The Mena weekly star., 1921-02-03
RADICAL STEP
 10 STOP LYNCHINC'
Gov. McRae Urges Statute to Provide Removal From Office for Officers Who Allow Persons to Be Lynched
 Black Counties Object.

Little Rock, Jan. 27.--Interest in legislative circles today surrounded a special message from Governor T. c. McRae, urging enactment of statute to provide removal from office and other punishment for officers who per- init, or do not prevent, prisoners in their custody being lynched and the probable outcome of the matter.
 1t is presumed that the governors message sent to both houses will be followed by an administration bill having provisions similar to those Ioutlined in his recommendations. And | if such a message comes, IL may cause some tight lines to be drawn with southern and eastern Arkansas vir- tually solid against the measure. The so-calied "Black Counties, where the negroes outnumber the whites five and six to one, Will oppose such measure bitterly
 There was expressed in some quar- ters that federal action may result, too. from the Mississippi county lynching, as the mob took the negro from an interstate train and spirited him thru two states into Arkansas. Legislators probably will await and see if there is federal action before taking any steps here. Governor Me Rae's message to the legislature fol- lows
 Mob violence is an assault, first, upon the law and order and consti- tuted government, and second, upon the life of an individual, but no amount of philosophizing upon this subject will be regarded by the mob when once formed.
 "Mobs do not reason, they have no sense of justice, no respect for God or man. We must devise methods of averting surrender to the mob peril.
 Officers who will not protect their prisoners should be removed from au- thority. An officer who permits a prisoner to be taken from his custody by self-constituted avengers, should be made to suffer for his connivance. The attorney general of the state, or any prosecuting attorney of any district, might be empowered sheriff or other officer, and a statute promoting this should be enacted by the present gen. eTal dSSemDly.
 "The lynching in Mississippi coun. ty yesterday will stand out as con spicuous disgrace to our state. In this particular case, there was no sus- picion that the courts could not or would not act promptly and properly. This instance is fairly typical of the uselessness of illegal execution. There is no need to debate the horrible angles of this situation, which is a subject for sober reflection upon the part of citizens who believe in law and order and who condemn anarchy in any form.
 T insist that your honorable body address itself to an early consider ation of a bill to fix responsibility specifically upon any officer who neglects his duty to protect the life of his prisoner, making as part of the penalty forfeiture of his office, and giving the attorney general or any prosecuting attorney authority to in- stitute such action as may be neces- sary in any count in the state, recog- nizing that local authorities are usually intimidated by the prospect of a vengeance which might be as readily launched against an officer as against helpless criminal prisoner"