The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-12-23
M. E. Tracy Says:

I AM moved to testify in this 1ynching round
table, not as partisan of either side but as
mere observer who finds public indifference
much more interesting and much more signifi-
cant than the excitable outpourings of a shocked
minority.
On the very same day that those eighty-odd
Mortified authors registered their protest with the
New York World Telegram over Mr. Pegler's
column anent the San Jose affair, young Negro
was lynched in Tennessee. From every moral
standpoint, his execution at the hands of mob
was far less excusable than was that of the two
numbering kidnapers in California. grand jury
had freed him after investigating his case and
according to law, he should have been allowed
to pursue the even tenor of his way unmolested.
The neghbors did not feel that way about it,
but instead of raising a rucus they performed
the miserable business with quiet efficiency. The
sheriff had no idea that anything of the kind
was contemplated until he received a telephone
call advising him that he would find dead man
hanging to the limb of cedar tree at such and
such place on the road.
TINE Governor of Tennessee made no state
4 ment the discovery was heralded with no
four column heads and. curiously enough, no
storm of indignation broke out in other parts of
the country.
One finds it hard to escape the conclusion
that our moral resibilities are more apt to be
affected by the technique than the act. Admit
ting that the San Jose mob had little choice in
the matter, since it confronted with the task
of battering down jail doors and rushing large
force Of deputies, Governor Rolphs technique
was sloppy He should have fumed and threat
ened ordered the district attorney to start an
investigation, called for a special grand jury
marshaled a company or two of the national
guard and drawn a blank. That would have
satisfied our hunger for lip righteousness, even
though it left the situation exactly where it is
Wise politicians pay strict attention to the
demand for vocal idealsm, yelling for peace
while they build battleships, ballyhooing inter-
national trade while they boost tariffs condemn
ing lynch law while they do little or nothing to
stop it. They realize how blind we can be to
acts if the phrases are right, how easily we can
be nised by slogans, how completely we be
fooled as to the presence of graft if the head Of
the city or state only declares himself against
it. 1t is taken for granted that heroic defense
of the San Jose jail was made, though as far
as I can find out, no member of the mob was
injured
TOO msny of us dwell in an atmosphere of
dreams not only with regard to what will
happen but with regard to what has happened
Just now some of us are all het up over the idea
that the country is in for an epidemic of lynch
ing if something isn't done about the California
affair. One lynching leads to another, We as
sert. though the record scarcely proves it.
During the last half-century, more than four
thousand persons have been lynched in this
country, more than one thousand of them white
The deviiSh custom reached its peak in 1892
when total of 255 died at the hands of mobs
Practically nothing done in legal way to
suppress or punish mobS yet the number of
lynchings gradually diminished until it was only
ten in the year 1929. Since that time it has
shown a tendency to increase.
To some extent this may be due to the eff
fects of depression, but far more logical ex-
PLANTATION is to be found in the various forms of
lawlessnesS which have manifested themselves
during the last decade-tne rise of rackets, the
revolt against prohibition, the breakdown of law
enforcing machinery and the resulting nervous
ness.