Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 August 1903 — CONDEMNS MOB LAW. [ARTICLE]

CONDEMNS MOB LAW.

President Roosevelt Writes to Gov. Durban of Indiana on Lynching:. A letter written by President Roosevelt to Gov. Durbin of Indiana commending the action of the Indiana executive in regard to lynching and severely mob law has been made public. The President says lynching is only one form of .anarchy and anarchy is the handmaiden and forerunner of tyranny. President Roosevelt says the growth of lynching in this country is alarming. He declares that atrocious crimes of colored men are crimes against their own race most of all and should be condemned by rj their own race. . He continues: “Men who have been guilty of a-crime like rape or mhrder should be visited with swift and certain punishment and the just effort made by the courts to protect them in their rights shpuld under no circumstances be perverted into pennit- | ting any mere technicality to avert or delay their punishment. The substantial I rights of the prisoner to a fair trial must, r» of course, bg guaranteed, as you have so justly insisted that they shduld be, but subject to this guaranty, the law must work swiftly and surely and all the agents of the taw should realize the wrong they do when they permit justice I to be delayed or thwarted for technical I or insufficient reasons. We must show I that the law is adequate to deal with i, crime by freeing'it from every vestige t»of technicality and delay. [ “This matter of lynching would be a I terrible thing even if it stopped with the I lynching of men guilty of the inhuman I and hideous crime of rape,- but as a mntI ter of fact lawlessness of this type never I does stop nad never can stop in such I fashion. Every violent man in the eomI munity is encouraged by every case of I lynching in which the lynchers go ufil4sunished to himself take the law into his I own hands whenever it suits his own eouI venienee. In the rame way the use of I torture -by the mob in certain cases is I eure to spread until it is applied more I or less indiscriminately in other cases. I “Surely no patriot can fail to see the I fearful brutalization and debasement I which the indulgence of such a spirit and L/fcuch practices inevitably portends. SureI ly all public men, all writers for the daily I press, all clergymen, nil (enchers, all who I In any way have n right to address the I public, should with., every energy unite I to support those engaged in putting them I down. As n people we claim the right I to speak with peculiar emphasis for freeI dom and for fair treatment of all men | without regard to differences of race, forFfmie, creed or color. We forfeit the right I to speak when we commit or condone I such crimes as these of which I speak. I '“The nation, like the individual, ennI not commit a crime with impunity. If I we are guilty of lawlessness awl brumal I violence, whether our guilt consists in I active participation therein or in mere ■ connivance and encouragement, we shall ■ lintredly puffer biter on because of what ■we have done. The corner sionc of tills ■ fppublic, ns of all free government*, is ■ respect for and obedience to the law. ■ Where we permit the law to be defied Kcr evaded, whether by rich man or poor ■ man, by black man or white, we are by ■ just so much weakening the bonds of lour civilization nnd increasing the Bchances of its overthrow nnd of tin* sole Istitntion therefor of a system in which Ithere shall be violent alternations of nnlarchy and tyranny.” I • —V—- | A peculiar nnd probably a new cnine ■ for a damage suit lias been discovered by ■ a Kansas City lawyer and hit c-lienlt. The ■ plaintiff Is Mrs. Eva J. Ihmwy, IVJIO nll|ege« that she contracted typhoid fever ■because she was furnished impure city ■water by her landlady. She claims $T>,Bo hi damages. It The federal grand jury will investigate ■Clerk Solomon Mchcule and other memHbers of tfic House of Represcntntiver. ut ■Honolulu who are charged with destroyHng voucher* for the expenditures of the ■House during the last two session*.