The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-02-27
Lynch Bill Hearing
Marked BY Levity;
Ban Mention of Cause

without Struggle
'Tf the victims Of lynching had
been Of q different class" Hays com
mented after totaling the $3.50 brutai
rope and fagot deaths since 1881 and
estimating that they we're about 96
per cent against Negroes, obviously
something would have been done
about it,"
However, Hays, ike the other lib
eral witnesses, proclaimed that TO
make the law state specifically tina
lynching is a crime, would solve the
problem Of lynching-despite the fact
that the lack Of equality now guar
snteed 10 Negroes by the most fund
amental law Of the land, the Con-
stitution, is q commonplace Despite
the fact that eleven states now have
laws against lynching. CThe argu-
ment runs that federal law is moe
effective and fair than state lava
fiction repeatedly disproYed)
Bill Silent on Legal Lynchings
Senators Wagner Democrat, New
York; and Costigan democrat
Colorado were the first performers
on the national stage Of the hearing
ct was broadcast over a national
radio hook-up) They made sen
timental case against lynching-and
they too revealed, though indirectly
the viewpoint from which they spoke.
Wagner said his bill provides for fed
eral action against lynchers) only
when the state has failed (sfter the
lynching has occurred and am con-
fident that its first effect viii be to
awaken the state to q keener reah-
cation Of their own duties"
That "keener realization Of Their
own duties" will result, no doubt, in
more railroadings Of Negroes through
fair" trials such as the Scottsbor0
trials-something which the Cost
gan-Wagner bill doesn't even pre-
tend to touch.
Committee sidestepg Fundamental
Facts
Costigan declared that the "tldal
wave Of resentment and indignation"
against lynching swept across
America when Governor Rolph Of
California publicly defended the
preventable and typically barbarous
lynchings Of two white youths" And
| so, Senator Costigan, the wave did
not begin years ago when lynchings
first began to mount under the
stimulous of the depression It die
not grow swiftly when they strung
Negroes to the trees in Louisiana
and shot three down with the Tusca-
loosa sheriff's connivance? 1t was
only when white youths were
lynched
1t would be possible to continue
thus through all the long list OF wit
nesses before the August proceeding
| For this was a Liberal, publicity
getting party dealing with lynching
as special phenomenon unrelated
to the conditions that lie under
meath. Even when the Committee
called W. Preston Lane, the Maryland
Attorney General who dawdled reck
/ lessly through several bitterly pro
| tested lynchings that eliminated IN
/ the George ArmWood haiocaust, and
| evaded punishment OF the known
| lynchers, they sidestepped the fund
smental facts. Lane gave the names
Of nine lynchers-but not the name
Of the States Attorney who, accord
| ing to an affidavit which Lans has
seen, participated to the extent OF
verbally encouraging lynch mobsters
by announcing he was clearing out
/ of town beforehand,
Fighters" Against Lynching Jim
Crowism at Hearing
But why go onP In the very room
in which the Committee sat, the Ne
gro press was jim crowed. They SAT
on one side of the room, the white
correspondents on the other. One o.
them was elected from the res
taurant in the building on the first
day Of the hearing. The next DAY
after Senator Royal S. Copeland had
been confronted by the Daily
Worker" and asked to say whether
the incident represented his policy
| as senator in charge of the restau-
rant, Negro reporter was served ia
| the restaurant. He sat at q table al
which two white lunchers were cat
ing A white waitress served IT,
white patrons. A Negro waiter Ws5
sent to serve the Negro.
White Complains of Radicals in
Seeking Hand-out
/ 1t was left for Walter White, Negro
secretary OF the reformist National
Association for the Advancement o.
Colored People, to blurt one Of the
chief purposes behind this great Lib
eral "Anti-Lynching" drive-ths ptU-
pose Of staying the fast-noYing surge
Of Negro and white labor in revolt
tionary protest against lynching and
all other expressions of the Negro
people. The blue-eyed, placating
White complained to the Committee
that, Energetic and long continued
efforts have been made by certain
radical movements to convince tht
American Negro that his hope Q!
justice under the present form OF
government is useless and that he
must lend his aid in helping to over
throw this government and to estsb.
lish new one"
Contemptibly defaning and at the
same time exploiting this 'propa-
aganda," White declared it has not
succeeded as well as it might for two
reasons only the ineptitude and
lack Of wisdom and honesty with
which some of these radical move
ments have been led" and "that .
majority of the American Negroes
still hope that eventually JUS
tice and freedom from the mob may
be possible under the present system.
TT is for this Committee and foI
this Con gregg raifinor- "a dnr,,r, ct y, tss