Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1903 — CURRENT COMMENT [ARTICLE]

CURRENT COMMENT

The Evansville Tragedy. If we could eliminate the “innocent bystanders” from the ranks of rioters we should not only avoid casualties among them, but greatly reduce the number pf riots. It is the bystanders who make so many riots possible.—Louisville Courier-Journal. It is to be hoped that the militia at Evansville lias taught the mob everywhere a lesson. It has been a most severe lesson, hut we can contemplate the stem manner of its teaching with far more approval than we can look upon a continuation of scenes which have disgraced us of late in the eyes of the Avliole civilized world.—Chicago Post. As for the men in the mob who were killed or wounded, they took their lives in their hands when Uhcy refused to disperse and continued to press upon the militia. The latter were patient and forbearing. If they had not fired when they did they would have been trampled under foot, and most of them yyould have lost their lives.—Chicago Tribune, The mistake of the authorities was in not suppressing at once every sign of lawlessness. Practically unchecked and resorting to shooting and beating negroes. the craze of the mob has grown by what it has fed on. If the first gathering of lawless persons had been sternly suppressed, even at some cost of life, the death list would have been nhorter than it now is.—Detroit Journal. 4 There ore some more sinister features In the Evansville outbreak tliap in any thus far reported to bring discredit to our national honor—arming of thS'blaeka ns well ns whites, the riddling with bullets of uegro homes, and the sharp lining up of one race against another. What is to come of it, if some authority cannot soon be fotind to vindicate the law, to punb'Jr mobs and 18 make clear the terriidt guilt of every participant in the shame of such outrages in whatever town or State? —New York Evening Post. Dr. tl. of Topeka, Kan., found dead in a bathtub.