The Chicago whip. (Chicago, Ill.) 1919-19??, 1922-02-25
SOUTH HAS
FUNNY IDEAS
ON EYNCHING
What Georgia Thinks of the Anti-Lynch-
ing Bill
From Savannah Morning News)
TO PUNISH LYNCHERS

Under the provisions of the anti-lynch-
inc bill in Congress the killing OF negro
man by a few persons near Ellaville re-
Gently was lynching, although lew per
sons took part in it who were not closely
related to the two white men shot by
the negro. When more than three per-
sons kill a man, It IS lynching under
that bill. As a matter OF TACT, the kill
ing near Elaville was not lynching
as that word is generally used. 1t was
lust an act OF revenge on the part of
Jew white men, and the two soldiers
who accompanied them, according TO
the story, did so without apparently any
idea of assisting in the killing OF the
negro. But whether it was or was not
a lynching, it is we'll indeed that war
rants have been issued for all the men
who are said to have taken part IN the
fatal search for the negro. And this
case suggests to those who have actually
found something in any lynching TO eX-
cuse, that when the lynching spirit IS
manifest, when white men think they
can kill not in self-defense or with full
justification and suffer not at all for
what they have done, it IS high time
TO make an example OF men who go
in a crowd, large or small, and kill
a negro.
That some of the elements OF the
average mob action were lacking in
the Elleville case does not fail to make
this case one that should be sitted to
the bottom. The fact that mobs do
lynch and escape all punishment may
have been at least a factor in causing
Il. ~ = r,.-AtT,,1ar L
il these men, upon being found guilty
of course. are punished a step will have
been taken toward putting an end to
crowd-killings of negroes, whether III
sure-enough lynchings or by small
groups OF persons with presumably some
direct personal interest in the act OF the
negro whom it is planned to kill
Evidently there has been a consider
able change in opinion in Georgia in re-
cent months. Perhaps the fact that the
anti-lynching bill has passed one branch
of the Congress and is expected to pass
the other may have had something to
do with it. Maybe Georgia people are
seriously thinking of whether or not
their failure to suppress lynchers in
Georgia has not been the biggest excuse
ibt obllAN 1OiiE iN99AliAii ~ aANCNhtt anu
vote for the bill.
Most Georgians think that the state
should have full power to punish persons
in its borders and on its soil who are
guilty of any sort OF killing, whether
the deed be done by one man or hun
bred. But the fact remains that Con-
gressmen who wanted to make it appear
that some parts OF the South were not
sufficiently capable of self-government
as to bring such persons to justice found
in the numerous lynchings and the re-
peated and customary failure to convict
anybody for the crime of lynching all
the excuse they wanted for voting Tor
the anti-lynching bill and all the excuse
they need to offer their constituents for
voting for it. We do not want the
United States government to come down
here and punish our lynchers-not that
we don't want them punished, but be-
cause we ought to do the furnishing our.
selves To punish some lynchers Of
crowd-killers now would at least Offer
opportunity for saying to Congress tina
we are attending to our duty in th
matter and there is no reason for tn
United States government to be giyel
jurisdiction in Georgia lynching cases.