The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1919-10-25
SOUTHERN MINISTER GIVES
GEORGIA SENATOR A Sc
WERE DRUDBING.
tBy Associated Negro Press)

Atlanta, Ga, Oct. 16.--Never in the
history OF the country has United
States Senator been given severe
drubbing at the hands Of Southern
white citizen as Senator John Sharpe
Williams received from the Rev. c.
B. Wilmer, Rector of the st. Luke's
Episcopal church, this city. Rev. Will
mer undoubtedly, shows not only
great intelligence but great courage
in his statement to the Associated
Negro Press, which SAYS:
1.-THE whole world seems to be like
volcano which may erupt at any
moment and bring universal des-
truction. If there ever was time
in the history of the human race
when only words of truth and sober
ness should be spoken that moment
Is now. If ever there was a time
when we needed to know what forces
are really effective to stamp out re-
bellion and crime. 1t is now. II Is
no time for lunatics to me abroad.
One must therefore deDlore the re-
ported utterances of Senator Williams
of Mississippi. to the effect that the
protection Of women transcends all
law. human and divine" II is within
bounds to say that is as wild and
incoherent statement as ever pro-
ceeded from a madhouse. To assume
that the understrained orgy OF re-
venge and passion is going to protect
anybody or anything is crazy; to as
sumo that we can protect anybody
that ought to be protector by trans
cending divine law Is blasphemous.
One of the minor aspects of this
debate in the senate, reDorted in this
mornings paper, II debate 1t can be
called. is the humiliation. every right
minded southerner must feel over
the fact that a southern man, one
we are all proud of, who has been
doing valiant service for the League
of Nations which represents an effort
to bring law and order Righteousness
and peace out of the worlds welter
of war and slaughter should expose
himself to the deserved rebuke ad-
ministered by Senator Borah. The
senator from Idaho, may be wrong
headed on the League Of Nations,
but he told the exact truth when he
said that the advocacy OF lynch law
was sowing the wind to reap the
whirlwind: that it could only end
in the disintegration of the republic.
This is the practical and serious
aspect of the matter. So far as our
sv, he 10
cannot conceive of more PERM
cious doctrine to spread abroad than
that we can protect our women by
the course recommended. Nothing so
fires the southern heart as the ap-
peal to chivalry, Nothing, according
ly. is so dangerous If misdirected.
There can be no greater appeal to
our sympathies than is presented
by the victim of brutal crime. If
IL were true that we could stamp
out crime by the fury of violence,
that blazes the way of our redemp-
ton. But it is not true, and most
awful is the appeal to all that is
best in us to work the worst. Satan
Is disguised as an angel of light
| challenge the statement of the
senator from Mississippi and / ap-
peal to him as a citizen of a great
republic whose mission it must be
to lead the world between the ex-
tremes of autocracy and anarchy; as
n member of the law-making depart
ment OF government; as man with
a brilliant and trained mind, cap
able of tracing effects to their cause;
above all as a Christian and a
churchman. l submit to him and
to all others the opposite proposition,
viz: that there is no protection OF
our women save in the maintenance
of law and order and in the bringing
to bear in all our problems the spirit
of true religion. l say to him In all
IL he. will open his
mind to the truth he will be bound
to believe it-that every such oc-
curence as that at Omaha actually
imperils the safety of our homes
the length and breath of
the land. Every participant in a
mob and every apologist for mobs is
joining hand with criminals to bring
about the unchecked reign of anarchy.
hTere is no use in Disgusting the
issue. IF Jehovah be God follow
him; but if Baal, follow him" II
lawlessness, II revenge, If hatred, be
our God. then follow them. Let the
United States Congress adjourn and
the senator from Mississippi retire
to his cotton plantation. let the
Atlanta council instead of wrangling
over the necessary taxes to keep our
public schools going, disband, having
a. ,hnls.hod aho rrhIir crho0lS oil