Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-06-20
A SHAME AND DISGRACE TO GEORGIA

"A SHAME AND DISGRACE TO GEORGIA.
South Georgia has been disgraced in the ewes OF
fair minded and clear visioned men within the
state and all over the union 1t has been disgrace
ed in the usual way, by few score blood mad
individuals with brains that had better been
placed under kinky hair where the fit would have
been more accurate A mob lvnched a negro
who had been duly tried, convicted and sentenced
to hang in twenty days. The crime was murder
OF young girl The courts punishment fit the
CRIME. Justice was being done The mob not
only dethroned reason and struck the balance
from the hands of justice, but it committed a
gr1evous crime against the people OF the state Of
Georgia in breaking her laws 1t struck another
blow at the spot at which the Bolshevists strk-
ing and weakened that much more the prestige of
government, our government
If laws can be so easily broken, if justice can be
sidetracked ever and anon at the whim of few
score impassioned men, how can any man feel Sc
cure! How can any man go to bed at night and
sleep peacefully when for all he knows ere morn
ing breaks, his barn may have been burned or his
laborers driven away, or even his life imperiled
1t is not enough that the crime OF the mob be ex-
tenuated by the fact that crime has been com
mtted by its victim. The mob constitutes it.
self law unto itself. Its law may by happen
chance coincide with the moral laws but they are
as likely to decree that injustice is Just and con
stitute moral misdemeanors as capital crimes or
declare that things which are no crime at all are
felonies and punish them with death
If the mob is to be permitted to take over the
machinery Of justice in any case it wishes, how
long VIII any laws have the repsect OF any people
Mob violence in itself constitutes a crime. Every
member of mob is guilty of murder If this
sort OF criminal is to be condoned and encouraged
by public sentiment, how can we expect any man
to respect law law authority as authority gov
eminent as government?
Mob law is anarchy. The whole people make
the statute law through their duly elected rep
resentatives When the moral incendiaries who
form the nucleus of mob break these laws they
declare that they are superior in judgement and
superior in might to all the people OF the state OF
Georgia, to all law and all government Such is
The conceit of the mob And the pity OF it is that
officers OF the law tacty admit that the lie is true
and make the state powercss to defend its honor
and to protect its laws and institutions
For the lynchng in Moultre Saturday there i,
no excuse, absolutely none. The law had func
toned justice and ordered the law to be executed
winch demands an EYE for an eye tooth for {
tooth life for life Nothing more could be
asked.
Every land owner, every man OF affairs in Geor
&la should make it his business to create a pres
sure of public sentiment that will demand the Sc
verest punishment for members OF mobs and de
mand the fullest measure OF respect for law which
IS the only protection they have for their property
rights. If human life can be so easily taken b,
laWless mobs, as cotton and connton gins were de
stroyed IN Alabama by lawless mobs, and as to-
bacco helds and barns were DESTROYED in Kentucky
by the same sort of hoodlums, then other sorts 81
property ever liable to confiscation and de
structlon by these self constituted tribunals OF
tate which function SO quickly and SO ruinouslv
How may Georgia expect to coax into her Dor
ders settlers from other states families of people
to TIL the soil, swell the total of her crops ant
contribute share to the trade and commerce O
Georgia business men, when almost weekly the
news IS spread abroad that another mob ha,
formed and functioned and that laws OF Georei;
nave again proved weak and worthless? 1t is no.
the negro against whom the crime is committed
1t is against the state. A lynched negro is alwav.
martyr IN the eyes of his race a tocsin car @ l.
battle rather than warning 1t is law order an,
justice that suffer.
NltWLHRICH; I'm geeting an automo i