Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-08-25
Slandering n Whole People

THE TIMES DISPATCH was one of the
many newspapers III this country to
which the legal execution of Leo Frank would
have appeared crime. 1t felt that reason
able doubt of his guilt springng, in the
words of Georgia law, from the evidence or
the lack of evidence" that was shared by the
judge before whom he was tried, by two Of
the justices Of the United States Supreme
Court, who heard his appeal by thousands
OF the best people of the State. by half
score at least OF able and impartial investiga-
tors. and. finally, by the Governor, who COM
mutcd to life Imprisonment the defendants
death sentence.
The Times Dispatch commented at various
stages on various aspects Of the Frank case,
expressing with all the force at its command
the views it held Believing that Franks
conviction was the result Of prejudice
against the prisoner, manufactured in ad-
vance of the trial. and not justified by the
evidence. this newspaper urged the people
OF Georgia to themselves from the blood
guilt OF egaized murder-urged that the
hand of the executioner he stayed. that in
the process of time and before the final and
dreadful reckoning the truth might become
known
AS to the murder that actually was COM
mitted it is not necessary to speak From
the nearly universal eXecration with which 1t
has been received. there is, outside of Georgia.
little or no respectable dissent Within that
State most that is finest, ceanest and best in
Georgas citizenship has risen up to demand
the rigorous punishment OF the assassins.
We say all this by way of preliminary to
tho discussion of an editorial in the Chicago
Tribune, that our own attitude in the mat
ter, past and present, may be made entirely
clear. The Tribune's editorial declares that
the South is Backward; that it "shames
the United States by illiteracy and incompe-
tence,' and that Its rotten social ideas exist
in circumstances which disgrace the United
States in the thought Of Americans and in
the opinion OF foreigners After which
graceful and temperate introduction, the
Tribune continues
region Of iIli's terra '' blatant u self.
u,ji i, is Improved by the INVASION of
better blood and better ideas it will
American republic.
To this It is not necessary to reply more
than generally, 1t is, of course, base and
baseless Islander, we'll understood by the
Tribune to be that exactly. The South no
more approves the murder of Frank than
what is decent in Chicago approves the thug
gerry, the bribery, the bestiality and the gross
dishonesty OF State Street and the Levee
There Is more political corruption in Chicago
than there is in the whole South, and as
much violence every year. There is more
oppression Of the poor, more sQualor and
misery IN chicago Sums than IN any half
dozen Southern States.
To arraign a whole section in terms so
offensive and so false. because OF the actions
Of part OF the people OF n single Common
wealth. is a crime scarce less despicable than
that OF Franks murderers 1t Is relic and
outcroppine OF that hypocrtical. Pharisaical
spirit that forced the South. half century
ago into the War Between the States
The Dcca lOgue denounccs more than one
crime. Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor," it DEGREES, and OF all
offenders against God and man the bearer OF
false witness is the most debased.