The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-02-27


ind rapist! Therefore if you want
to hang an innocent man without de-
tense, accuse him of rape, and nobody
will dare defend him. This is glaring-
ly illustrated in the trial" of Edward
Harris. There were two charges
against him: one of murder and one
of rape. The prosecutor chose to give
him his sixteen-minute "triaP on the
charge of rape; there was no defense,
and the mere utterance OF the charge
was assurance of conviction.
Nor is there any reason under the
circumstances to take seriously the
statement that the black prisoner con-
fessed1 Such confessions have exactly
the value of the confessions that once
were wrung from the victims of the
church inquisition,-that is, precisely
little terrorizing, piece Of paper
and a pencil We know something of
the way confessions are obtained from
terrorized victims.
The newspapers do not suggest what
would have happened to the two Ne
groes in question had they-by some
miracle-been proved innocent. We
know that they would have been hang
ed anyway. But there are no miracles,
and there was not the slightest chance
of anything but death for the Negro
this trial" Therefore it was not
trial, but lynching. 1.-THE specta-
eors in the courtroom glowered at the
shrinking defendant" commented the
Chicago Tribune in it's account of Har
ris' trial. What juror would have dared
to hold out against the evidence of
such flaming race-hatred?
ETIHAT the newspaper propaganda
w has been telling the southern
mobs is this: you need not trouble
to lynch Negro accused Of crime.
You can rely on our courts, in which
only white judges,-only white Jurors
(poisoned with ruling class ideology)
and only white spectators are allowed,
to kill that Negro just as surely as if
you were to bind him and light the
kindling under his feet. We allow no
Negroes to hear the case.- We stuff
the white population, which is to make
up our juries, with lies about the char
acter' of the Negro, SO that they will
be certain to convict. We can have
the whole thing over with and the
niger on his way to the gallows in
sixteen minutes. This method may
not be as pleasurable as a lynching,
but it is as certain, and it puts the
stamp of legality on the whole matter
and prevents the possibility of inter
ference with our established prac-
tees"
THE day after sentence had been
L passed on Edward Harris, the
Chicago Tribune carried the following
editorial:
Kentucky used the protective
force of its state militia to give Ed
ward Harris, Negro murderer and
rapist, a trial and save him from a
lynching. It was quick trial, with
a plea of guilty and hanging SEN
tence, but the mob did not get him.
Harris killed a white man and
his two children and attacked the
wife. The justice usually admin
stored in the south to such a Negro
criminal involves mob, smashed
jail door, a rope, and the nearest
telegraph pole. Kentucky, calling
1000 guardsmen into service at a
cost to the state of some $4,000, is
establishing new civilized order In
place of the barbarous method Of
lynching.
'Kentucky's example is the best
argument yet offered against the
Dyer bill.
"The Dyer anti-Iynching bill is
pending in congress, it's aim, to en-
power the federal government to ar
rest and prosecute those guilty Of
aiding in Iynching. The Dyer bill
Is bad because it reIegates to the
central government police powers
nrnnarlu halonnf.ar, g. Al.