The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-01-25
THE MOST MENACING
o. ALL OUR PERILS

oue VI TIE very SeuSlDle anu COui
ageous papers of Georgia is the
Moultrie Observer, and it's wise,
carefully considered and temperate
views on public questions are always
worth reading. That paper has found
another issue better worth the at
tention of the people of Georgia than
Tom Watson and his incorporate
vagaries on irrelevant questions, and
in the appalling growth of the mob
murder spirit in that State, which
now openly defies the courts and the
law abiding sentiment of the people,
it sees a deadly peril which, if per-
mitted to grow, will destroy civili-
zation itself up there.
1t is matter which not only con-
Germs Georgia. but all her neighbor
States as well, for, like yellow fever
or other epidemic diseases, the hor
rible mob-murder mania pays no
heed to State or county lines and
its ravages are limited only by the
strength and virulence of the evil
itself. Our public men and our whole
press and people, might well drop
all other questions of minor import,
and address themselves to the discov-
cry of some remedy for this great
est present danger to our section,
for there is nothing in our politics
to compare with it in importance.
Only the lower elements in our
population engaged in mob-murder,
but indulging their lust for killing
with entire immunity from punish
ment, they are growing rapidly
holder, and if unchecked, they will
in time completely dominate our So
cial state and make an end of all
law except it's mere empty form.
Read these words from the Moul.
trie Observer and see if we haven't
something more urgent to consider
down here in the South than thu
= false and vicious issues injected
into our politics by unscrupulou'
demagogues seeking their own pre-
ferment by playing on popular preju
dice:
THE mob has Georgia by tn
throat, and we cannot tell when |
will break out or to what lengths
will go. 1t is supposed that only on
negro was directly responsible TO
the murder of the Lee county sher
iff but here we see all who were il
the house with the guilty part
swung up and rddled indiscrimin
ately.
1--WE shall see the northern pres
go into fits again and break out wit
violent and unrestrained condemna
tion of the South "~' This is bad
But that is not the worst of it. TIL
worst is that the mob spirit is grow
ing. A few years ago lynchings wei
generally for rape, but now we al
lynching for murder and for suspec
ed murder. At first only negroes wei
lynched, but as sure as day follow
night we shall soon see white me
lynched, and for almost any crime
years ago mobs were formed {
the impulse of the moment, and o
ten under the influence of whiske
but now we see them being formt
after weeks of time elapses-aft
time for sober thinking. They a
deliberately planned, and by men
good financial circumstances, '
should judge, since they ride in aut
mobiles.
who is it that can contempla
the many lynchings we are havi
without feeling that we are slidi
back in the so-'-~ 80 Civilization
What is being done to check Il
backward tendency? Who can poi
to an instance where the law h
ever been avenged for such an OF
rage in the State? Mob law is G
of our most serious problems, and
is one that our thinking men a
statesmen should apply themsel'
to-"