New-York tribune., 1918-05-07
Attorney General Says Ma
,;on Soon Will Be Able
to Repress Spies
Prayer Case Cited
AS Likely to React
Tells Lawyers Illinois Law
lessness Is Used Against
Us in Germany

General Gregory in a recent address
10 the executive committee of the
American Bar Association urged that
body to disseminate through the coun-
trv the information that the nation
was or soon would be amply protected
by law against spies and traitors
Lack of such law, he said was the
principal excuse offered for lynchings,
which were merely invoking the in
Justice that the United States was
fighting in Germany His suggestions
are to be printed in the official publica-
tions of the association.
ave must set our faces" he says,
against lawlessness within our own
borders. Whatever we may say about
the causes for our entering this war,
we know that one of the principal rea-
sons was the lawlessness of the Ger
man nation-what they have done in
Belgium. and in Northern France, and
what we have reason to know they
would do elsewhere.
Condemns Prayer Lynching
"For US to tolerate lynching is to do
the same thing that we are condemning
in the Germans. Lynch law is the
most cowardly of crimes. Invariably
the victim is unarned, while the men
who lynch are armed and large in
numbers. 1t is a deplorable thing un-
der any circumstances, but at this
time above all others it creates an ex-
tremely dangerous condition. l invite
your help in meeting it.
From all the facts have been able
to gather concerning the lynching of
Robert Prayer in Illinois, l doubt his
having been guilty of any offence.
Such happenings grow out of a con-
dition of mind where people say the
government is giving US no projections;
spies are blowing up our factories;
they are giving information to Ger
many; our boys are being shot in the
rear and our duly constituted au..
thorities are doing nothing to protect
US and we will take the law into our
own hands
"This appeals to the excited and
drunken mind. Unless stopped, it is
going to result in a condition most
deplorable
Nation to Give Protection
"The two excuses usually given are
that there are no adequate laws and
that the laws we have are not properly
enforced. The people of this country
must be given to understand that we
have means of protecting those in the
field and those at home and what is
being done to accomplish that result.
u urge you through such machinery
as you sec fit to adopt to assist in
getting before the people of this coun-
try the facts that laws are now on the
statute books, or will be within a few
weeks. which will reasonably protect
the interior defences of our country;
that an honest, adequate, and earnest
force is dealing with this situation,
and that unless the hysteria which re-
suits in the lynching of men is checked
1t will create Ii condition of iawless-
ness from which we will suffer for q
hundred years.
There is another potent reason for
sternly repressing these disorders.
The cry of the mob is that it is pro-
tecting the boys at the front. The
reverse Is true. No greater wrong can
be done to our soldiers in France than
.nat of lynching Germans in America.
The story of the death of that Ger
maii IN llilnolS is being considered IN
Germany to-day. Such acts will be
seized upon by our enemies as justify
ing severe reprisals on our soldiers in
german prison camps. Having sowed
the wind, We will reap the whirlwind' %
Asks Aid of Lawyers
Mr. Gregory urged that the Ameri-
can Bar Association exert it's jnflu-
ence against the passage of uncon-
stltutional laws.
AS long as | am Attorney General
VI me United States," he declared, ~
snail give the government the benefit
III all reasonable and proper doubts
xhen 1t comes to the question OF the
power to be exercised in time like
'h's, but whore there is no really seri-
sus doubt as to the unconstiturionality
VI MEASURE. the duty of all good citi-
lehs Is plain. There is feeling that
"a some way a condition of war sus-
pends the guarantees of the Constitu-
uon and justities the doing of illegal
snd even criminal acts. see no room
,sr substantial distinction between
.ne iawless German autocrat who
sihoo.s non-combatants in Belgium and
sue awiess American democrat who
hangs Qnarmah c,vifiops ~, "a, ),