The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-15

cret councils of the Eternal? He seems to speak. from very intimate relation ship rare to mortals.
 NOTHING WIDER OF FACT But this is not all, for the judge pro- ceeds to inform us that Booker T. Wash ington has done more harm in Alabama than tuberculosis A statement SO bread and baseless is about as astounding
 as would be the assertion that darkness i is light and evil is good. Certainly noth- ing could be wider of fact than this bare, bald statement Either the judicial func- tionary is ignorant of facts, else he her. medically seals his eyes to the facts, either one of which is discreditable to this wearer of the ermine. Booker Wash ington was brought to Alabama by the best and ablest white men of the state, was sustained by body of legislators that put some later ones in the attitude of travesty was applauded in his efforts in behalf of not one race alone, but of both races, and won merited renown that anyone might covet. If he was a negro, his record is secure, and thoughtful and serious men and women will regard de- 1 liverances like the one under comment as | unworthy, certainly of a supposed dis penser of justice
 
 l in detail in it's abounding egrediousness of bare assumption, without stiver of 1 fact to sustain his position, we come to 1 the most astounding part of the speech, | in which he Is reported to have used the following language: There's just as
 much difference in q suppose he means 1 between) human nature and negro nature,
 as there is between the smell of limber- l ger cheese and a bunch of roses" Doubt JaSS Wa~ int ta he xvtff h but is not sentiment like that amazing 1 falling as it does from the lips of a judge? Here he asserts merely, as is his habit throughout, but contained within the statement thinly gauzed, is couched the opinion that the negro is other than hu- man.
 Now in all seriousness, where is the | hope of justice for the negro in court presided over by a judge who entertains sentiments like these, not only, but who, before a body of humanitarians makes
 bold to give them freedom of utterance? NO COLOR OF JUSTICE l Of all men judge should be free from ] bias, and should have sufficient tenn peramental fitness to be able to accord 1 to each the merit of his just desert, no | matter what be his condition, rank or crime. But if there be first a perversion | of judgment, then necessarily there is obliquity of sense in sdealing with niS4- ter as sacred as justice is. There is no color in justice, and yet Judge Abernethy
 would put it there. And least of all
 should 8 judge with malice aforethought | lend himself to the excitement of
 that it is a judges duty in all trials 1 to follow truth" is not without admis- sion of application in this connection. 1 It seems bit of inadvertent irony that 1 in the same issue of the paper in there
 appeared this deliverance of Judge Aber- nethy, there was rather long report ! on the appearance of a bulletin issued | by our state department of education which bulletin was pseparac9y James l.. Sibley, state rural school agent for ne gro schools. It is really complete an- swer to all that emanated from the lips of Judge Abernethy in derogation of ne 1 gro education.
 1 There is no need of hysterical demon 1 stration in speaking of fairness and jus tice due the negro but even the basest
 criminal who may be as black as mid- night, has rights which should be re- 1 spectedFbut in a court presided over by one who does not regard the negro as hu- man, this accord of right and justice is beyond the pale of possibility. Some ju. dlcious friend should have advised Judge H B. Abernethy for his own persona sake, and more, for the sake of the of flee that he holds to abstain from wilc declarations that prove his unfitness tt dispense justice in the court, Save a very limited number. Judge Abernethy vii find that his sentiments expressed on thu
 occasion when he spoke before the socio
 logical congress are not even measurably
 shared in. Excellent common sense among men has not yet vanished. nor hal fl justice fled. B. F. RILEY.
 Birmingham, March IA, 1917.