Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1921-05-17

sion. He was burned at the stake.
Pine wood was piled around
him and saturated with gaso
line. Several negroes asked to be
allowed to light the pyre. Inc gaso-
( line fumes rendered am instantly
/ unconscious. There was no race an
/ mostly IN this case and 1t was not
q race question. Every BODY agreed
/ Lnat when a man made a BEAST Oh
himself he should be treated as d
beast. / derry the governor TO des-
ignate community IN America, not
city, where summary justice
! would not be administered in a SIM
/ liar case.
Mixes Situation.
/ All this hysterical TRADE origi-
mates from one indescribiabIy grew
some situation which developed on
| one plantation cut Of the thousands
IN Georgia. 1t would have been Just
as fair to have charged that London
| murdered women generally when
Jack the Ripper killed more than a
score, as 1T IS to charge that Geor-
GA murder negroes generally now.
The governor mixes that situa-
| ton all through his report He
carefully failed to mention that a
negro Dutchered eleven other ne
groes, the only question: in the
| transaction being whether the en-
! ployer told him to kill them or wheth-
err he did it all by himself. Within
thirty days after the discovery. the
employer was under a life sentence,
and the negro has not been tried
| There IS sharp division of senti-
menJ as to the guilt of the employer
bat everybody in Georgia wants the
full measure of punishment meted
out when guilt is fixed.
The governor suggests various
remedies for our present alleged
! disgrace and Obloquy,' which he Xix
ems until Belgium in the Congo.
/ None Of his panaceas are worth the
/ paper they are written on, in nv
/ opinion. The governor wants what
/ ne calls the social gospel preached
/ TO both races: The gospel of mer-
/ cy justice and mutual forbearance
/ for all. Nobody objects; it could
| not hurt and it might help. ] want
to add a few texts: "The wages of
sin IS DEATH AS We sow so also shall
We reap Thou shalt not kill;' Thou
/ shall not covet The only radical
cure for lynching is cessation of
rape and murder
Georgia is eighty per cent rural
! IN population. It's principal business
/ Is agriculture. The so-called race
problem is also an agricultural prob
/ lem. People who have never resided
7 IN a rural community in the South
/ know next TO nothing of conditions
/ out in the couptly. The cotton
planter is right now having the
hardest time he has had in this
generation. His situation is serious
He has to hire his help by the year.
When he plants and fertilizes his
crop, and furnishes his hands with
the necessaries Of life for several
months, he cannot allow things TO
stop without financial ruin. He is
obliged to exercise some control over
! his labor.
Serve No Good End.
False peonage charges at this
time serve no good purpose. In
/ stead of throwing the mantle of
martydom over outrageous criminals,
and calumny over white people
teach the negro that while the peon-
age law will protect him or anybody
else from involuntary servitude, it
was never intended to facilitate the
breaking of honest contracts; that
when a man makes a contract he
must keep it; that no man can
fraudulantly get another mans
goods and escape obligation to pay.