The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-08-11

| business and sporting circles.
METROPOLITAN MOB SPIRIT.
The recent monster mass meeting of Wash /
ingfon negroes, held for the purpose of protest
ing against and condemning lynch law in the +
South and itself resulting in near race riot IN
Washington was Of course carefully obllvious of
the equally atHeeious instances of mob violence
with which the North and West have from time
to time had to suffer
According to the negro convention, and accord
ing TO the papers which gave its proceedings
prominence, the sins of the South respecting
1ynching were such to acquit the North and
West of like spirit of lawlessness. The EN-
phasis usual sectional. The old bones
were ratified. In the heat of the dog days lack
of invention caused the bringing out TO light of
an old and ontworn sensation.
But almost in the midst of this revival, dis
charged employee sought vengeance of Mayor
Gaynor of New York, and in Wednesdays New
York Telegraph find that metropolitan paper
leading Its editorial columns with statements like
these
ri is, indeed, deplorablc that lynch
ing IS not The fashion an The State of
Nem Jersey.
Mayor bdYitor shooting h0Wd
hare been.arenged on The spot.
The man-handltng giren TO the
could-be KILLER by Mr.. Edvards was all
right as far as II rent sut 1t did not
30 far enough. The assassin sho,dd
hare been dangling from tree or lamp
post, qhastly and terrifying lesson to
others rho would shed blood.
Suppose that, under any stress of indignant
excitement, a Southern paper should have given
expression 10 such direct and inhammatory APP
peal to anarchy as that How the Northern
press would have rallied How lurid would have
been its moralizings the ''lack of civilization
in the "barbarous South. And yet it needs only
Y the excitement incident upon the attempted kill
ing of strong Mayor for paper published in
the very stronghold of property, in the very spot
Of all others where HUMAN life is sought to be
specially preserved in order that the chase of the
dollar be not interrupted to lose It's head to the
point where logically il ought TO have been found
Il leading the vanguard of the mob for which il
makes appeal.
Of course, there was no mob New York is too
Z big place to permit the instant coalition of
men with community sentiment which is neces-
sary 10 mob propulsion. The utterance, howt
ever. was no doubt carefully calculated to ex-
press public sentiment, It spoke the desire of
Il thousands upon thousands in the Metropolis who,
z given the chance would have been only too glad
To attempt the punishment of lawlessness by
retrograde movement toward anarchy. Yet Gal
Jagher stood for nothing save himself. His crime
h was only peculiarly atrocous in the incident OF
n the prominence of his victim. Had mob lynch
ed one obscure murderer who slew on the streets
n of New ork victim equally obscure, the Iele-
graph woald have been among the first to cry out
for punishment upon the mob which, in the ex-
ceptional instance, it itself shamelessly incites
4 70 bloody action. Considering which, there ought
\ out of the hot-headed incident to arise certain
contemplation Of the human passion which in the
South has caused lynchings of negroes in com
parison with whose crimes that of Gallagher
though his intended victim was Mayor was
no more than misdemeanor.
81 The truth probably is that this country is
not yet 'scyilized", at least TO the point where
' The popular pulse beats always with the cool and
Il 1ythmic stroke which an universal regard for
n He law would produce On the other hand the
Y Blood runs fast, and there remains certain
H1llic temperament likely at any time TO
plode when it is too rndely shocked. Knowing
ID 4his temperamental defect, ii il important that
sections should guard against the temptation
N ~ lynch; that they should all realize that in
khonghfful sef-control lies the only hope of avoid
II ing growing spirit of calculated anarchy, that
M ean be checked only by the restraint imposed
Al npon the natural desire for sudden revenge; that
N III sections, moreover, should ont of common
knowledge of self-failure construct common
charity one for the other. Mayor Gaynor him
MI would probably most bitterly denounce the
idea of his injudicious friend, the Telegraph
n The Telegraph itself is now, doubt, heartily
HshAmed. But its outbreak shows that, so far
II sections are concerned like the Colonel's Lady
hd Julia OGrady they are sisters under their
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