The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1916-07-05
FREE SCHOOL BOOKS AND CRIME.

FREE SCHOOL BOOKS AND CRIME.
In his annual address before the po-
lice chiefs of Georgia in Savannah to-
dav Leonard NJ Summer of Cordele,
as president of that body, tells these
officers of the law that compulsory ed
ucation and free school books are our
strongest bulwark against crime and
a remedy fol-, the stormng of jails and
the lvnchinss of depraved human crea-
lures. He further declares that edu-
cation of the right kind gives men
strength to control their passions and
to overcome their primeval animal de-
sire for revenge 1t helps them to see,
he further argues with great deal
of common sense, that the destruction
of a criminal is no more complete
when he is held dangling from the
limb of the stately oak or lowly pine
than when regularly executed by due
and solemn process OF law. Lynchlng
and mob rule SOW the seeds of out
lawry and evil begets evil, he says,
but education lifts the veil and helps
us to see the better effect of supreme
devotion to the majesty Of the law
AS to detail President Sumner is not
so much concerned. IT is the princi-
ple,-education as y sure remedy
against the great crime of lynching.
The state will have to enforce any
compulsory measure, but the state
ought not to have to DO with the free
schoo books. That's a matter which
ought to be set on the shoulders of
the county or the school community.
But both are coming and future gen
eratlons are to-reap the" benefits of
more widely distributed educational
training among the children of today.
The advantages to be had from free
school books and enforced school at
tendance belong to the future, but it
is none the less our duty to give our
young the advantages which they can
not have without our assistance.
One season of lynching such as in
tests our state is enough to destroy
the work of a generation directed to
the establishment of the supremacy of
the law People of culture, refinement
and education have nothing to do with
lynchin gs Men who take the law in
their hands usually have no regard
for the good order and peace of the
community and they are of class
that education of the present will new
er reach. Their day of refinement of
character by education is gone. So
we must build for a love of order and
peace through the boys of today. They
must be educated Compulsory cdu
cation and free school books are both
employed by other states with telling
influence and they ought not to be
delayed in Georgia,
In ,literacy we stand almost at the
foot OF the list To be more accurate, |
we are third from the bottom of the
list of states. Is Sumner right when
he intimates that lack of education
permits the rising up of primeval an
imal revenge in the lyncher? And
does this account for the fact that we
do more lynching than our sister |
states?
The lyncher of today should he dealt
with summary for the reason that he |
sows for the state TO reap murderers |
and outlaws. The lyncher of tomor-
row will not materialize if the boys
are educated to that stage where they
can themselves know the full mean |
ing of the majesty of the law.
BRINGING THE KAISER TO BAY. |
If news accounts give any correct
idea of what is going on in Europe.