Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-02-09
The Folly and the Wrong of
the Duer Bill
TINE folly and the wrong of the Dyer
hill which to

crime of lynching, not by steady en-
| forcement Of ample laws already on, the
books, but by an upflare of new legislation,
has evoked the criticism of thoughtful OBJ
! servers throughout the Union. "a piece of
the prevailing ignorance of government" is
the incisive comment of the Hartford Cour-
ant (Republican), which adds 'The pres
ervation of domestic order is matter for
the States to treat The Boston Tran
script (Republican), while of the opin-
ion that there should be some sort
of national law against lynching, declares,
"It would be hard to find the clause of the
Federal Constitution which gives Congress
disciplinary powers over the authorities of
counties and cities within a State" Question
ing the efficacy of the proposed law, the
Grand Rapids Press independently points
out that "a jury is jury, filled with as
many prejudces n a Federal as in State
court" The St. Louis Post Dispatch (Inde-
pendent) believes that political coWardice
carried the measure through the House.,
and strongly hopes that the Senate will Kill
it, "The Federal Government concludes
the Reno Gazette (Republican), "has enough
matters to attend to now without going into
the police business on European scale"
Not one OF these expressions is from
Dem ocratic or a Southern source, but they
all are JuuSWSuLS W WulCu uuS 1A4ul1y oAu
sound reasoning inevitably lead. Had the
Republican majority in the House been half
as keenly concerned with the prevention OF
ynching as with the making of political
capital they would have perceived at the
outset that the Dyer bill is both inept and
baneful Lynching is punishable under the
existing statutes of every State. Merely to
translate these into Federal terms would add
nothing to the cffense itself nor make a
whit more certain the execution of justice
upon the offender. "a penalty provided for
murder" as the New York World cogently
puts it, lis penalty provided for lynching,
jury tat would fail to convict in State
court would be no more likely to convict I'M
der Federal judge" In some communities
the passage of such 1 law might be construed
as RELYING local authorities of responsible
ity, and everywhere it would be likely to
make for the loo ~eness and evasion which
come from operating the machinery of JUS
tice at long distance. But it would not
Nserve to quicken and enducate public con-
science, the one hing supremely needful;
nor would it, on the whole increase respect
for the law. At best it would be but in
cumbrance.
So much for that portion of the Dyer bill
which, prescribes life Imprisonment or lesser
penalties for participants in lynchings. The
measure goes further, however, and stipu
lates that counties in which mobs form
kill shall forfeit the sum of ten thousand
dollars to the family of the victim; originally
u PROVIDED CnaC a county WHICH d
mob so much as passed should incur this pen
atty. Thus if as many as three or four lawless
persons should come by night into the most
peaceable, the most justice-loving community,
and, unknown to the vast majority of citizens,
perpetrate a lynching, the county would be
liable to the amount of ten thousand dol
lars, Notwithstanding it's innocence of any
hwrong. This is absurdly unjust, but it is
altogether characteristic of the method and
the spirit of the Dyer bill.
Not by such extremes of folly and unfair
ness will lynching any other crime be up
rooted, but by earnest enforcement of the
laws already writ and by the quickening
and enlightenment of the great common con-
science through which all instruments of JUS
tice most effectually work. The cheap and
easy way of meeting social problems and
mending social ills is by new legislation, but
that is not the way that leads to better liv-
ing or better government. The crime of muir
der is as Id Cain, and the law against it
as old Sinai. Our nation needs no statute
from a clan of t:me-serving politicians to
deal with wrong already condemned by her
every tradition and every code She does
need, throughout her borders, an arousing
of the peoples moral sense against lawless-
ness in general and against murder and lynch
ing in particular.
virtue. 1t is but crude and vicious thrust in
the dark at a problem which it's advocates
have taken no time to think. 1t should be
fought to the utmost in the Senate and should
be defeated.