made by which the punishment may
the offense; while the trial should be
so conducted that the victim need not
OS WdHlOHly SHdIneu Willie SlNlHS IeS-
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 a loosening of the bands of civ
ilization; that the spirit of lynching
inevitably throws into prominence in
the community all the foul and evil
creatures who dwell therein. No man
can take part In the torture of a -hu-
man being without having his own
moral nantlV 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.
but let it be justice under the law
and not the wild and crooked savagery
of a mob
Capital and Labor.
On the subject of capital and labor
the president takes the agitators of class
hatred to task and says to preach
hatred to the rich man, such. .
to seek to mislead and inf1ame to mad
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
the body polite and to be false to every
worthy principle and tradition of An r
lean national life" Continuing on aiis
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 n It
dana ging blow that can be given pop
ular government is to elect an un-
worthy and sinister agitator on
platform of violence and 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 as the. tri-
umph of the plutocracy. and to have
escaped one danger availS nothing
whatever if we sucuumb to the other.
In the end the honest man. whether rich
OF poor. who earns his own living and
tries to deal justly by his fellows, has
as much to fear from the insincere
and unworthy deuagog. promising
much and performing nothing. or else