The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-09-22
WILL KANSAS DO IFS DUTY:

gloriously boasts.
II there can be anything that SO
much as smacks of a redeeming feat
ure to such an outrage against the law
and order of a state as a lynching, it
may be possible to find one in the ter
rible affair at Olathe in the fact that
the victim of the mob violence was not
a negro and that he was so summar-
lily proceeded with chiefly for such
reason.
Too many of the lynchings in our
sister states to the south appear to
have no other excuses. They seem to
( be based solely on the color of the
unfortunate who is hanged to a tree
or burned at a stake and often on
nothing more than suspicion that no
} is guilty of some crime.
They used to defend lynching in the
south on the ground that it was the
/ only fit punishment for the horrible
crime that an occasional british male
of the human species will perpetrate
against q woman or a girl.
But of late years they have been
| lynching negroes in the south on mere
accusations of all sorts of petty crimes
and frequently when they have killed
white mon in proper defense of their
/ own lives
The Olathe lynchers. or probably it
would be fairer to OIathe to describe
them as strangers to that town who
came from nearby territory to do their
lynching there-these lynchers didn't
even have the excuse that the victim
/ of the unspeakable crime against
womanhood; altho one of his victims,
in turn, was an elderly woman whose
husband he had also murdered.
Nor did these masked men who
stole into Olathe under the cover of
the darkness of early morning, and
whose masks testified in unmistakable
manner to the cowardice that was in
their hearts. even have the excuse that
justice had either tarried or miscarried
in this case.
The crime for which the mob
/ wreaked its fury on Bert Dudley was
committed no longer ago than Au-
gust 20. He had confessed it; had
been given a formal trial at which a
jury had found him guilty after de-
liberating for a short fifteen minutes;
and was to be sentenced to life term.
the limit IF the law. on the very day
that the mob took the law into its own
hands and applied the ultimate in the
realm of punishment.
So If there was ever an inexcusabts
lynching from every viewpoint, the
one that was staged at O1athe during
the early hours of Thursday morning
must stand guilty of that charge.
The murder of the good old farmer.
Muller and the Immediately subse-
quent murder of his wife for no APP
parent reason except one that might
be prompted by a british or insane
whim, were as cruel, cold-blooded and
uncalled for as any murders in the
history of Kansas; and no punishment
no legal punishment, could be too Sc
we're for the perpetratOr of them. as
Dudley had boastingly confessed him.
self to be.
But order is order, and law is law
l and the latt'r must be permitted to
take its course unless the whole fabric
of the civilization which we have beer
building up in this country since its
beginning is to have it's foundation
stones blasted away.
Lynching must be suppressed in this
country. in the north as we'll as the
south, unless the nation is to lapss
t eventually into a state of anarchy thai
n will assume the proportions of the
= lawlessness that has been in order il
v Mexico now for so many, manN
: months.
!. There is only one way to bring al
e end to lynching. to curb it.
e 1t lies in the prompt and adequat,
= punishment of lynchers
s And the opportunity is now pre-
e scented to Olathe. Kansas; to johnson
e Kansas, to join hands and see to i
y that every honest effort is made t,
g bring to justice the men who hav,
r made travesty of law and order il
e this great commonwealth by thei
lynching of Dudley.
Here is another case, too wher
e some of the responsibility for a CAPT
IS tai crime belongs on the shoulders o
s. state authority.
II Dudley was an ex-convict with
k record so long AID black that he ha
lie long since joined the ranks of tn
Of habitual criminals.
A parole, a pardon or the serving O
his last of many sentences to priso
had given him the freedom that h
took advantage of to commit a mos
"a heinous crime.
a The parole laws Of the several state
re when they are applied intelligently t
es first offenders. and preferably befor
a. a Jail or prison sentence is impose,
lie and especially against offenders who's
is first crime is of the petty order. cor
Is stitlIfe 1lndn hi q 1..isn ,.cf