Evening star., 1921-12-28
Lynch Law and States Rights.

Legislation to make lynching
crime punishable by the federal
courts races a stormy voyage through
Congress. Sectional feeling has de-
veloped in the debates on the Dyer
anti-lynching bill in the House.
which,. reflected in the southern press
deepens to intense bitterness. Inc
south accuses the northern republi-
cans of a deliberate attempt to stir up
sectional and racial antaSonisms LOT
partisan reason. by means of meas
ure, which, southern writers holo'
will be utterly incapable of controA-
ing lynching, and which, as the
Louisville Courier Journal demo
cratic) puts it, surpasses "all previous
attacks on states rights" The north
in reply charges that southern opin.
ion is raising smoke screen 0t
states rights" behind which to hlde
the obvious inability of state au.
thority to stop mob violence. and of
advancing line of argument the
inescapable logic of which, the
Springfield Republican Gndependent)
declares, lis a defense of lynchlng IL
SELF"
The Baltimore Sun Gndependent
|
present approach to the quesIlon Is Is
not a partisan one. The Dyer Dill. II
saws, .is an effort to redeem the
promise made in the republican plat
form last year. 1t is party measure,
and the republican platform PLANK
was intended to keep the negro vo.e
in line. 1t will be considered by many
persons as a new republican crusade
against the white people of the south
and as a partial revival OF the spirit
of the reconstruction era
The Sun has evidently gaugeo ac-
curately the temper In whlcn the pr
posal is regarded in the SOUTH IN
deed, the Lynchburg News (demo-
cratic) declares that the bill avoweo-
" contemplates "a revival of purpose
and the expression of policy whlcn
were thoroughly characteristlc OF re. re-
construction legislation enacted IN III Ihe
wears following the civil war. Inc
same motive inspires, the same per
SON in the wood pile explains; Inc
nrovisions of the bill are. brle11y:
To transfer to federal courts the
trials of all persons accused OF lSncn-
ing. Removal from office and punlsn,,
ment for felony of all state and no
reasonable effort to prevent lynch
ines. Levy of $4,000 fine against a
county in which a lynching takes
place, payable to family Of victim.
Possible life Imprisonment for per.
sons convicted of being members of
mob that accomplished a lynching.
"As piece of drastic lawmaking
this bill is a model" is the comment
of the winston-Salem IN. c. Journal
(democratic). state courts, we are given
to understand, cannot be depended
upon to deal harshly with lynchers.
are too apt to sympathize with the mob"
Lynching, declares the Norfolk Vir-
ginian-Pilot Independent democratic),
ais not a more proper subject for fed
eral interference than Is murder" and
for the national government to as
ing other than an invasion of the po-
lice rights of the state" the Augusta
Chronicle (democratic) asserts. In
deed, the bill sis so clearly unconsti-
tutional" that the Baltimore Sun lin
dependent democratic) finds it diff
who advocate it, and both the New
York World (democratic) and the
Nashville Banner independently speak
Of it as something of a lynching proc
ess in ITSELF" with the Constitution as
it's victim.
But however firm may be ones belief
in states rights. the Knoxville Jour-
that lynching is not one of them.
and 'if the state fails or refuses to
punish lynchers, it is up to the fed
eral government to take action" Such
q step would never have been taken,
the Savannah (Ga.) News (demo-
cratic) comedies, If some of the states
had done more about the problem
than they have done," and If the bill is
enacted it will be because ''the ma
tional government is expected, by
popular consent, to be more thorough
in its attacks upon violators Of its laws
than the states are upon violators or their
laws" That theory, however, in the
opinion of the Richmond News Leader
(independent democratic), can be dis
counted in view Of the failure Of the
"strone arm Of the federal govern
ment'' to carry burden in the en-
forcement Of prohibition "of a charac-
ter Of that borne daily by regular po-
lice" "Put any such laws as this on
the statute books of the SOUTH" the
News Leader continues, land the
thought of many rural community
will be, If Uncle Sam thinks he can
prevent a lynching let him try it, we
| WON'T"
It is just such argument as this
however, that leads the Detroit Free
Press independently to suggest that
It Sounds unpleasantly like threat
that in case Congress passes the bill
neople of the south with take especial
pains to nullify it. The very words
Of the opponents indicate that the
| people Of those localities may not be
depended upon to bring about any bet.