The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-17

try were perpetrated on Indians, later on desperate white men, then later on negroes, and recently on white men and women who have committed such crimes as to arouse violent popular hatred. According to Mr. Cutler (Lynch Law), of the 3,337 1ynchings between 1882 and 1903, 2,060 were ne groeS, 1,169 were whites, 108 were foreigners and Indians. Forty of the co1ored and twenty-three of the whites were women.
 .It should next be noted that the overwhelming majority of colored 1ynchings (66 per cent.O are not for criminal assault at all. Of all the col ored men lynched, only 34 per cent. of them were lynched for the one aw- full crime of assault on white women. Thirty-eight per cent. were lynched for murder, 10 per. cent. for minor offen- ces, per cent. for arson and in the remaining per cent. for unclassif1ed and petty crimes, and, indeed, in some cases for no crimes at all. Of those ninety-one different causes given, va rying from jflting a girl and throwing stones, up to Kidnapping.
 Lynching An Innocent Man.
 "A most dastard1y case of lynching in Green County, North Carolina, has just taken place (Apri1 6) A negro ] man who had furnished his criminal son with a gun for self-protection was arrested and=held in custody. He had committed no crime, though he had acted unwisely in furnishing his son with fire arms. But what father would not do that for his son if he were being pursued by officers who might readily be expected to treat him harshly, if they did not lynch him the moment caught? But I re- peat, the father had committed no crime. He was however, taken in l a very bold fashion from the prison and shot without mercy do not believe any court in the land could have convicted him of crime, and the white men who shot him were mur- derers, pure and simple.
 ''It seems evidence that the lynch ] ing habit in the South has, in general outline, grown up as follows: First, men lynched, Whipped Indians) for misdemeanors then they began to whip white men who committed crimes Oc- casionally a negro committed some crome. and was summari1y< punished. After the war, it seemed necessary to mete out immediate and harsh pun sishnlent to negro men who molested white women Then it was an easy step to lynch a negro for murder, and, finally, for smaller offences. From this it was no difficult step to lynch i ing a white man for an assault on woman, then it became easy to lynch a white man for murder, and so the process has gone forward. ever in creasing in facility and excuse. What Must Be Done.
 ''Six specific things must be done if we are to remove the stigma of lynch ing from the South.
 Fixst, we must have such changes in court procedure as will insure prompt and just punishment of criminals, par ticular1y in cases of criminal assault. There is no particle of doubt that many lynchings take place because of that the courts will daily with the case until the lessons taught from prompt administration of justice will be lost.
 Second, We. white men must start a crusade against the white vultures who prey on colored girls. If there were fifty white women assaulted by negroes in 1916, I have no doubt there were many times that many colored girls seduced by low-down white men.
 Three. The leaders of the negro race must begin to preach crusade against those negro brutes. who com
 init this terrible crime.
 -Four. White and coIored alike must unite in uncovering every crinn- inal and bringing every offender to justice promptly and without evasion. | White men must guarantee safely to
 
 co1ored men must cease to defend ev- cry scalawag by saying it. is a case of race prejudice. The white man is crinainally guilty of neglecting to give every man due trial and not few colored men are guilty of trying ito make martyrs of every negro charged with criminal assault.
 Five. We must inspire, new respect for law in the hearts of our younger generation. Every case of Iynching Is a direct blow at stable government. ] No nation can continue as a law-abid- 1 ing commonwealth when it's laws are constantly def1ed by those who claim to be the defenders Of justice. When any group undertakes to administer l justice unlawfully it soon results that the 1awless element of that group gets 1 into controA and we have a reign of anarchy. This is the present situation in regard to lynching.
 1 t'Six. We must incu1cate a deep re- spect for personality if we are to re-
 move the cause of Iynching. We lynched negroes first because we thought we respected womanhood, but the hideous scenes of lynching so hard ened our hearts as to make us bold to lynch women, even white women, in whose defence we first practiced this horrible cruelty. Lynching has bru- ta1ized every community where it has been practtced, and has sowed the dra- gon teeth for a new harvest of crime.
 Sacredness of the Person 1 eff we are to remove 1ynching, the one everlasting fundamental, and eter- nal gospel we must preach is the sa- credness of the person. This means that, since the person is sacred, we cannot despise any, and there can be no justification for race hatred. On the peril of losing all my respect for rights, privileges, and law. I as white man, dare not hate a negro. and, what is just as much to the point, the negro, on that same penalty, dare not hate a white man.
 'Lynching does net strike terrer to the heart of any race; it rather arous- 1 eSl the devil in them to do their worst