Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-07-19
ORGANIZED MOB GOVERNMENT
A NEW PROBLEM IN AMERICA
Ar. the States Poweriess to Deal With
Masked Hordes That Laugh at Gov.
ernors, Courts and sheriffs7

nailed to your gate-post and he will be
having his mail sent regularly to your ad-
dress.
Attorney General Palmer made debris OF
many Of the constitutional guarantees that
are supposed to protect citizen and Govern
ment alike in peace and in war. Burleson,
in his days Of exaltation, set himself up as
dictator and sneered ut basic law intended
to keep the press forever free. Similarly,
during the rush and confusion of the war.
lesser officials encouraged and practiced
lawlessness. Peaceful meetings Of working
men were raided. Mobs were taught to
strike out at any one whose blunders had
an appearance Of deliberate disloyalty. Ex-
service men were melted to break up meet
ings called for economic discussions.
You cannot do such violence to principles
without inviting trouble of an unexpected
sort. For many months mob-law had high
sanction in many quarters and its equivalent
animated individuals in too many places OF
authority.
These examples we're bad for und!sciplined
minds. How bad they we're you may know
by reading the news of almost any day from
the South, where the mob--a mindless and
monstrous thing moved by a savage passion
for bestial cruelty-is making a mockery
Of courts, of the principles Of justice and
Of the authority of Government.
Far more ominous than the increase OF
mob violence In States like Georgia, Texas.
Louisiana and Arizona is the manner in
which the authorities and the people IN
these areas accept the phenomenon of re-
vived "klans' and defiant nishtriders.
Sheriffs cringe-or join the order.
Governors change the subject.
District Attorneys take vacations.
And the mob leaders boast that the best
elements in their communities are bound
to them by oath.
cowardly. Thirty Texans, masked and
hooded, turned out on Sunday to beat ami
tar and feather one woman.
In Georgia. where great public initia-
tions have been held by the Ku Klux klan.
a minister Of the Protestant Episcopal
Church. whose life was consecrated to work
among the unfriended and exploited Negroes
of the State, was whipped BY crowd OF
masked men.
In Atlanta the Ku Klux Klan has i'm
posing headquarters wherein sits a man who
calls himself the Grand Wizard of the In
visible Empire and calmly talks Of the WORT
that is being done to establish his organ
ization in the Northern States-in the name
of 100 per cent Amsricanism.
The Ku Klux Klan is frankly organized
lead to was shown recently in Tulsa, Ariz.
There. according to the report issued after
an official investigation, a Negro youth en-
tering the elevator of an Office building,
stumbled and stepped accidentally on the foot
of the girl operator. The girl screamed
The frightened Negro hCd-with a mob at
his heels. The result was race riot in
which thirty persons were killed and fire
that drove 10000 Negroes from their homes
to the hills.
The Grand Wizard of the Invisible Em-
pire may be talking more than nonsense
when he boasts of the spread Of his or
gan!zation Only the other day all the
Italian residents of Beaverdaie. here in
Pennsylvania town not far from Pitts
burgh--were driven from their homes b. a
mob described as being composed of Amer
leans seeking vengeance for bomb outragei
attributed to the Black Hand. Those who
at that time expressed n curiosity to know
why the State police. which SO Efficient
suppressed meetings of steel strikers in that
area we're unable to prevent or explain the
outbreak of mob violence at Rcaverdale,
have thus for received no word of cnighten
ment from Harrisburg.
Governors and sheriffS in some parts of
the United States have been manfesting an
increasing fondncss for machine guns They
have been known to practice SedulOusly on
insurgent laborers in West Virginia. 4
time is coming when, If the country Is not
to be utterly shamcd in the eyes of the
world, they may have TO put their ncently
acquired knowledge TO better uses.
The mobs that are swiftly taking over
the power of Government in some of the
Southern States are not composed of shabb.'
rufians. They ride in good motorcars. There
is in most Of the reports of organized out .
RACES from Georgia and elsewhere a sug
geEtion Of something darker than mere law
lessness. There Is suggestion Of the
revival of the prehensiIe brute in emnently
respectable citizens who, seemingly rational
in daylight, so out after dark TO satisfy an
! abnormal lust for blood in maniacal orgies
| of cruelty.
The original Ku Kux Klan was organized
| to keep the freed slaves in a state of docility
| inspired by blind fear. 1t led to unspCak
| able wrongs. 10 banditry and to all sort. Of
transgrcssions against all sorts Of people.
Yet It was fugitive organization. 1T
didn't haunt its power IN the open.
| Calmly in the midst Of tons Of NtrOcioVS
| junk intended 10 be awfully symbolical, the
| Grand Wizard of the Invisible Empire, VITA
| the American flag draped above his head,
announced the other day that the japanese
question in California, like the Negro
| question in the South, would be settled By
| khan Methods
The Government at Washington is not 10
! be consulted IL the Grand Wizard has his
way The Legislature of California is to
play the part Of spectator while the mob
resorts to the diplomacy Of the burnin !
stake And this is in a country that will
not deal with Russia because Of what It
calls the lawlessuess of the Soviets. Yet
neither Soviet Russia nor the medieval
hordcs of dark and vanished centuries ever
were credited with burning people for fun
Before we talk Of sending the army to scttlI
| labor disputes in West Virginia We should
send it to re establish the waning prestige OF
| the courts in the South.
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GOLDEN RULE IN POLITICS