The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1921-08-23
WANTS NEWSPAPERS
To ROUND UP MOB
CONTINUED From Page l.,


Gated and surrendered. to the mob
are unable to make good the charges
which they made, ] assume, OF course
that they will make due apology to
the state which they have slandered.
If they can furnish the information
desired, they should have done so
and given the legal authorities an op-
portunity to act before charging them
with Indifference and inactivity.
Too Much Publicity.
eft is not out of place, in this con-
nection, to say that the chief diff,
Guilty which the officers interested
seem to have had in dealing with the
threat of mob violence was the fact
that the newspapers published to the
world every movement of the officers
land thereby enabled those who would
do violence to the law to have the
advantage of advance Information.
When there seemed to. be danger of
violence to prisoners in legal custody
my first concern, naturally, was to
prevent any act of violence. The
sheriff of Lexington county, where
this! horrible murder was committed,
went to Savannah, Ca, where two of
the prisoners were in custody, and
the fact of his departure was publish
ed in the afternoon papers. When
he left Savannah, ostensibly for Co.
lumbia, with his prisoners in charge,
this fact also was given wide pub
licity. When his prisoners were de-
livered to the sheriff of Charleston
county and were securely guarded,
| the officers, as we'll as the governor,
were charged again with surrender
Ing to the mob because the prison
| lers were not brought forthwith to Co.
lumbia, where the mob was supposed
to be, forming.
"Te have s.. adopted this course
would probably have meant the she'd
ding of blood and the unnecessary
sacrifice of human life. 1t is well
known fact that the jail at Lexington
is insecure, if there was no danger Of
violence from without. These prison.
ers must be incarcerated, therefore,
elsewhere than in Lexington until the
| time of trial. I am unable to see
where the state government is failing
lin it's duty when it decides to hold
prisoners in the Jail at Charleston, in
preference, to, placing them in, the
Jail or penitentiary at Columbia. The
penitentiary is not detention house,
but. is a prison where persons are IN
carcerated after conviction. 1t fre-
quently happens, of course, that pris-
oners before trial are placed in the
Epenitentiary, for safe keeping. U.s.
ualiy the penitentiary is selected in
order to remove the prisoners from
1.-THE storm center. In this case it
would have. been bringing them into
the place where the mob was suppos-
ed to be. There would be no objec-
ton to such course in the present
case, but there is no necessity for it
unless there is reason to apprehend
danger of a successful attack on the
Charleston Jail.
In Touch. With Situation.
"There seems to be an idea, also,
that the governor of the state can
not discharge the duties of his office
unless he is at his desk in the COVER
nor's office in the state capitol. l
wish to say that l have been in con-
slant and continuous touch with this
whole situation, by telephone and
telegraph from my temporary resi-
dence on Paris mountain and have
given the same instruction and ad-
vice that l would have given had |
! been in Columbia. 1t is neither Gus
tomary nor advisable, in my opinion,
for the governor to be personally IN
icharce and immediately on the scene