The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-28
A QUEER ARGUMENT.

Ordinarily The Hartford Courant is among the fairest of our Northern con- temporaries in discussing matters re- lating to the alleged race prejudice in the South, but the following extract from an editorial in a recent issue of the paper strikes us as both unfair and illogical:
 The merit of tearing a white mans house down and trying to kill him wben in fact he Is foreigner as the Greeks were in Omaha. lies in the fact tha; here Is 10 hypnr.sy in such pro sons because of fastidio1s taste as to the color of their skins are typo- critics as well as rioters. They sup pensities oy false pretense, and thus make their proceedings utterly con temptible. But mobs that just go on hunt for foreigners without regard to their comp1exions--shoog ooglng at a white man with as careful aim as at a negro or man from Asia--are straigbtfor- ward and sincere, and do not try to dis guisc their tracks with shsarn excuses. They are SIutish and lawless, of course, and deserve a good deal more and a good deal quicker punishment than they are likely to receive; but at any rate they take heir pleasure in hunt ing foreigners honestly, placing 1t fiat ly on the ground of a good man being In the wrong place. and not on the silly ground that the good mans looks are displeasing to them.
 Is that fair augmentation? Is it even sensible. for that matter? The legitimate conclusion to be drawn from the language of The Courant Is that there was real merit in the outrages committed against the Greeks at oma- ha because they were whites. If peo- pie anywhere in the South should treat a colony of negroes as these Greeks were treated we should find The Cour- ant and various other Northern news papers raising their hands to Heaven in an excess of holy horror of such prejudice and brutality, but as the suf- ferers in the Omaha instance were white men there was merit in the way they were treated, because there was no hypocrisy! Just why 1t should be rperitorious to brutally mistreat white men, and hypocritical and brutal to do the same to colored men is a little be- yond our powers of comprehension. With fne sarcasm The Columbia State says:
 What. though. we should like to know Is the false pretense," the hy- pocrisy. In these race riots that are di- rected against negroes or against Jap anese rather than against Creeks. for instance? What does such a mob as attack ed all the negroes In Springfield, Ill, tndiscrtminately. "pretend?" They sh oot negroes because they are negroes. Their performance strikes us as being peculiarly, frank. What does the sort Omaha ''pretendr They. too. shoot Creeks because they are Creeks. Their performance also is frank enough. We see mighty little "pretense" in any of these doings; we. see a great deal of plain and frank lawlessness. We fail utterly to perceive that these negro baiters are "hypocrites;" they impress us as being especially bold and bloody law-breakers.
 The. difference between the Trace Trace prejudice" against negroes is the same as the difference between tweedledum and edledee-anyb ody. except a New Englander can see it If he tries long enough. Also the differ ence between the enormity of the sin equally manifest. A man who suffers from prejudice against a Greek Is a lawless but perfectly honest and frank soul. deplorable but worthy But man who holds a prejudice against a negro is wicked "hypocrite" and worthy of the respect of good men who have a prejudice only against Greeks, or perhaps Japanese.