The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1911-06-02

Tuskegee, Ala, May 25.-Booker T.
Washington to-day expressed himself
to representative of The Times that
as a man deeply concerned in the
welfare Of the south, he was very
much grieved and humiliated be-
cause of the carnival of crime that
swept over Florida and Georgia last
Sunday. He said that such things
ought not to happen without chal-
longing the rebuke and condemnation
not only of the immediate sections
where these lynchings occurred but
of the entire south.
The lynching of eight human be-
| ings on the Sabbath was disgrace
to Christian civilization. 1t is hard
to understand how any nation of
people can expect to retain the con-
fidence and respect of the world
when such occurrences are permitted
to take place in our midst, espec-
tally on the Sabbath day.
I'm connection with the men
lynched, it should be understood that
in no case was any one charged with
an assault upon a woman. There
was not the slightest reason why
every person lynched might not have
received a full and fair trial before
the courts.
! ut is such lynching outbreaks as
this that give tie people of Europe
the impression that we are an unciv-
ilized, barbaric people. Every one OF
these lynchings is widely reported
In foreign papers.
IF it is asked why | do not con-
denim, in this statement, the persons
lynched, / would state that I have
no right to condemn any human be-
ing for crime until the law says
he is guilty of crime.
THE United States is placed in
very awkward position just now in
attempting to lead the way in the
matter of bringing about interna-
tional peace, when in one day-the
Sabbath-eight persons are put to
death without any semblance of a
trial.
Let this truth never be forgotten
that Whatever a man or a nation
sows that they shall also reap. The
white man who murders a Negro to-
day and goes unpunished, is likely
to murder white man tomorrow
and go unpunished. There is but
one rule that will stand the test of
the centuries and that is the enforc-
ing of all laws in every section Of
the country without regard to race,
class or color. L especially COM
mend the stand the governor of Ala
bama has taken with regard to
lynchings and the efforts he is now
making to put down mob violence
in this state
"These outbreaks on the part of
the mobs result not only in the
moral degradation of the people, but
thy serve as a setback to business
in an alarming degree among both
races | plead everywhere for the
exact enforcement of the laws not
only i'm the interest of the colored
race but in the interest of all races.
As I have said elsewhere there are
in my mind two remedies for mob
justice First of all, let us unite in
determined effort everywhere to
see that the law is enforced; let all
people at all times and in all places
see that the man charged with crime
is given a fair trial Secondly, let
all good citizens unite to rid the
community, especially the large ci-
ties, of the vicious and gambling and
criminal element.
"Such an effort should have the
heartiest cooperation of the better
class of Negroes, They should use
their influence, especially in the
cities. to see that the idle element
that lives by its wits, without per-
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