Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1908-08-26
MORE RIoIING is EXPECTED.
Race Antagonist North and South, The
Difference.

for a week or more and conditions
have been quite serious. It will
be remembered that this is Abra-
ham Lincoln's old home, and a
section of our country to which
negroes look for succor in time of
trouble. How times change.
Springfield, ILL.,, Aug. 20 This
city is tonight on the verge
of another fierce outbreak against
the negroes. The streets are
crowded with excited men and
women and ominous threats are
heard OH every hand. All that is
needed to start a riot is a leader
and the fear of the police and the
few soldiers that are left will not
prevent it if that leader appears
before the night is over.
A Springfield dispatch of the
present riots, according to old citi-
zens, is the result of years of ra-
cial antagon'sm. Each year has
seen augmentation to the colored
population. It is said that in the
last two years a thousand negroes
took up their abode in the city,
giving the city q colored popula-
ton of about 5000 persons.
They were getting too bold aid
impudent," said a hotel keeper
today. people outside the city
cannot realize just how often
sive this was. The people of the
State at large will discover that
the outbreak of last Friday was
not the result of momentary irri-
tation, a temporary ebullitlon of
violence superinduced by heat.
The undercurrent of resentment
growing for years needed only a
pretext and the assault on a white
woman furnished this r%retext.
The streets r. quiet now because
the troops ire here, but that is no
assurance that the question is set
tied.
The exodus from Spring.
field seems to be permanent.
There are still a few scattered
colored families in the few blocks
guarded by the soldiers, but they,
for the most part, are women,
children and aged men. The
younger and middle aged are few
in number. Occasionally one
may see three or four Of the men
standing near a burned home but
all sre making preparations to
leave Springfield as 500 as funds
are available. Outgoing cars are
still crowded with the blacks.
Carpet bags, v~alises and monde
script trunks and suit cases COZ
tanning in many instances all of
the property of the negroes, are
high on the station platforms,
Governor Deneen's proclamation
asking that all negroes return to
Springfield and not enter other
cities seems Of no avail. Hotels
are devoid of negro porters, walters
and roustabouts.
The Baltimore Sun says: The
rioting, lynching of negroes and
destruction of property in Spring
field, ILL.,, show that racial antag.
onism in the United States is not
bounded by sectional and geo.
graphical lines. Illinois is a Re-
publican State, Georgia is a Dem
ocratic State. Less than year ago
Atlanta was the scene of rioting.
Negroes we're lynched after a series
of crimes against women which
stirred the people of that South
ern city to their profoundest
depths. But the sober second
thought of Atlanta prevailed.
The conservative and law-abiding
South condemned the excuses of
mob rule, and the mob was soon
brought under control, The
p%rovocation was great, but en-
llghteneo public opinion in the
South was no less outspoken in
denouncing lawlessness in At
lanta than was public opinion in
other parts of the United States.
1t Is essential to the proper So
of the race problem III this
country that Americans should
divest themselves of sectional and
political prtjudices when there
are manifestations of racial anti
and outbreaks of mob vio-
lence. Since last Friday evening
the capital of Illinois has been
the scene of mob violence on a
scale greater than that which At.