The Omaha guide., 1934-02-10
EDITORIAL
STAR LETTER

Washington. d. C-During the past year the sub
iect Of lynching has been forcefully brought to the atten-.
ton Of the American people through the ~lynching in Som
erset County, Maryland, Of a young Negro who confessed
to the brutal assault of an aged white woman, and thru
the lynching of Thomas H. Thurmond and Jack Holmes,
confessed slayers of Brooke Hart, handsome twenty-five
year old son of a California merchant
Lynchirg derives its name in this country from Charles
Lynch. a patriotic citizen who lived in Virginia, and who
during tn Revolutionary War took it upon himself to pun
ish lawless persons 1t was, however, practlced In Eng
land before this country was ever settled.
In the Maryland case the people had become incensed
over the delayed punishment of another Negro whose SEN
tence Of death by a court of that state had been delayed
for months through the influence of a group Of people
mostly of the city Of Baltimore-styling themselves Com
m~unists.' Mode up from the ignorant classes OF both the
white and colored population of Baltimore, this group
through its size alone had political Influence enough to
importune the Governor to delay the sentence Of the Of
fender-althOugh his guilt had been proved beyond a
doubt-and their wishes were carried out.
As in all large cities, Baltimore is made up Of many
strata of society; but outside OF that city the State OF
Maryland is made up Of conservative people, many OF
them descendants of the first settlers Of our country. The
colored population OF the state is, on the whole, quiet and
peace-loving. Consequently, when one of the citizens of
the town of Princess Anne, a woman OF advanced age, was
assaulted by a Negro, the entire surrounding country was
shocked. In their opinion, state officials had proved by
past actions that justice could not be expected; so they
took matters into their own hands and, borne on a storm
of righteous indignation, swept all law and ORDER before
them and punished the offending man ummarlly. Al
though the participants were citizens Of the surrounding
country, subsequent investigation failed to identify any OF
them.
In the California case, when advised of the lynching
Of Brooke Harris murders, Governor James Rolph of
that state declared: ''This is the best lesson that Califor-
MIA has ever given the country. We show the country
that the state is not going to tolerate kidnapping"
1t is for the people of the United States, and the PEG
pie alone, to do away with the necessity for lynching. We
have petty laws governing our daily movements-our
drinking and various manners Of living-but no uniform
laws for the control Of the serious crimes of assault, kid
mapping, murder, etc. We desperately need the enact
ment Of uniform laws governing all serious crimes, en-
forcement Of such laws by honest authorities in whom
power has been vested, and complete carrying out Of the
judgments of our courts in these cases. Until such a sys-
tenn is put into effect there will always be l%ynching.
Think of the money we spent for the enforcement of
the Eighteenth Amendment. Instead of stemmlng the
drinking of a nation, it merely served to increase 1t. A
free people would not tolerate such childish treatment,
and now, after the expenditure of millions of dollars, the