The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-03-10
WHOLE STATE
AROUSED TO
| SAVE NEGRO
lped Black Sentenced to
Die in South While His
White Allies Escape.
cRv Consolidated Prcss.)


Raleigh, n. c., March 10.-A one
mod broken-framed black man
"coniur doctor" sentenced to
as in the electric chair during the
.st week in March has suddenly
sscome an issue involving the self
,ssnect of the Old North Side.
Hired bv a white man and wom-
an to kill the woman's husband,
spcrepit old Wright Rouse, twisted
NJ rheumatism and manned by q
rntton gin, has been condemned to
iie while the white instigators OF
The capital crime have escapeu
With a penitentiary term.
Letters from all parts OF the
state are pouring in upon Governor
cameron Morrison demanding that
be negroes death sentence be
rommuted. All of the letters are
rom white people. North Carolina
does not lay claim to the distinc-
ton of being overly fond of some
members of the colored race. A
majority of the letters reaching ::e
governor admit this, but they add :;
Save the self-respect of white
ueople of the commonwealth
The most powerful appeal IN be-
half of the condemned negro has
come from the commemorative at
urney, or solicitor, who prosecut-
ed the three defendants. He ad-
nitted the probable miscarriage oi
hstice in the jury's verdict against
the woman and her sweetheart, 5ui
he cannot endure the idea OF seeing
The mentally deficient negro suf1er
more severely than his vicious white
gsociates. The attorney said all
ibis in a burst of typewriter ora
ary such as one seldom meets
uen in a section like this where
|watory is taken into the system
With mothers milk.
Three respites have been given
|he condemned man, but until the
pvernor intervenes again Rouse
will 90 TO the electric chair during
the week of March 26. At the out
set of the agitation to save Rouse
Governor Morrison was obdurate
Ilading that the demand was not
rs it purported to be. for an equal
| ity Of Justice" but for equality OF
Injustice" The governor believes
lin capital punishment. He conced-
| ed that all three persons involved
lin Rouse's crime deserve the
aeath penalty and appeared deter
mined to see that one that the
court had allotted that sentence
vas made to suffer it.
Crime a Sordid One.
But he granted a respit" for &c
lays. Then the letters urging COM
Mutation really began to come III
This was all in the new year, toT
Rouse was to have died on Jan. .
IA few days before the new time
limit had expired the governor
irsnted a second respite, and then
III the end of February grantd d
Third. Now he is giving serious
innsideration to the pleas for
iae amelioration.
n The crime for which Rouse was
3@nvicted was naturally sordiC
A@e The persons involved were oi
10 consequence. There was moth
Ing colorful in the case. One night
rhile Will Whitley lay sleeping in
Us barn, Rouse crept up to him
nd shot at close range. At first
L said four strange white men had
compelled him to shoot towards
Il ae body of another white man the
saartet already had killed. Oh
@urse no one believed the aged
sesro's stumbling, mumbling tale
taen the truth began to come out
afsh Whitley, wife of the muir
seEed man, was in love with Tom