The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1920-06-19
LAW MUST BE SUPREME.


ON young Duluth girl by six negro
circus employees: last Monday evening:
It brought home TO- us. what: has been
frequently happening in the South.
Scarcely breast but that felt resent
full at such an atrocious deed. For q
moment at least nearly every red:
FLOODED person became murderer at
heart.
But who in Duluth thought that in
few hours a mob would gather and
become law unto itself? It would
not be unusual in the South where the
blood Of men is hot, but in this cold
North where folks move cautiously and
deliberately, few dreamed of the thing
which happened. It came so suddenly
that good men, used to practicing self.
restraint, found themselves unconscious.
ly moving and sympathizing with the
mob.
cit serves them right" was the i'm
pulsive expression from the average
person when he learned that three men
had been lynched within a block of the
police station for assaulting a 17-year-
old girl the night before. That was
the savage in us, and it was the same
savagery that animated the mob in its
mad attack upon the Jail and it's cruel
and unceremonious execution of the
three accused men who may or may
not have been guilty Of the crime.
AS men get back to their better
selves it dawns upon them that three
fearful crimes have been committed.
The first was the brutal assault upon
the young girl by six degenerate men;
the second was the substitution of
anarchy for law and order, and the
third was the murder Of three of the
men accused of being the young girls
assailants, and it is nothing short Of
planned and premeditated murder. The
atrocities of the latter are no less vi
cious to society than the depravity of
the crime that provoked them.
If men would remain free and con-
tinue to enjoy the blessings of popular
government they must learn self-re-
straint. The law is stern. Justice in
the end is unerring. If the mob had
waited the accused men would have
been given speedy and fair trial, and
If they were found guilty punishment
would have been melted out to them
as provided by law. Possibly the pun
ishment would not have been as severe
"a the commission Of tho particular
crime would warrant, but the guilty
men would at least be cut of from
society in a perfectly righteous way
and thus prevented from committing
other assaults upon its members. That
is the way Of organized government.
That is the manner Of a sane civil.
cation.
Even if the mob Of Tuesday night
had felt that the law Of the land was
not sufficiently severe to properly deal
with the crime committed by the men it
murdered it should have recognized the
higher law, the law Of God, which gives
no man the right to separate another
from his soul. And every man. who
played a part in taking the lives Of
those men must answer to that law
just as they must answer for the awful
crime they committed against the
young girl.
In the meantime the Law Of man
should be- restored for our common
profession. It is argued by .pologists
for the mob that the lynching Of the
three negroes will have salutary ef-
feet upon others Of their race in this
community and we will be troubled no
more in the future by such assaults
upon our womanhood. But that is not
the history Of crime. Hanging has
never prevented murder and lynchings
have not succeeded in stopping rapa-
cious attacks upon women. The ma
licious or degenerate beings who MUIR
der or rape seldom think Of the eonse-
quences. They do not know the value
Of restraint any more than the mob
does.
But if the law is restored in this
community and the guilty participants
OF Tuesday night anarchy and murder
are brought to justice and dealt with
as they should be there will be no
more riots or lynchings here. The
majesty Of the law will be recognized
and crowds will not take the chance
to violate it as occasional outlaws and
degenerates are in the habit Of doing.
The judges Of the district court are to
be congratulated for the prompt man.
ner in which they have set the machin-
cry Of the law in motion.
And while we are trying to reason
during this exciting period it is a
pretty good time to take IN inventory
Of our temperaments and their applica-
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