The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1919-01-17
lYNCHINGS ON INCREASE
IN SOUTHERN STATES
Jews Armenians And Poles
Excite Pity-Not So
The Negro

While we Americans we're gratu.
dously undertaking the task of max
ing the world safe for democracy
aud extending the aegis of our pro-
lection over all the races of mankind,
We were setting the example in law
Rssuess right at home which the
most benighted nations might well
be ashamed Of. We send naval fleets
aud military expeditions half way
round the globe, to protect the Ar
Iossacks. Ukrainians, C2echs, Poles,
p.enians, Jews, Kalmucks, Kurds,
Serbs. Esthonians, Lithuanians. AL
xadans and so on-but when it comes
30 protecting our own citizens we
SAINT do il.
We could do it of course, but We
won't; there's no politics in it and so
our statesmen ignore the whole mat
Ter. The publication of the lynch
NIX statistics at the end of each year
makes not even a ripple on the sur
sace OF American public opinion. We
take our lynchings as a matter of
course and if not proud of them we
are at least not ashamed of them.
Years of time and millions of mon
~ will he spent on such a case as the
Mooney dynamite case for instance
and the whole world will get worked
10 ever it; our government can in
,erfere to save such a culprit, but or
binary lynchings can be carried on
without let or hinderance; in many
eases the victims are innocent, but
chat makes no difference.
The local and State authorities
kill never punish lynchers, for they
Know that lynching is popular with
zhe masses of the people and is wink
sd 1t and upheld by the police. HUI
nan nature and Official methods have
lot changed since the time when Pom
rius PLATE gave Jesus to the Jewish
mob to be crucified. The central
government has plenty of authority to
interfere and enforce the law, order
and justice where the local authori-
ties neglect to do so, but the same
considerations govern there; lynch
N is popular and it would not do to
'aEe any action against it.
And so we just let it go and say
nothing about it. Our orators may
exhaust the, dictionaries in painting
sha beauties of the new era of right
and justice that is coming but they
d1Ye no words to waste on such .
uttle matter as the torturing and
0iliug of our own citizens without A..
tri1l, by mobs of !ynchers. We are
80 tender with Hun spies that we have
not hurt a single one Of them-but
ihere is nothing sacred about our
own people.
Hence we publish the lynching rec
ort for the past year, not as a matter
having any bearing whatever on az
fairs but merely as a curious item.
The lynching figures for each year
are never exact, for the government
doesn't even take enough interest in
The subject to keep any recors of it
The figures have to be made up sim
ply from newspaper reports. and one
may give different
ally iron. another
According to the record kept ny
Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Ala,
here were SO lynchings in this coun-
y III 1918, or "a more than in 1917.
Of the 81 people lynched. all but four
we're negroes, and FIVE of these were
TOmen. Sixteen of the victims were
sccased OF assault, and the other Of
.enses ran all the way from murder
iown to hog stealing.
Georgia was the banner" state !
his year, with a record of Is lynch
ugs; Texas came next with nine and
third with six, All of
he lynChings but three were in the
other three being in Cal
fo1ia, Wyoming and Illinois. From
1885 to the present time the number
1f recorded lynchings has been 1850.
Ia many years the lynchings have
exceeded the legal executions
chat mob law is paramount
o civil law TO a large extent.