The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1921-06-11
ruLsA TRAGEDY.

Doubtless the first Of that train of
causes which eliminated in an orgy
Of murder incendiarlsm and vandal-
ism at Tulsa, probably the most hor-
rifying mob-crime ever committed in
this country, is to be found in a
spirit of insolence and lust among
a few Negroes which inevitably
arouses and makes resentful the white
races consciousness Of superiority. as
wen as its determination to maintain
that superiority and the integrity OF
It's blood. This much of responsIbility
for that sickening outbreak of saw
agery seems fairly to be chargeable
TO the Negro race, though IL is likely
that in the individual sense, relatively
but a very few members of IL could
justly be implicated.
But once we advance from this in
clplent cause we but accumulate evil
dence that the guilt for that fright
~ crime attaches itself mostly to
the white race. First reports indicat-
ed that the warfare manifested it.
self initially in the attempt of a
mob OF white men to lynch a Negro
who had been arrested on a charge
OF assaulting white girl. Subsequent
reports have not corroborated first
ones in this respect. But any doubt
seeS,,n may create eat Is dispelled by the
Journal declares that the riOting fol-
lowed a movement early in the night
OF crowd of $50 white men" to lynch
the Negro who he'd been placed in
OF them armed with rifles, revolvers
and shotguns, gathered at the court
house with the avowed intention of
preventing the threatened lynchjng."
The Sheriff succeeded in dispensing
them, but the members OF the white
mob were impervious to his appeals
and threats Finally a few of them
fired their guns in the air. That gath
ergd again the Negroes. who, though
they had dispersed, had continued to
ride about the city in automobiles,
and then followed the war that did
not end till the next day and until
thirty men had been killed an the
been reduced to ashes with the torch
II Is the fruit of mobocracy, a har-
vest true to the sowing. That is the
fact to be imprinted indelibly upon
the mind 1t Is indeed the only one
which there were any profit in en-
phasizing. The temptation to dilate
on the significance of the indictment
which that crime brings against our
civilization and of the shame which
the spectacle at Tulsa casts upon the
residents OF that city is strong. But
one could indulge in II to no practical
end. One whose Intelligence and i'm
pulses, not, make him Immediately
not be made so by preachments And.
In fact, such use of the subject
would only touch the superficial de-
tails of it, In its extent and GER
tain incidents the tragedy at Tulsa Is
But II is mere character
lstic in relation to its causes. The
spirit which begot IL Is not peculiar
to Tulsa, nor to Oklahoma. It is per-
vaslve, and particularly so in thei
Southern States, the honest common
tator must acknowledge however re-
luctantly. 1t is the spirit of anarchy,
whatever mien, Of patriot
ism, of piety or Of racial righteous
ness, that II thinks will win toler-
ance and conformation of its crimes
against the rights and defenses of
organized society 1t is the spirit which
vents its vengeance by lynching the
law as well as the victim of its wrath
an generates 8 disposition to lawless
ness which must grow on sufferance
until eventually social warfare alone
will suffice to re-enthrone the proc
esses of law.
Dallas News.