The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1915-09-24
WELSH JEFFERSON DAVIS SEPTEMBER 1915
The Case of Leo Frank.
Cor The Rice Belt Journal.)

Georgia to a fuSilade of unprovoked
abuse by Northern and Eastern journals
both secular and religious. This stream
OF BillingSgate has been so thoroughly
stepped in aCrimony that as matter of
simple justice to the section aSSailed it
seems to call for some sort of an ansW.
er. | have before me as write several
Journals which denomemate the people
OF Georgia as barba1ianS and Stiama-
tlSe the state as a Jungle state into
which they say no light of civilization
can ever penetrate. This kind of a pro.
paganda is conductive to the widening
OF sectional breach that is already too
wide, and which can never be bridged
save as pacific measures are employed
in the effort put forth, without discuss.
ing the ACCESSIBILITY of capital punish
ment which is matter really apart
from this issue. it is a fact that Leo
Frank was tried by a court duly con.
Stltuted and convened for that purpose
upon the face of the evidence taken
word for word from the court record
which evidence have before me as
write, no sane and just jury could do
otherwise than return verdict Of gull.
ty as charged in the indictment. The
verdict Of the lower court was appealed
from and the case carried step by step
through all the courts of Georgia hav-
ing Jurisdiction each of these reaflrmed
the decision of the first cours before
which the case was tried then the case
was taken to the court OF last resort
in the United States, the United States
Supreme Court, and that august body
refused to interfere, it was then return.
ed to the Georgia prison commission
and they also decided to let the verdict
stand. then the governor of the state
exercised his executive prerogrative
and comuted the sentence to life i'm
priSonment. After this a conspiracy
was formed by twenty-five or thirty
men at most and the majesty of the law
was grossly violated in that Leo Frank
was taken forcibly from the custody of
the state authorities and lynched. The
best people of Georgia do not believe in
lynching any more than do the self re-
Specting people of any other state, and
an honest effort has been made and is
being made to ferret out and punish
these murdererS. But even with all of
the facts in the case as related there is
no need for the bitter and vindictiVe
assault made upon the entire state of
Georgia. The probity of the Georgia
courts has never been impugned save
when northern and eastern journals
have eSSayed the impossible, the NOR.
bid sentementalism displayed in recent
years over criminals who have commit.
ted cold blooded crimes against society
has developed a fear in the public mind
that but little protection would be at.
forded by the courts, and this condition
is no double responsible for many of the
lynchingS in recent years, the unWiSe
criticism of courts and jurieS is direct
blow at all organized government andis
the root from which grows the bloodred
tree of anarchy. The state of Georgia
has had an honorable record in the past
and has furnished many distinguished
men to the service of the republic, in
deed but for the south and the mighty
Drained men furnished from that sec
ton who have made the nation largely
what it is we would not occupy the
commanding position that we do in
world affairs today. Out of tbs coSmic
catastrophe of the civil war the south
with her head bloody but unboWed has
emerged socially, politically, and indust-
rally to triumph to take her place as an
esSetial factor in the future progress,
and prosperity Of the nation. And the
south if the people of that section are
given half a change to work out their
own problems in their own way, will
give the rest of the republic no cause to
be ashamed of them i'll the time to come,
lynching is indeed crime against the
peace and dignity of the commWeath
and shall be condemned in unmeasured
terms, but the reign of ran, political
corruption, the social evil, and many
other organized forms of vice have built
glass houses in many other states
from which it is unwise for them to
throw stones at the south. Therefore
with malice toward none and with
charity for all ithe hand OF Cancellation
should be held out and a community Of
interests in this way established that
would bring about different and better
conditions everywhere.
w. LOMAX CHILDRESS,
Roanoke La San1emhep 2(lth 1Qf5