ROBERT W.WOODRUFF
FIBRARY
Mo45
ROBERT E. LEE HALL, BUTE RIDGE N. C., WHERE THE CONFERENCE WAS HELD.
LAWLESSNESS OR
CIVILIZATION
WHICH?
REPORT OF ADDRESSES AND
DISCUSSIONS IN THE LAW and
ORDER CONFERENCE, HELD
AT BLUE RIDGE, N. C., AUGUST
4th, 5th and 6th, NINETEEN
HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN
EDITED BY
W. D. WEATHERFORD
CHAIRMAN OF THE CONFERENCE AND STUDENT SECRETARY
OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE YOUNG
MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
WrllMMS PRIMTINa bOHMNY; MASWvru.'c
CONTENTS
[Resume of discussion follows each address.]
pace
1. Northern Migration and Lynching in the South—W. D. Weatherford.... 3
2. Relation of Criminal Court Procedure to Mob Violence—
Gilbert T. Stephenson 12
3. Officers of Justice as Preventives of Mob-Violence—C. Fletcher
Quillian 23
4. Liberty and Security of Life, the Basis of Economic Progress—
E. C. Branson 33
5. Religion the Basis of Respect for Personality—J. L. Kesler. 44
6. Exposure of Womanhood Through Lynching—Mrs. Arch Trawick 55
7. The Effects of Injustice and Mob-Violence on the Negro Race—
John Wesley Gilbert 66
8. The Church's Obligation—Richard Hogue 76
9. The Relation of Depression to Health—Marion M. Hull 86
10. Fear and Uncertainty the Basis of Physical Breakdown—C. C.
Menzler (Manuscript not available) 92
11. Justice the Basis of Efficient Labor Supply—Arthur Speer. 97
12. Mob-Violence and the Increase of Crime—A. M. Trawick 106
13. The School and the New Attitude Toward Human Life—Charles
McTyeire Bishop 113
14. Constructive Conclusions 121
15. List of Delegates 125
16. Selected Bibliography 126
THE NORTHERN MIGRATION AND
LYNCHING IN THE SOUTH
W. D. WEATHERFORD.
(Summary address delivered at closing session of the Law and Order
Conference, Blue Ridge, N. C.)
This Conference on Law and Order, with special reference
to lynching, was called in the hope that there might be brought
together a volume of intelligent and sane opinion on the most
vital social topic that now faces the whole country. It was
hoped that the publication of such a statement or set of state¬
ments would open the way to freer discussions and more heroic
action.
In summarizing the discussion of this Conference, it seems
appropriate to say a word about the critical situation which
gives additional meaning to our gathering. While this Con¬
ference was called before the migration North was well under
way, and hence was not an afterthought to the movement, nev¬
ertheless this gathering has far greater significance just be¬
cause of this migration.
During the winter of 1917 I was invited North to deliver
certain addresses in university centers on the Race Problem
as I saw it in the South. One day in Springfield, Mass., I picked
up the "Springfield Republican" and read an article which
stated that already 50,000 Negroes had come to that city from
the South. A few days later I was in a very important confer¬
ence in the State of New York and a very prominent man from
Chicago said to me that 30,000 Negroes had entered Chicago
during the months of January, February and March, and that
the real estate agents in that community were preparing to
take care of 20,000 more.
These are simply two specific illustrations of a very wide
movement. It is variously estimated that from 250,000 to
1,000,000 Negroes have gone North. Nobody knows how many
have gone, but perhaps somewhere between 400,000 to 500,000
would be nearer to the actual figures.
4
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
This migration of the colored people North has had a num¬
ber of very distinct reactions on the American people:
First—It has awakened the Southern people to the realiza¬
tion of the value of the Negro labor such as we have not form¬
erly had. We have been so accustomed to this labor that we
have taken it for granted and have not seriously realized that
all other labor supply, as well as the Negro, has an inefficient
element connected with it.
Second—At the same time the movement North has awak¬
ened the Northern white men to the great problem of taking
care of and training the Negro laborer. Many a man who has
gotten hold of shiftless labor has had a better understanding
of Southern problems than in the past. Others who have se¬
cured some of the better Negro laborers have been made aware
of a very great source of relief for their labor problems and
are encouraging other Negroes to come North as rapidly as
possible. The more thoughtful white people of the North are
much concerned as to whether or not they can be to the Negro
what they ought to be in the direction of educational and living
conditions.
Third—The Negro has been made aware of himself and of
his capacity to move. Heretofore it has been considered not
only by the Southern white people but most of the Negroes as
an impossible thing for a Negro to move North. They have
been told that the climatical conditions were not safe and that
competition in the North was so severe that they could not
stand the test. There is undoubtedly much truth in both of
these statements, but the Negro race has come to the conclu¬
sion from this migration that there are many opportunities for
the race and that they will try both the climate and the keen¬
ness of competition. The present indications are, therefore,
that in the near future the race problem will be not only one
of the South but one of the Nation. Though, as Ray Standard
Baker, in an article in the World's Work of July indicates, the
problem will still be primarily a Southern problem.
Speaking of the influence of this migration upon the North,
Mr. Baker says: "The migration is probably, next to emanci¬
pation, the most noteworthy event which has ever happened to
the Negro in America."
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
5
Let us consider briefly some of the reasons for this very
large migration. The explanations given by the Northern pa¬
pers are largely social and legal; the explanation given by the
Southern papers are quite largely economic; while the Negro
press coincides quite largely with the Northern press with an
added touch of bitterness. I have had a large number of clip¬
pings from various papers and have sent a questionnaire to
fifty-seven of the leading Negroes of the South asking them to
give me the reasons for this migration. So far as I am able to
identify the drift of these opinions, I would say that the causes
assigned are in the order named: (1) Economic; (2) Legal,
by which I refer to the injustice in the courts as well as to the
general uncertainty of life and property; (3) Social, by which
I mean the living conditions in the South; (4) and Educa¬
tional. It will be worth while for us to consider briefly the
first, third and fourth in order to get some little understanding
of the second, which is our important concern in this confer¬
ence.
There are in the South conditions which give rise to dissat¬
isfaction on the part of the colored people. For a number of
years certain sections of the South have had exceedingly poor
crop conditions. The boll weevil has practically destroyed the
cotton crops of certain sections of Mississippi, Alabama and
even Georgia. Drouths have almost destroyed crops in other
sections in certain seasons. The consequence is that the tenant
in the lower South has suffered severe financial loss for years
past. Living as he does in a hand-to-mouth fashion even in the
best of years, the pinch of poverty has driven him in these re¬
cent months almost to desperation and large numbers have
thrown down what little property they have had and migrated
to the North in order to make a living. Within a few months
I have made a tour through certain counties of the black belt
of Alabama and found almost every Negro cabin vacant and
acres of land lying idle because there were no laborers to tend
the same. One farmer who had been in the habit of working
many Negroes for many years said there was not a laboring
Negro in his county.
On the other hand, the war conditions and rush of manufac¬
turing, particularly in the munitions factories, has made a tre¬
mendous demand for labor in the North. Many of the white
6
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
laborers who had heretofore done the cheapest kind of labor
have been called into the factories. This has opened a field of
labor for the Negro which has formerly not existed. In order
to get section hands, certain railroads have sent South and
gathered up whole train loads of Negroes to keep their road¬
beds in condition. Other large industries that employ great
numbers of rough laborers have sent labor agents South to
gather workers. In like manner the Negro women of the South
have been induced to go North. Many of the Northern white
women who have formerly been in the domestic service have
found more lucrative employment in manufacturing directions.
The colored women in the South, therefore, have found a de¬
mand for domestic service at very much higher wages than
they have been able to receive in the South.
A fourth element has entered into the migration of the Ne¬
groes from the South. This is what might be called a psycho¬
logical aspect of the higher wages. I have had a good many
Negroes tell me that they knew they could not save any more
money in the North than in the South but they simply wanted
to handle a little more cash. Of course there was always lurk¬
ing in the background of their brain the thought that a little
more of the wages would stick to their fingers. The thought
of moving, of unrest, has been in the air and many Negroes
who were perfectly satisfied in their positions, who were doing
well, have thrown away their little accumulations in order to
go North. It is this dissatisfaction and throwing away of a
good start that has caused men like Dr. Moton of Tuskegee to
enter into an attempt to keep the Negroes in the South.
An alleged reason for migration North lies in the social con¬
ditions under which the Negro lives. I do not mean by this
that the Negroes are seeking for social intermingling; far from
it. They resent the thought as strenuously as do we. I mean
the handicaps of an unjust administration of law which puts
them at social disadvantage, to wit, the failure to extend the
sewerage system to the Negro section of the city, even though
within the city limits; the lack of street paving in the section
of the city in which they live; the poorer police protection of
that section of the city; the poorer accommodations on railway
trains even though they pay the same fare; the unfair treat¬
ment of the Negro on street cars and in other places of public
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
7
business. These are among the most galling things in the life
of the Negro. To illustrate, a good friend of mine, a colored
man in Augusta, Ga., bought a little home up in the edge of a
white section of the city. He told me it was not because he
wanted to get away from the colored people but because he
wanted to get to a place where the sanitary and moral sur¬
roundings would enable him to rear his children in health and
decency. A prominent Negro of Nashville, Tenn., a lawyer
and a bank president, was saying to me recently that he did
not object to separation of the races on the street car but that
he did seriously object to the discrimination against the Negro
which arose out of the practical application of this separation.
If one reads Negro papers one can not fail to see that this
fact of social conditions is a powerful element in race migra¬
tion. "The impulsion", says The Union, a Negro paper, "is
not political, it is economic, industrial, educational and protec¬
tive. The Negro goes North to withstand the grave antago¬
nistic climatic conditions because he wants to escape low
wages, poor schools, lynching, man-burning, and bitter perse¬
cution. For half a century he has withstood continual and
brutal outrages without redress, without proper recourse to
law, with his testimony restricted, with no sentiment for the
enforcement of law. These are the reasons for his flight to
the land where at least there is a semblance of freedom."
Or listen to this indictment published in a Negro paper as
an open letter from a Georgia Negro to Governor Brown,
speaking of the labor agencies who have lured the Negro
North. He says: "First, mob violence and the lynchers; sec¬
ond, injustice in the courts; third, paying first-class railroad
fare for fourth-class service; fourth, insults to their women
and themselves on railroads and street cars; fifth, insults in
public places, elevators and on the streets; sixth, the right to
vote and bear arms in defense of their State denied; seventh,
poor pay for their labor on the farms and public works, while
convicts are often used to do the work free labor should be
doing; eighth, poor schools for their children; ninth, no agri¬
cultural schools for their children, while they are taxed to pay
for such schools for the children of their white friends; tenth,
taxation without representation in the management of the gov¬
ernment; eleventh, no representation on the juries; twelfth, in
8
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
some cities and towns, no parks, playgrounds or swimming
pools for their children, yet they are taxed to provide such for
the children of their white friends; thirteenth, segregation
into the sickly parts of the cities where the streets are poorly
kept and often neglected; fourteenth, poor encouragement for
their efforts to do right; fifteenth, the white Church and its
Christianity in the State, so far as I have been able to learn,
except in a few cases of sporadic nature in the Southern Meth¬
odist, Southern Presbyterian and the Episcopal churches, is
silent and passive on these wrongs. These, Mr. Brown, are a
few of the labor agents who are taking our colored people away
from Georgia and the South. Down deep in your heart, do you
blame them? Can you blame them?"
A group of the colored ministers of Birmingham, Ala.,
passed resolutions of protest against present conditions and
urged Negroes to move North, giving as their reasons: First,
prejudice; second, disfranchisement; third, Jim Crowism;
fourth, lynching; fifth, maltreatment; sixth, boll weevil; sev¬
enth, floods.
The Negro press of the country has been literally flooded
with this type of justification of migration North. Evidently
the colored press believes that a good deal of the migration
North can be traced to present living conditions in the South.
The fifty-seven Negro men in the South to whom I wrote ask¬
ing their suggestion as to the cause for this migration, an¬
swered very frankly and fully. Let me quote you a few of their
answers in reply to the questionnaire as to the important ele¬
ments in this migration. One man writes, "Protection of life,
liberty and property, cessation of hostile racial relations,
higher wages and good schools will stop the migration." An¬
other, "Low wages, lack of freedom, injustice in present con¬
ditions is the cause." Still another says, "The chief cause is
injustice in present conditions." This man is a very prominent
and well-to-do man. Still another writes, "Lack of protection
from mob violence, lack of wages, poor tenant houses, lack of
freedom, lack of encouragement." Another man says, "We
can stop this migration North, first, by the inauguration of a
widespread movement to guarantee justice and fair play; sec¬
ond, by abolishing lynching; third, by making the Negro feel
that he is a man and a brother and entitled to the rights and
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
9
privileges of a human being." In his judgment injustice is
"positively" the most important element in this Northern mi¬
gration. One could quote almost indefinitely from the replies
coming from the outstanding leaders among the Negroes in
the South.
Another cause of unrest in the South, as alleged by a good
many colored papers and a number of colored leaders with
whom I have talked and from whom I have had written state¬
ments, is a lack of educational facilities. One does not need to
enlarge on this for all who know the conditions of the Negro
schools know how inadequate they have been and still are,
though one would hasten to add that through the splendid work
done through supervisors of schools these conditions are being
remedied far more rapidly than most of us could have expected.
It will be seen from this running account that injustice, mob
violence, lynching play no small part in this Northern migra¬
tion. This is acknowledged by many of our best Southern
papers; it is charged by the colored and Northern press. One
may as well say here that we do not regret the Northern mi¬
gration, but one does regret the causes for it. It will be good
for the North, the South, and the colored man for all to feel
that the Negro does not have to stay South, but it will be good
for none of us to feel that the Negro must leave us because of
our inhumanity.
This Conference which we have been holding brings out in
clear relief the fact that the Negro does not feel safe in the
South. He feels that he will be treated fair ninety-nine times
out of a hundred but the hundredth time he will be mobbed.
And no one of them knows when that hundredth time may
come. As a consequence, a pall of fear and uncertainty hangs
over the Negro man and he has a sense of depression which
makes him inefficient and hopeless. It is the duty of every law-
abiding, self-respecting citizen to see that this cloud is lifted
from the path of the Negro.
Our Conference has further revealed that lynching is a
symptom of a widespread disease which is general lawless¬
ness. We do not have proper respect for the law. Each man
feels he is an exception and should be exempt from petty regu¬
lations. We break the game laws; we disregard the police reg¬
ulations. The real truth is we have not the deep reverence for
10
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
law that we ought to have. The disposition to forget the law
easily runs into serious forms. We will not put down lynch¬
ing until we learn that breaking the law even in small ways
lays us open to all forms of lawlessness and renders us essen¬
tially a lawless community. Under such conditions, we need
not look for safety of life or property.
Perhaps one of the most vivid impressions of this Confer¬
ence is the realization that all lawless action debauches public
opinion. We have been horrified by the cruel details of the
St. Louis riots. We have been made sick at heart to know that
seventy-five parents in a Southern city recently wrote excuses
to the principal of the public schools in order that their chil¬
dren might attend a horrible lynching scene. We can hardly
believe that any of our fellow-citizens could be so brutalized.
Compared with this, no German atrocity seems over brutal.
We must not only stop lynching in order to give life to the
Negro, we must stop it to save our own souls from the blackest
death.
This Conference has further emphasized the sacredness of
all persons. At this time of a world war for freedom and de¬
mocracy surely we can not afford to have a hardened cast sys¬
tem here in the South. We believe that the two races will be
stronger in their own civilization and not through social inter¬
mingling, but we must never forget that separate race life does
not mean banging the doors of justice, opportunity and free¬
dom in the face of anyone, white or black. A new apprecia¬
tion of the value and sacredness of personality will do more
than anything else to stop the lynching practice.
Lastly, this Conference has helped us to realize our unique
opportunity in helping solve the race question for the world.
We are far more favorably situated than most other nations
having a race problem. In our country both races have a com¬
mon language, a common religion, more or less a common am¬
bition. We are indissolubly knit together in all our lives
from the standpoint of economics, health, and even of moral
life. From a purely selfish standpoint it is wise to make the
most possible of the Negro's life.
Furthermore, the white people have the making of condi¬
tions of life for this race largely in their own hands. We have
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
11
the administration of schools, the control of a large part of the
wealth.
It is really a dangerous thing for a strong nation to live in
the presence of a weak people continually. It is a constant
temptation to forget the rights of the weak, violate them and
thus become a tyrant. The test of life is how we treat those
who are less advanced or less powerful than ourselves. We of
the South dare not fail in the presence of this great temptation.
The present South is like Jonah of old. We are called to
lead a less favored people out into a larger and fuller life. We
have very reluctantly preached a gospel of liberty, advance¬
ment and self-respect to these people. We have even hoped
they would not make progress. We have scarcely dared to
think of sharing with them the privileges of real manhood.
But we are come to the parting of the ways. We must lift
them up or be abased by them. We are like the Jews of Jonah's
time, a nation stumbling on the high road of a noble destiny;
a nation set to bring to the world a larger faith and a bigger
life and yet in danger of hoarding our blessing and refusing
to share it with those most in need.
This Conference has been called in the hope that we might
lift up a united voice of a large company of representative
Southern men and women, a voice which none would dare un¬
derestimate and none would dare despise. The papers read
here have so much of sound logic in them, so much that is the
result of careful study and investigation, and, on the whole, so
much of high and holy passion, that I am constrained to be¬
lieve the Conference has met the end for which it has been
called.
12
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
FIRST SESSION
Saturday Morning, August 4.
The Conference was called to order at 9:00 o'clock on Saturday
morning, August 4th. Dr. W. D. Weatherford of Nashville, Tenn.,
Chairman.
Dr. Weatherford: We begin our Conference with a discussion on "A
New Criminal Procedure to Prevent Mob Violence." We have asked Judge
Stephenson, who has perhaps done more thinking along this line than any
lawyer in the South, to give us a paper on this subject.
Judge Gilbert T. Stephenson: You will let me reword my speech.
Instead of speaking on "A New Criminal Procedure to Prevent Mob
Violence," I shall speak on "Relation of Criminal Court Procedure to
Mob Violence."
RELATION OF CRIMINAL COURT PROCEDURE TO
MOB VIOLENCE.
gilbert t. stephenson, winston-salem, n. c.
Signs of Encouragement.
I do not understand that this conference on Law and Order
has been called because of any unusual lawlessness in the South
during the past year. As a matter of fact, all the signs indi¬
cate that law and order are gradually gaining the ascendency
of mob-violence. During the first six months of 1917, for in¬
stance, there were only fourteen lynchings in the South as
compared with thirty-four during the first six months of 1915
and twenty-five during the first six months of 1916. Further¬
more and even more significant, during the first six months of
this year ten threatened lynchings were prevented by the
timely and courageous intervention of officers of the law.
More and more, sheriffs in the South are taking pride in not
having a single instance of mob violence to mar the record of
their administration. Twelve years ago, as a graduate student
in American government in a university, I was assigned to
prepare a paper on instances of prosecutions of lynchers.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
13
After delving days and days into newspaper files and other
sources of information, I had to report to my instructor that
I could not find any such instances and for that reason had to
be excused from writing the paper. Recently, in running
through my clippings on lynchings during the past six years, I
found several instances of prosecution and even of conviction
of lynchers. In North Carolina one lyncher was convicted and
sentenced to serve fifteen years in the State's prison. As a
result of a lynching in Kentucky eighteen were prosecuted;
with what results I do not know. Lynchers have been prose¬
cuted in Florida and, no doubt, in other Southern states. In
Ohio out of a mob of thirty, twenty-nine were tried and con¬
victed—one of murder in the second degree and sentenced to
life imprisonment, thirteen of manslaughter, seven of riot,
nine of assault and battery. Even twelve years ago there was
talk of prosecution after every lynching but then the investi¬
gations were desultory, half-hearted, and came to naught by
common consent. Today investigations are more thorough,
prosecutions are more vigorous, and convictions are becoming
more frequent.
However encouraging these signs may be, the fact remains,
nevertheless, that so long as there is a single lynching a year
in the South, much more fourteen in six months, the danger
to our institutions is grave. Even though law and order are
gaining the upperhand of the mob, the purpose of this confer¬
ence, I take it, is to help make the ascendency complete and
secure. To the criminal court, in common with other agencies
of civilization, is put the question, "How can you help stop mob
violence in the South." In undertaking to answer this ques¬
tion, I am dealing altogether with rules of procedure and have
no suggestions whatever to offer in regard to substantive law.
Nor am I dealing with rules of procedure that might promote
justice in general without bearing any direct relation to mob-
violence.
Rules of Procedure for Dealing with Lynchers.
The rules of procedure for dealing with lynchers in North
Carolina are probably typical of the rules in other Southern
states. As soon as the solicitor hears of a lynching in his dis¬
trict, the law makes it his duty at the earliest possible moment
14
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
to proceed to the county in which the lynching occurred and
institute proceedings for investigation of the crime before the
coroner, a justice of the peace, or a judge of the superior court,
whichever is the most accessible. It is his duty to subpoena
as witnesses everybody who knows or is supposed to know any¬
thing about the lynching. A witness subpoenaed can not re¬
fuse to testify in the preliminary investigation on the ground
that his testimony might tend to incriminate him, but no dis¬
covery made by him can ever be used against him in any crim¬
inal prosecution; when he is examined as a witness for the
State in the preliminary hearing, he is altogether pardoned for
any and all participation in the lynching. If, at the investiga¬
tion, probable cause is found against anybody, he is bound over
to the next term of the superior court, not of the county in
which the lynching occurred, but of some adjoining county, in
which latter county the trial is held. In addition to his duty
personally to conduct the investigation, for which he receives
a special fee of $100.00, the solicitor is charged with the duty
to furnish information about the lynching from time to time
to the grand juries of all adjoining counties until the offenders
shall have been brought to justice. Such has been the law in
North Carolina since 1893.
I submit that the procedure for dealing with lynchers, them¬
selves, is about as complete as would be practicable. The only
change that I have in mind might not be an improvement; and
I offer it as a suggestion, not as a recommendation. It will be
noticed that today the lynchers are tried in some adjoining
county rather than in the county in which the lynching took
place. The purpose of this unusual procedure is, of course,
to make sure that the prosecution may not be frustrated by the
lynchers, particularly if they are men of standing and influ¬
ence in the community, having sympathizers on the grand or
petit juries. Under a recent statute in North Carolina, in
cases in which it would be difficult to get an impartial jury in
the county because of favor or prejudice, the court may send
to an adjoining county for the petit jury. In view of this stat¬
ute, might it not be better to send to another county for a jury
than to send the lynchers to another county to be tried? What
I have in mind is that the trial of the lynchers might lose some
of its impressiveness upon the people of the county by having
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
15
the trial in some other county. The advantages and disad¬
vantages of each of the proposed courses are so nearly bal¬
anced, that I do not venture an opinion as to which is the better
as a deterrent of mob-violence.
Trials in Private.
Passing to the rules of procedure in the trial of the offend¬
ers against whom mob-violence has been or is apt to be threat¬
ened, I consider first, the suggestion that the trial in all cases
of criminal assault should be in private. A statute of North
Carolina, enacted in 1907, permits the trial judge, in the trial
of cases for rape and assault with intent to commit rape, dur¬
ing the testimony of the prosecutrix, to exclude from the court¬
room all but the officers of the court, defendant, and those en¬
gaged in the trial of the case; and at the preliminary hearing
the committing magistrate may adopt the same course. This
saves the victim the humiliation of having to detail her horri¬
ble experiences in the hearing of a curious, sordid crowd and,
when relieved of this embarrassment, makes her more willing
to tell the court and jury all the facts. It saves the relatives
and friends of the victim the pain and anger of having their
womenkind subjected to examination and cross-examination in
the presence of such a crowd. It takes away the excuse, so
often offered for lynching, that men take the law into their
own hands before they will let their women endure the public¬
ity that the court trial necessitates. It saves the crowd, itself,
the demoralization that comes from attending such a trial. If
it is wise for these reasons to have the testimony of the prose¬
cutrix in private, why would it not be equally wise to have the
whole trial, including the arguments to the jury, in private?
If such a course is wise in cases of criminal assault, why would
not a similar course be wise in all cases in which justice and
public tranquility would be promoted by keeping the crowd out
of the courtroom? Then, why should the legislatures of the
Southern states not enact such statutes, enlarging upon the
present North Carolina statute, permitting the trial judges,
in their discretion, to clear the courtroom of all but parties,
witnesses, and officers in all cases in which the public welfare
would be promoted by having the trial in private? One prac¬
tical difficulty in the way is that the constitution of North
16
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
Carolina, and presumably the constitution of other states, re¬
quires that all courts shall be open. This could be met, as it is
met in the case of legal executions, by having a specified num¬
ber of spectators, representing the body politic, present during
the trial to see that the officers of the court do their duty and do
not engage in any Star Chamber antics. I recommend the North
Carolina statute amplified as one of the changes in criminal
procedure that would be likely to deter mob-violence.
Special Terms of Court.
Another suggestion to be considered is that a special term
of court should be called immediately to try every case in
which a lynching has been or is apt to be threatened. One of
the practical difficulties in the way of this is that it is impos¬
sible to tell in any given case whether a lynching is to be ex¬
pected. If offenders were lynched for but one crime, it would
be easy to call special terms for just those cases. But the fact
is that less than one-fourth of the lynchings are for assaults
upon women. In 1915, a typical year, people were lynched for
murder, resisting officers, poisoning mules, stealing hogs, meat,
and cotton, wife-beating, and barn-burning, and for other of¬
fenses, some of them trivial, and in no way connected with any
criminal assault. Another difficulty is that, after a threat of
lynching has been communicated to the Governor, it is usually
too late to prevent the lynching by assurances to the mob of a
speedy trial of the offender. At present, in most if not all of
the Southern states, it would be impossible to call a special
term without deranging the regular terms because we have no
reserve judges. This last difficulty might be met by providing
for a certain number of emergency judges or even by author¬
izing the Governor to commission any competent lawyer to
hold the special term. If the special term idea is sound in
principle, then the practical difficulties can be overcome. But,
as I see it, the special term idea is fundamentally unsound.
When the Governor calls a special term of court to try a pris¬
oner because he hears that a lynching is imminent, he is really
surrendering the court of law to the mob spirit. The mob
spirit is heard saying, "If the Governor does not call a special
term to try this prisonor at once, I am going to take the law
into my own hands and lynch him." And the Governor* in
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
17
calling a special term under such circumstances, is saying to
the mob spirit, "Hold on a moment; do not do anything rash.
I will call a term of court to try and convict your prisoner; a
lynching will not be necessary." The only reason for giving
the rapist, for instance, a speedier trial than the thief is to
meet the demands of the mob. The immediate trial does not
help the victim. There is no evidence, so far as I know, that
an immediate trial diminishes crime any more than a lynching
does. A prisoner tried when public indignation is at its height
is really not given a square deal. No matter how heinous and
inexcusable one's offense is, he is entitled to be tried according
to the laws of the land. In the trial of James Wilcox in Eliza¬
beth City, N. C., in 1902, for the murder of Miss Nelle Cropsey,
the moment the attorney for the defendant rose to address the
jury, one-fourth the people in the crowded courtroom, as if by
concert, left in a body and in a few minutes more the fire-bell
rang a false alarm. The trial judge found as a fact that the
purpose of this demonstration was to disconcert the attorney
for the defendant and break the force of his argument to the
jury. The jury promptly convicted Wilcox of murder in the
first degree upon circumstantial evidence. The Supreme Court
granted him a new trial on the ground that, because of the hos¬
tile demonstration, he had been denied a trial according to the
laws of the land. In the course of his argument to the Supreme
Court, the attorney for Wilcox stated that, if the verdict of
murder in the first degree had been set aside, the prisoner
would have met a violent death on the instant. Judge Clark,
the present Chief Justice, in a concurring opinion, said, "It is
of vital importance to the public welfare that the decisions of
courts of justice shall command respect, but this will be impos¬
sible if there is ground to believe that extraneous influence of
any kind whatever has been brought to bear." At Murray,
the county seat of Calloway County, Kentucky, last January,
a Negro who had been charged with killing a white man, came
up for trial. He pleaded self-defense. His attorney prayed
that the case be continued for the term in order that he might
prepare the defense of his client. The judge granted the
prayer as a reasonable request and ordered the case continued.
At this point the mob intervened and demanded an immediate
trial. The judge yielded, saying afterwards, "I was compelled
2
18
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
to do so to save my own life, the mob having threatened to
blow me up with a bomb if I did not comply with its request."
Governor Stanley, having been appraised of the situation by
wire, and having got confirmation of it from the judge him¬
self, started at once for the county seat. Unarmed and una¬
fraid, he faced the mob and spoke to it, in part as follows:
"There is but one difference between civilization and savagery,
between communities where men sleep at night with unlocked
doors with their wives and children about them and none to
make them afraid, as you were wont to do here in Calloway—
there is but one difference between such a community and the
jungle where a savage chief stands with a knotted club above
the body of his dusky spouse to protect her and his simple
holdings by the strength of his right arm. Courthouses, rev¬
erence for law and order, and the willingness of every citizen
to look to the law for the vindication of his wrongs and the
protection of his property are the essence of civilization. When
you defy courts and insult judges, you lapse into barbarism,
you relinquish all claim to civilization. I am here not to snatch
the accused from punishment, but to save him from violence;
not to paralyze, but to give vigor and strength and dignity to
the strong arm of the law. It is my purpose to see that this
man is tried as speedily as may be consistent with his security,
while on trial, and freedom from every form of outside inter¬
ference."
In West Virginia, four years ago, in the trial of a Negro
charged with criminal assault upon a white woman, a mob
surged in the courtroom and almost over the rail of the bar
during the trial, and the prosecuting attorney told the jury, in
substance, that it had to convict the defendant quickly in order
to keep him from being lynched. How much better it would
have been in these cases for the trial to have been postponed
until public feeling had somewhat abated and then for the
trial judge to have been empowered to keep the raging mob
outside the courtroom during the progress of the trial! I say
this regardless of the guilt of the party on trial. Unspeakably
horrible and murderous as every lynching is, it were better,
from the standpoint of the State, for a person to be lynched
in outright defiance of the law than to be convincted under the
semblance of law by a jury forced to its verdict, not by the
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
19
weight of its evidence, but by the compulsion of the mob spirit
regnant in the courtroom during the trial. In either case it is,
in the last analysis, lynching. In the one case the mob takes
the life of an individual; in the other, it paralyzes the right
arm of society and undermines the foundation of civilization.
I do not say that such fearful results would follow the calling
of special terms to try criminal causes over which a mob is
aroused; I do say that, in the absence of real necessity for
special terms, the risk is too great.
Trial by Judges in Place of Juries.
Another suggestion is that cases of criminal assault should
be tried before a group of judges instead of a jury. The prac¬
tical difficulties is that the judges could not be called from their
regular courts without deranging the whole judicial system of
the State for the time being. In this State, for instance, there
are only twenty judges to 100 counties. This difficulty might
be met, as in the case of special terms, by emergency judges.
But here again I think that the suggestion is fundamentally
unsound. It is another way of yielding to the mob spirit by
veering its court from its regular course of procedure. Im¬
perfect as the jury of laymen is, it is, nevertheless, the corner¬
stone of our system of jurisprudence. Moreover, it is the con¬
clusion of nearly all experienced practitioners that a jury of
laymen is as apt to find the facts correctly as a jury of men
learned in the law. To take from the jury such cases would
be sapping its vigor by showing lack of confidence in it and by
relieving it of the responsibility of passing upon cases that
most vitally affect the community. Does any one think that an
infuriated, blood-thirsty mob would stay its hands to let the
offender be tried by a group of judges any sooner than to let
him be tried by a jury of twelve laymen?
Charges to Grand Juries on Lynching.
A change in criminal procedure that would do more than
any other one thing to deter the mob would be for the trial
judges habitually to charge the grand juries upon the laws
about lynching and the duties of the grand jury to enforce
them. At present the judge usually waits until the horse has
been stolen before he locks the stable-door; that is, he waits
20
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
until there has been a lynching in the county before he deems
it necessary to charge the grand j ury upon the sub j ect. Lynch¬
ing, like lightning, does not usually strike twice in the same
place; the next lynching in the South may be in a county that
has never had one before and has prided itself upon its regard
for law and order. The charge of the trial judge to the grand
jury is the most weighty and impressive message that the
crowd that fills the courtroom during the call of the criminal
docket ever hears. People who have a habit of attending crim¬
inal court seldom hear sermons or addresses on law and order,
seldom read books or papers on law and order, and seldom
hear the matter discussed in such a spirit as to encourage them
to stand by the law. These people are the ones who usually
have the most pronounced antipathy for the Negro, whose
minds revel in the anger-provoking details of the crime, and
who would excuse, rather than condemn, those who take the
law into their own hands. If the trial judge were to charge the
jury vigorously and in plain English about lynching, he would
arouse the jurors to make a real effort to discover lynchers,
and he would make it easier for them to report lynchers, even
though they were neighbors. When the impression got abroad
that the grand jurors, whose deliberations are in secret, were
taking seriously their duty to investigate and report lynchers,
then would-be lynchers would be slow in doing anything to be
reported for. The impression that such a charge would make
upon the courtroom audience and, through references to it in
the newspapers, upon the people at large would do much to
create a compelling sentiment among the people to let the law
take its course in the most provoking cases even. If every trial
judge in the South for the space of one year would charge
every grand jury that he faces plainly and vigorously about
lynching, he would do more to put an end to mob violence than
all of us laymen put together could do in a decade, this because
he reaches the people who do the lynching as nobody else does.
I suggest that this conference, either by formal resolution or
otherwise, bring to the attention of the trial judges of the
South the unparalled opportunity they have of promoting law
and order by informing and arousing the grand juries.
The mob spirit would, no doubt, be deterred in its course by
changes in our rules of procedure in the trial of criminal
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
21
causes, and with this in mind, I have suggested certain changes
that should and others that should not be made. But the fun¬
damental principle to be observed in criminal procedure in its
relation to mob violence is that the mob spirit will never be
overcome by the court's swerving from its regular course in
order to meet the temporary demands of the mob but that it
will be overcome soonest by the constant emanation from the
courtroom of the unmistakable sentiment that no crime is too
heinous for the court in its regular procedure to deal with
adequately and that he who interferes with the orderly course
of the law will inevitably feel its heavy hand.
I presented this suggestion which is contained in my paper to one of
the most learned and level-headed Judges of the Superior Court of North
Carolina, because I didn't want to make any suggestion here that would
be resented by the Superior Court Judges or the Circuit Court Judges.
If I called the name every man here would agree that he is a level-headed
man, and he said to me that the Judges would welcome it and that it
would go a long way toward doing what we have met in conference about,
—that is, putting an end to mob violence.
Dr. Dillard: Mr. Chairman, that suggestion seems so vital—that sug¬
gestion in the paper. I want to ask Judge Stephenson how he would go
to work to get that done. Who would tell these trial judges to do that?
Dr. W. F. Tillett: I want to ask that he read that paragraph again as
it bears on that question and we will have it clearly before us. I count
it a most valuable suggestion.
Judge Stephenson: This is my final paragraph:
"If every trial judge in the South for the space of one year
would charge every grand jury that he faces, plainly and vigorously,
about lynching, he would do more to put an end to mob violence
than all of us laymen put together could do in a decade, this be¬
cause he reaches the people who do the lynching as nobody else
does. I suggest that this conference, either by formal resolution,
or otherwise, bring to the attention of the trial judges of the South,
the unparalleled opportunity they have of promoting law and order
by informing and arousing the grand juries."
In answering Dr. Dillard, I will say that I am just feeling my way
along to see how the suggestion could be brought to bear on the trial
judges, and the first thing we have to do is to arouse and inform the
trial judges. That can best be done by getting the pamphlet that is to be
sent out as a result of this conference into the hands of every trial judge
in the South, including the Superior Court, Circuit Court, Corporation
Courts of Virginia and the Circuit Court Judges who try cases in other
states, and accompany that pamphlet with a resolution passed by this
22
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
body recommending to the trial judges, to charge the grand jury on the
subject of lynching.
Mr. E. C. Brooks: In support of what Judge Stephenson has said,
some seven years ago some Judges in North Carolina began to charge
the juries to make investigation of school matters and that attracted
more attention from the papers than any single thing that had been done.
At every court they charged the grand jury to inspect the schoolhouses
and the county papers took it up at once.
Dr. Tillett: I have long observed the profound respect the public has
for Federal Courts, Federal Judges and Federal trials, and it seems to me
to grow out of the fact that the Federal Court can bring its juries from
afar, long distance, and it serves and is not, though conducted in the very
community wherein the wrong has been perpetrated, overawed or over¬
powered by the atmosphere, and I have long felt that if the trial of those
who have been in a mob, joined in a mob, could be transferred to the
Federal Court, that would end the matter. As it is now, 99 out of 100 per
cent will not be convicted and the bigger the mob the less chance of con¬
viction. That wouldn't follow if it were the Federal Court. Now, there is
another suggestion, if that be impossible and I don't know what this is
worth—I throw it out as a suggestion—that people generally are exceed¬
ingly open to any financial penalty that they have to pay for anything
they do. Could it be that keeping it in the State Court and following the
suggestion of the speaker, could it be that it could be made a law of the
land that anyone convicted of participation in a mob shall pay a financial
penalty,—called on to meet all the expenses of the trial and pay a finan¬
cial penalty?
The Chairman: Judge Stephenson, have you a word to say to Dr.
Tillett with regard to the transfer of these cases to the Federal Courts?
Judge Stephenson: I rather agree with Dr. Tillett, except that that is
a change in the law. A suggestion has recently been made in keeping
with your suggestion that mob violence be made a Federal offence, and
it must be made a Federal offence before it can be tried in the Federal
Courts. The average man feels, as he says, that "Uncle Sam don't fool
with folks."
Dr. B. F. Riley: During the last administration of Mr. Roosevelt he
made the suggestion in his message that this change be made—that lynch¬
ing be transferred to the Federal Courts, and the question was at once
raised as to the constitutionality of it and the interference with the State
Court, or "rights" as we say down here; and that presents a question that
would have to be worked out.
The Chairman: Is there anything we can do to further the possibility
of the amendment to our constitutional law so that we can get this into
the Federal Court?
Judge Stephenson: We could only after we had answered Dr. Riley's
question, which I doubt whether anyone has gone into exhaustively,
whether it would be such an interference of States rights to deal with
its own criminals, as to make it unwarranted by the Federal Courts. I
cannot venture an opinion. If that can be got out of the way, then this
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
23
conference can make a recommendation. Dr. Weatherford, if you will
allow me before you pass from this question, I think some consideration
ought to be given as to having more privacy—it is your suggestion—not
only of cases of criminal assault but in all cases where public indignaton
has been aroused. You have to have some statute to do it. The Court has
no right to clear the court room except in juvenile and in criminal assault
cases where statute has been passed. If he could have discretion to clear
the court room in all such cases and call in a dozen citizens to be present
and represent the body politic as is done at electrocutions to see that the
law is carried out,—if that suggestion is worth anything and keeping out
the crowd would be a deterrent, then this conference might pass a reso¬
lution to be brought to the attention of the Legislatures of this and other
States.
The Chairman: It seems to me that one of the things that should be
made clear in the minds of the people at large, is not only that we ought
to have more privacy, but that a court trial doesn't bring more publicity
than a mob—less. The chances are that a mob will arouse five times as
much publicity than a court trial. That is purely an issue of information
and education. We must get that into the minds of the people at large.
Judge Stephenson: My further suggestion is that a special term be
not called and I am positively opposed to that idea. If some time inter¬
vened between the time of the crime and the trial there would be no
definitely formed mob at the time of the trial. At the public trial there
is danger of the crowd being re-aroused but with a trial in private, never
allowing the mob to meet and crystallize itself, it would keep the mob
from doing what might eventuate as in the cases spoken of here.
OFFICERS OF JUSTICE AS PREVENTIVES OF MOB
VIOLENCE.
C. FLETCHER QUILLIAN.
This topic recalls the old adage of "The ounce of preven¬
tion." The physician who prevents is infinitely preferable to
the surgeon who has to cut out the disease.
We do well at the outset to face frankly a diagnosis of con¬
ditions. The assembling of this group in a "Law and Order"
conference, and of similar gatherings in recent years since the
Atlanta conference following the Atlanta riots, shows recogni¬
tion of a disease. This is the first step toward a means of pre¬
vention.
A letter from the managing editor of the Chicago Tribune,
dated July 28 of this year, reveals the startling total of 3,680
human lives taken in the United States since 1885 by so-called
24 Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
lynch "law". Subsequent events proved that of those who lost
their lives in 1915 at least four were innocent. Who can know
how many others were innocent among these victims who did
not have the chance to offer evidence according to their consti¬
tutional right of trial by jury?
For sixteen years prior to 1901, the number of lynchings in
the United States was never under 100 and was over 200 for
two years. Since 1901 the number exceeded 100 per year only
in one instance, but in 1915 it was 98. The lowest number of
lynchings in any one year since 1885 was 48 in 1913. Last
year 58 lynchings were recorded.
The figures furnished by the Chicago Tribune are as follows:
Annual Number of Lynchings in the United States Dur¬
ing the Last Thirty Years.
1885 184 1896 131 1907 65
1886 138 1897 106 1908 100
1887 122 1898 127 1909 87
1888 142 1899 107 1910 74
1889 176 1900 115 1911 71
1890 127 1901 130 1912 64
1891 191 1902 96 1913 48
1892 205 1903 104 1914 54
1893 200 1904 87 1915 98
1894 190 1905 60 1916 58
1895 171 1906 60
Total, 3,680
The facts show that this disease is contagious. Lynching
grows on what it feeds on. It has become in some counties of
certain states, both North and South, a habit. The Independent
for February, 1916, says that the recent lynching in Georgia of
five men, killed with much the same evidence of deliberation
that marked the Leo Frank case, gives point to the diagnosis
by an important Southern organization that lynching is a con¬
tagious social disease. The Outlook says, editorially, in 1916
that it is estimated that one-fourth of all lynchings in the
United States in 1915 occurred in the State of Georgia. It
says further that the effect of mob-violence on the general
problem of disorder is now causing that State to "realize the
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
25
danger of lawlessness." As a native Georgian, I am glad to
state that the following June the Georgia Bar Association gave
earnest consideration to a courageous paper on "Lynching and
its Remedy." Moreover, the Federation of Women's Clubs of
the State severely condemned lynching in a resolution heartily
approved in the editorial columns of the Atlanta Constitution.
If this disease is now recognized as widespread and as con¬
tagious we may well ask "What are its effects?" I shall not
discuss here the various economic effects illustrated by the re¬
cent Negro migration northward. But it is within the scope
of my subject to say that mob-violence is always accompanied
by various other forms of general lawlessness and disorder.
Loss of respect for law marks the beginning of the breakdown
of civilization, for civilization rests on law. President Wilson
has often said that all laws, good and bad, should be enforced,
and that the best way to repeal a bad law is to enforce it.
Meanwhile the public respects the hand of the law and the
officer of justice. But mob-violence brings both into disrepute,
for all law has been defied and ignored. The mob says "There
is no law." How can we have respect for law of any kind
by those who condone this disregard of law of every kind ?
An inquiry into the cause of this disease raises at once the
fundamental question with which this paper primarily con¬
cerns itself. Is the cause the attitude of officers of justice?
Is it due to an inherent weakness in the American system of
self-government, of administering justice through officers
chosen directly or indirectly by the people?
In a year when America has entered the Great War to "help
make the world safe for democracy," it is a fundamental in¬
quiry when we ask ourselves, "Is democracy safe in America,
safe for each individual, white or black?"
Dean Bosworth of Oberlin puts it strikingly. "We must not
forget that entering the war to secure a better world logically
commits us to the securing of a better America. The estab¬
lishment of the Christian world ideal will involve changes in
our own land. Our unjust treatment of the Negro, the indus¬
trial wrongs inflicted on those who have no effective, orderly
means of protest, are to be put away from American life."
In the closing chapter devoted to conclusions in his book
"Lynch Law" Dr. Cutler puts a question which should chal-
26
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
lenge every American. "Why is lynching a peculiarly Ameri¬
can institution?" he asks. Later he states in the indicative
mood the implication which is suggested by the query above.
He says, "There is a readiness on the part of the people in the
United States to take the law into their own hands which is
not found in other countries, and the consequent immunity
from punishment which is generally accorded to lynchers ren¬
ders an American mob exceedingly open to the suggestion of
lynching. It is on such grounds that the existence of lynching
as a peculiarly American institution is to be explained."
I am glad to give a different opinion in an address by Dr.
W. D. Weatherford presented at the Southern Sociological
Congress in New Orleans in 1916. He says, "Lynch law is
peculiar neither to the Southern States nor to America as a
whole, for the practice of lynching has been common in most
countries where the government has been weak or poorly es¬
tablished, or where justice has been tardily meted out to of¬
fenders."
Still Dr. Cutler's challenge reminds us of what Dr. Weather-
ford admits, that while mob-violence "has practically disap¬
peared" in most other countries after the administration of
law is well established, that "unfortunately this has not been
the case in America, particularly in the South."
Why is this so? Fundamentally the answer lies in the lack
of an awakened public sentiment as a means of control of offi¬
cers of justice, and a resultant lowering of standard by the
officers themselves. The stream will rise no higher than its
source.
In order that officers of the law prevent mob-violence, two
essentials are necessary. The one concerns the attitude of the
citizens themselves, the other the attitude of the officers.
Peculiarly in our system of government the action of the
officer will depend in large measure on the attitude of the peo¬
ple who place him in office.
If Dr. Cutler is right in saying that Americans are more
ready than Europeans to take "the law into their own hands,"
there must needs be in America a campaign of public opinion.
Lynch law will not cease until there is a strong and uncompro¬
mising sentiment against it in every community. Every citi¬
zen should realize that his highest liberty and protection is se-
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
27
cured when he gives over to legalized authority the enforce¬
ment of his own rights. Protection to lives and property comes
through the recognition that one must give up his individual
rights to common authorities in order to secure enforcement
of rights for all. In days of savagery every man was a law
unto himself. Then gradually society grew so that each man
ceased to enforce law for himself and left its enforcement to
a common police power. The states have given over certain
functions to federal enforcement. The League to Enforce
Peace proposes that participating nations shall give over under
certain restrictions to a central international police power the
enforcing of their individual national rights.
The 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution guaran¬
tees that no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty or
property without due process of law, nor deny any person
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. In its
last analysis in this country, the sovereign in each State is the
people. This means that the spirit of the 14th Amendment
will only be enforced when the citizens who make up the State
Government enforce punishment through due process.
When the public comes completely to this realization and the
officer knows that the private citizen depends upon him for
securing his rights, he enters into office with an entirely differ¬
ent sense of responsibility. He has an impelling motive to
make any sacrifice necessary to carry out his duty.
The action of an officer into whose custody is entrusted the
life of a criminal is closely bound up with public sentiment.
Some excuse lynching by saying it deters crime. The question
then is, "Will crime be prevented in an organized or disorgan¬
ized fashion?" Shall there be such an administration of jus¬
tice as will take away from the mob any excuse to place into
their own hands the execution of the law. Let there be deter¬
rent against crime, but let it be legalized under proper au¬
thority.
One of the surest methods of preventing lynching lies in get¬
ting the public to believe that immediate justice will be dealt
out by the law, thus preventing repetition of the crime. It
may require years to overcome in some communities the evil
effect of the lynching habit. However, concrete cases should
offer such assurance of immediate action that no mob will have
28
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
justification for manifesting violence. The necessity of a cam¬
paign of education is shown by a case in Waco, Texas, last
year. On the 8th day of May a Negro committed the crime to
which is wrongly assigned the cause of most lynchings in the
South. On May 12th he was in the hands of the authorities.
On May 13th he was indicted and convicted with sentence to be
executed the following day. In spite of this the prisoner was
lynched without strenuous resistance by the officer.
There is no excuse left for mob-violence when sure and
speedy justice comes through due process of law. That officer
fails in his duty to the individual and the State who is not will¬
ing to resist public disorder even with his life.
We need more men with the stuff Governor Stanley showed
in Kentucky, who said to the mob, "If you are going to lynch
anybody, lynch me." Law and Order does not stop short of
conviction of every participant in a lynching regardless of his
position and irrespective of whether the victim lynched be
white or black.
Public sentiment must stand back of the officer who does his
duty. It should be impossible for a man to retain public office
who fails to fulfill his oath to uphold the law.
A sheriff of no backbone needs to realize that there will be
actual enforcement of the following wholesome provision of
the laws in South Carolina: "In case of any prisoner being
seized and taken from said officer through his negligence, per¬
mission, or connivance by a mob, and at their hands suffering
bodily violence of death, the said officer shall be deposed from
office pending his trial and upon conviction shall forfeit his
office, and shall, unless pardoned by the Governor, be ineligible
to hold any office of trust or profit within the State."
A Southern man of national reputation, who has studied
this question, recently said: "We have gone half way in abol¬
ishing mob-violence when it is understood that a sheriff loses
his position when he gives up a prisoner without resistance,
even unto death."
Time was and is here again when an American patriot will
willingly lose his life in doing his duty. It is surely not too
much to ask that an officer will lose his office who fails to do
his duty.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
29
We need more judges like Judge Speake of Alabama, who
sacrificed his immediate political future in 1914 by prompt ac¬
tion. A Negro murdered a white man. He was arrested on
Tuesday and on Wednesday Judge Speake impanellel a grand
jury. Within twenty hours the Negro was indicted. But un¬
fortunately Madison County had what Stannard Baker has
called the lynching habit, and in spite of this assurance of
prompt action the Negro was lynched. Judge Speake ordered
all saloons closed, called out the militia and did everything pos¬
sible to enforce the law. He also saw to it that the members
of the mob were indicted for murder and able counsel ap¬
pointed to prosecute the lynchers. But public sentiment in
support of lynching was strikingly shown by the following
facts: Out of 110 men examined for the jury, 76 answered
that they did not favor conviction, even though the evidence
were beyond any reasonable doubt that the defendant lynchers
participated in murdering the Negro.
Baker has said that in this community a large majority of
supposedly representative citizens believed that a white man
should not be punished for lynching a Negro. Only one man
stood for conviction.
The acting government took steps to condemn the lawless
spirit of Madison County, ordered the impeachment of the
sheriff and the dismissal of the local militia. This incident
shows how far we must go in some sections of the South to
create the proper public spirit in order to back an officer of
justice who has nerve and backbone.
The time must come when the books will record an equal
readiness by all courts to convict those who lynch Negroes and
those who lynch white men. Trial judges must charge grand
juries to indict for lynching and the courts must fine for con¬
tempt those citizens who are indifferent to the supremacy of
the law.
We have in Vermillion County, 111., the record of fourteen
convictions of those who undertook to lynch a Negro, but were
unsuccessful owing to the fact that the sheriff, with his wife
and two deputies, defended the jail against a mob of 2,000. The
Negro was later legally convicted. The sheriff who did his
duty was returned to office with an overwhelming majority.
Sheriff Whitlock said that the conviction of the lynchers was
30
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
due largely to the fact that the awakened sentiment of the
county was with him.
This is an illustration of the thesis of this paper: that the
officer must do his duty and the community must stand by him.
Where you find the former you find the latter; the two go to¬
gether. We need a background of sentiment to support the
officer. Equally do we need a strong officer who will lead in
creating this sentiment. The best will respond when the best
is appealed to. There is yet hope of preventing mob-violence
through co-operation on the part of the officers of justice and
the citizens of an awakened community.
The Chairman: The paper is now open to you for discussion.
Dr. W. H. Mills: It seems to me that in this matter of the
prevention of lynching by the officers of the law, that we have to
remember that the officer of the law can only reflect in a way the senti¬
ment of the community. It seems to me, and I know something at least
of life in South Carolina, that more and more we find the rural policeman,
deputy sheriffs and sheriffs lining up for protection of the criminal. I
don't think the weak point lies with these administrative officers of the
law. I don't think that we can forget Sheriff Adam Field of Fairfield
County, who was shot and killed in defense of his prisoner, and who while
lying on the ground shot and killed one or two—certainly one—of the men
who were attacking his prisoner. Anyhow, it seems to me in considera¬
tion of this whole question that we must remember, as you suggested a
moment ago, it is in the last analysis a moral question, and we must
remember any lynching is a most horrible manifestation of lawlessness
that we find, I am sorry to say, throughout the South. Ladies and
gentlemen, the saddest thing in our Southern civilization is today, and
has been almost ever since the war, our lawlessness. We have got lots of
laws on the statute books about carrying pistols, and yet we carry pistols
and there are lots of other laws on the statute books that we white men
break—I don't mean the poor and ignorant either. I know it. The game
law for instance. It has only been in the last year or two that there has
been any sentiment for the observation of the game laws of the State, and
when we discuss the question of lynching we must remember that it goes
back, goes back, goes back,—and one of the most serious questions we
have to face is the way that we, all of us, decide that we will break law,
for instance, to keep the Negro out of politics. That is what we do and
we all know that in a certain sense we are guilty of inconsistency, and so
it seems to me that in the last analysis of this matter, we must remember
that we are in the grip of certain conditions in the South. The sugges¬
tions that have been made are splendid ones, but we must go further than
that and from every single quarter we must bring to bear on our people
the fact that the majesty of the duly constituted authority and obedience
to it is a thing in the South to which we must give our chief attention.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
31
Dr. Jones: I hesitate to speak on this topic, because it is in reference
to Federal procedure. From one point of view it might be assumed that
it would .be better to have the Federal Court as it might exercise more
power -and authority in such cases. I have often wished that the Federal
Courts did have that power, but on the other hand this is, so far as the
Negro is concerned, a local question. It is a question wherever the
Negroes are present in large numbers, whether South or North or wher¬
ever the people differ radically in types, or in other respects, economic
affairs, or whatever it may be, and there will be difference of this sort.
I feel very strongly that education of the people is the important thing
and that it is better to make haste slowly in a matter like this; that
people should learn to appreciate the rights of people who differ from
themselves, whether the difference .be racial or economic. It is a great
comfort and satisfaction to have a man like Dr. Tillett wish for it, repre¬
senting as he does the best feeling in the South, yet as one more or less
outside the situation I do feel that there is necssity for the greatest care
as to outside interference. It is the education of local sentiment that will
finally solve such perplexing questions as this.
Dr. John A. Rice: There are two points that have been made
prominent here, neither of which I know how to do, and upon both of
which the final issue depends. The first is this: So long as the South¬
ern people feel that they can do all sorts of devilment in the day time and
settle it over in the corner of a pew at night you will have no better con¬
dition. My conviction has grown through the years that there is but one
efficient salvation for our social situation, and that is an intelligent pres¬
entation of human brotherliness as an essential element in the Christian
creed. Until our Sunday schools and churches and court houses are
turned along with the educational institutions into teachers of the social
code in our Christianity, not until then shall we have another day. So
long as a man can shoot a Negro and help to hang him and then go and
teach his Sunday school class on Sunday, and claim that he is relieved of
all sin, so long as that goes on, there will be no relief. That is the hope¬
lessness of it. The gentleman who preceded me says that it goes back to
education. That is correct. We must get at the fundamental institution
of education—home, school, court house,—and I have some authority in
saying court house must be an educator. I knew a judge who spent a
part of every message on mob violence. We have a slow work before us
that in years will bring results. We may just as well make up our minds
that until we can get human brotherliness as a fundamental creed in the
hearts of our people, our situation is hopeless. Therefore to that task we
must every one of us direct every effort that we have opportunity to
exert. The other difficulty is equally great, namely, the power of
suggestion.
Mr. Blades: There was some discussion as to handling .by Federal
authority. I think that the local authority can handle it. My idea is a
law and order society in every county and extend it as much as possible
to every part of the county. The society can see that this is emphasized
32
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
in the charge to the grand jury, that the people are instructed along that
line, and let everybody be taught that this society will see that the law is
enforced,—that if there is a mob it will not escape because of the number
but will be apprehended and punished. That is a very difficult thing.
Under our laws everyone becomes guilty of murder. It is hard for a
society to get up any demand that all these men be executed because of
this crime, but this society can use prevention. They know when a mob
is likeiy to be formed and with their organized effort they will be most
likely to prevent it. That would be my idea, to have an organization
throughout each State; that the County be the unit and that it take
precautions. It need not be known as a Law and Order Society.
Dr. Dillard: I am very much impressed with the remarks. I want to
ask whether it will ever be possible to enforce any law when prevailing
public sentiment is against it? We know that in the states that keep
liquor out and the sentiment of some of the best people—so called—is
opposed to that, it doesn't hurt them to break the law. Don't we come
back to the same thing, and isn't public sentiment what we have to get at?
Mr. Quillian: The suggestion in Dr. Dillard's opening query and Mr.
Mills' remarks, I want to answer by telling you what President Wilson
said when he was discussing the breaking of the law. He said that the
best way to repeal a bad law was to enforce it. He said that the law
ought to be carried out and the best way to repeal it is to enforce it. The
people will rise up and see that it is repealed.
Dr. Tillett: I haven't heard anything that will make me change my
opinion in regard to feeling that the best solution of this problem is to
call for such a change in our administration as will give us the benefit of
the Federal Court. Dr. Jones used an expresson which I wouldn't myself
agree to, that he believed it wouldn't be best to have "outside interfer¬
ence." That is not the way that I would put it. We want co-operation.
Our Government is a co-operation between the State and the Federal
Governments. How long have we heard that local option was the solution
of prohibition. We have tried it and find that it isn't the ultimate solu¬
tion. It may be in one place and not in another; but as a solution of the
national problem of the liquor evil, we are giving it up and calling in the
Natonal Government to co-operate with the county, state and city govern¬
ment to make it effective, and so I would say that this is not "out¬
side interference." I cannot help the old issues between State
rights and concentration of too much authority in the National Govern¬
ment. The statesmanship of our country has got to reinterpret any law
of our country by years of national experience and modify and change
our government so as to make the whole effective. The weakest part of
our government has been brought out here, and that is disrespect of the
law and the courts.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which? 33
SECOND SESSION
Saturday Afternoon, August 4.
The meeting was called to order at 2:30 Saturday afternoon, August 4,
by the Chairman.
The Chairman: I will call on Dr. Branson to address us on the subject
of "Liberty and Security of Life the Basis of Economic Progress."
LIBERTY AND SECURITY OF LIFE, THE BASIS OF
ECONOMIC PROGRESS.
e. c. branson, rural economics and sociology,
university of north carolina.
I am detailed upon short notice to say something to this Con¬
ference about Liberty and Security of Life as the Basis of
Economic Progress. The call comes to me in the fag end of a
college year of eleven exacting months. It therefore finds me
at a time when productive vitality is at its very lowest point,
and with little time to do more than give to my stenographer in
hurried fashion such chance thoughts as I have upon (1) the
fleeing of Negroes out of the South in large numbers during
recent months; (2) the significance of this race exodus, and
(3) the appeal it makes to common sense and Christian con¬
science.
1. The Facts of the Situation.
During the last eighteen months between four and five hun¬
dred thousand Negroes have gone out of the South into the
North and East, or about half as many as have emigrated dur¬
ing the whole of our history heretofore. They are still going
and will continue to go until the causes of their going cease to
be active. It is impossible to say at present how much larger
this movement will be or how much longer it will last. But it
has the looks of a race exodus that promises to mark a new
era in Negro history in America, and a new epoch in Southern
3
34
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
economy. We are too close to this movement to realize in full
detail the immediate and remote results to the Negro or to the
South, but it is well worth while to puzzle at the history that is
making under our very noses.
2. Some of the Significances.
As usual in social situations, the causes are complicated, and
I do not here attempt to analyze them. Whatever they are, we
are facing the consequences. These consequences make a di¬
rect assault upon the will to act, and action ought never to be
whimsical, futile, and foolish. There must be intelligent, right¬
eous, and effective action in this matter, if the South and the
Negro are to reap the best and not the worst results of a move¬
ment that is likely to last a quarter century or more, in my
opinion.
I therefore begin by glancing at some of the economic conse¬
quences that we are facing; because they have to do with busi¬
ness, directly or indirectly with all business in the South; be¬
cause they relate to profit and loss, and because the pocket
nerve connects up with common sense and conscience when
other lines of communication are out of commission.
I may say in the first place that we are this year a quarter
billion dollars poorer in the production of crop values alone;
and this estimate is based on the average crop-producing power
of farm workers in the South in the census year, and the in¬
creased value of farm products since 1910. It is just so much
less to live on or to pay bills with for imported products. The
loss averages about $8.00 per inhabitant counting men, women,
and children in the South. The migrating Negroes just about
equal the total force of farm workers in South Carolina. It is
like suddenly blotting such a State off our agricultural map.
In the second place, decreasing farm labor means an increase
of idle acres and a dwindling agriculture here and there in the
South, wherever the forces of re-adjustment break down. The
tidewater country from Virginia to Texas has been suffering
from a cause of this sort for fifty years.
In the third place, the labor cost of farm production in the
South will everywhere be greatly increased and the margins of
farm profit correspondingly lessened. The wages we offer our
farm hands and the contracts we make with our croppers must
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
35
give them a larger share of the wealth they produce, or our
rough labor will be drawn as by a magnet into the areas of
higher wages. Rising labor wages in our farm regions will
spread like contagion into our mill and factory centers. The
South, in other words, is ceasing to be an area of cheap labor;
of economic goods of every sort produced on a basis of mini¬
mum labor costs. It is therefore not a farm problem alone. It
challenges the best thinking of manufacturers, bankers, and
merchants as well as farmers.
In the fourth place, and this is the hopeful view of the situa¬
tion, the agricultural South will move out of an era of small-
scale farming based on excessive human labor, into medium-
or large-scale farming based on abundant labor-saving, profit-
producing machinery. And the change from intensive to ex¬
pansive farming in food and feed crops will be epoch-making
in the South.
At present our farms are too small. The average of culti¬
vated acres per farm ranges from only thirty-three in Missis¬
sippi to sixty-five in Texas, and ninety-two in Oklahoma. These
are small farms when compared with a hundred and eleven
acres in Illinois, one hundred and sixty-eight in Kansas, and
two hundred and seventy-five in North Dakota.
But the contrast stands out better when we consider the av¬
erage number of acres cultivated per farm worker. In the
South, the average ranges from twelve acres in South Carolina
to fifty in Oklahoma. In Illinois a farm worker cultivates an
average of sixty-two acres, in Iowa eighty-three, in Nebraska
one hundred and twenty, and in North Dakota one hundred and
fifty-six. The difference lies in machine power on larger farms.
As a result the production of crop values per farm worker in
the South is small, ranging from $218 in Alabama in the census
year to $383 in Oklahoma; but these are midget figures when
compared with $783 in Kansas, $968 in Nebraska, $1,378 in
North Dakota.
These figures mean that in the South we have at present
over-abundant human labor for the amount of land we have in
cultivation. In the Middle West, human labor in farm areas
is reduced to small proportions by abundant horse- and ma-
chine-power, which not only multiplies the products per worker
but reduces to a minimum the labor cost of production. In
36
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
North Carolina, for instance, six hundred and five thousand
farm workers cultivate only nine million acres, while in Iowa
three hundred and twenty - five thousand farmers cultivate
twenty-seven million acres. In other words, for every single
acre cultivated by a farm worker in North Carolina, a farm
worker in Iowa averages six.
Moreover, a decrease of farm labor has always meant a de¬
crease of intensive crop-farming and an increase of live stock
farming. Under the changed conditions of agriculture in the
United States, here is the South's greatest opportunity in the
next half century. With our two hundred million idle wilder¬
ness acres we have a chance to become the richest live stock
area in the world. A farm cultivation based on grazing areas
and the production of live stock and live stock products calls for
less farm labor than tillage areas.
What I am trying to say is that we could well afford to lose
a full half of our farm laborers in the South, if only it means
larger farms, more profit-producing farm machinery, more
acres and larger crop values per farm worker, lower produc¬
tion costs, wider margins of profit, more live stock, and a
greater accumulation of farm wealth just as in the Middle
West. The simple truth is that we have too much farm labor
in the South, considering the number of acres under cultiva¬
tion; not too much under our present system of small-scale
farming which the South has been developing during the last
fifty years with increasing disadvantage, but far too much for
expansive farming with profit-producing machinery. Crude
labor with simple hand-tools can not compete with big-scale
machine production on the farm or anywhere else. Of course
I understand that cotton and tobacco are hand-made crops for
the most part, but in the new era we will raise larger totals of
these crops on smaller areas, with lower production costs, be¬
cause of more intelligent methods of cultivation and manage¬
ment.
Decreasing labor in farm regions due (1) to boll weevil rav¬
ages and (2) to the drawing power of higher wage areas—
these among other causes—brings the South into an economic
crisis in her agriculture. The result, as I have already said,
will be either a dwindling agriculture, or a change from inten¬
sive farming with excessive human labor to expansive farming
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
37
based on profit-producing farm machinery. It means a long
period of re-adjustment; but these two economic causes will
operate to end an unfortunate drift in Southern agriculture
since the war—the drift into unprofitable, small-scale farming.
It promises to turn us right-about, and to lead us in a hopeful
direction at last.
So much for the economic consequences to the South of the
Negro exodus, which I apprehend will be less spectacular but
even more extensive and massive during the next quarter cen¬
tury or so, or until the war-disturbed conditions of labor-de¬
mand have again become normal the whole world over.
These are what I take to be the fundamental effects upon
Southern agriculture of decreasing Negro labor. Effects in
other departments of our economic life, will not only be less
fundamental, but recovery will be more rapid—say in the build¬
ing trades and the tobacco factories.
3. The Status op Migrating Negroes.
As for the Negroes who emigrate—they go to join the land¬
less, homeless multitudes of the industrial states, where town
and country tenancy ranges from fifty-seven per cent in Penn¬
sylvania to seventy per cent in Rhode Island; where homeless-
ness in the cities ranges from eighty per cent in Jersey City,
Brooklyn, and Boston, to eighty-nine per cent in Greater New
York as a whole. They go into economic areas where they have
a minimum chance to own farms of their own, and to dwell
under their own vines and fig trees unmolested and unafraid.
They go into cities where they can never hope to own the roof-
trees over their heads, where they are herded, like the rest of
the great industrial army, in tenement slums with their ines¬
capable perils to health, life, and moral integrity; where the
struggle for existence is fiercest, and trade unionism most
savage in its humors.
4. The Estate of Stay-at-Home Negroes.
They go out of a region in which a full fourth of the Negro
farmers are landlords, not tenants and renters; where the ratio
of Negro farm ownership ranges from thirteen per cent of all
Negro farmers in Georgia to sixty-seven per cent in Virginia.
In North Carolina they own a third of all the farms they cul-
38
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
tivate, in Florida nearly half of them, in Oklahoma and Ken¬
tucky more than half of them, and in Maryland and Virginia
more than three-fifths of them. In fifteen counties of North
Carolina three-fourths of all the Negro farmers own the land
they cultivate. In Virginia there are fifty-eight such coun¬
ties. In my own home county, 89 per cent of the Negro dwell¬
ings are occupied by Negro owners.
In the South there are some two hundred million idle, wilder¬
ness acres. Land is abundant and relatively cheap. Here the
Negro has a maximum chance to become a home and farm
owner. And the avidity and rapidity with which he has seized
upon this chance is one of the most marvelous chapters in the
history of races in the tide of all the times. During the last
census period Negroes rose out of farm tenancy into farm own¬
ership in the various states of the South at rates ranging from
one and a half to five and a half times the rates of increase in
farm ownership by the whites.
Which is to say, in the country regions of the South where
the Negro is in great demand and the struggle for existence is
least intense, he is working out his own salvation in terms of
home and farm ownership. Homes and farms, barns, bank
balances, and business integrity are mighty bulwarks of de¬
fense for any man or any race.
Moreover the economic status of the Negro that stays at
home is immensely bettered by this movement. The public
mind already gives him a new value as a business asset. His
wages will be better. His tenant contract will be more advan¬
tageous. He will have better treatment as a customer in the
stores. His chance to own a home and farm will be greater,
because under these new conditions he will be able to save more
and to buy land at reasonable rates on favorable terms. Not
the least effect of decreasing farm labor will be the effect on
land values, and the stay-at-home Negro is close to the largest
chance he is ever again likely to have to own a home or farm
of his own.
In the South as nowhere else in all the world the Negro has
already won for himself a rare degree of liberty and security
on the basis of home and farm and personal-property owner¬
ship—not yet a full but a steadily increasing measure of liberty
and security.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
39
5. Liberty and Security Based on Home and
Farm Ownership.
And this brings me to the particular point of view that I
have in treating the subject assigned to me. My own phrasing
of this theme would have been somewhat in this wise: Home
and Farm Ownership, the Basis of Liberty and Security—
which turns the matter the other way about.
Neither in the South nor anywhere else in the world has the
Negro fully worked out his salvation as a race; but everywhere
it will be worked out in fear and trembling in terms of funda¬
mental economic sort—in terms of home and farm and per¬
sonal-property ownership. Whatever measure of economic
freedom the Negro wins will be the measure and mainspring
of such liberty and security he is ever likely to enjoy.
And this law is just as true for other races as it is for the
Negro race. Economic freedom is a measure of all freedom,
and without it democracy is an empty name, full of sound and
fury, signifying nothing. A landless, homeless people, white
or black, may be as they are in this country nominally free;
but in reality they are living on the level of economic serfdom
The man who owns little or nothing, whatever be his color, has
scant regard shown him in the daily walks of life, in business
circles, in courts and councils and legislative halls.
Civilization is rooted and grounded in the home-owning,
home-loving, home-defending instinct. The proverbs of the
early Anglo-Saxons finger the very tip of the taproot of the
matter. "The land is the man, No land, no man, Who owns the
land owns the man, The owners of land are the rulers of men,"
they said. The landlords of England and the Junkers of Ger¬
many have dominated these countries for a thousand years,
and they are the stubbornest forces to be reckoned with today
in England and central Europe.
I am often asked whether or not in my opinion the Southern
Negro has made headway in his fifty years of freedom. My
invariable answer is, Yes, to the extent that he has come into
the ownership of homes and farms, businesses, and bank bal¬
ances—to this extent and no further. And what he has achieved
in this way in a half century passes belief. Already he is lord
of a vast estate in the South. In the aggregate the land he
40
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
owns just about equals the area of South Carolina, while his
real estate and personal properties are worth around a billion
dollars. These facts mean that the Negro is establishing for
himself assured and enlarging safety on the basis of economic
independence. He has not yet reached the goal of untrammeled
freedom and unassailable security anywhere in the world—but
he is far along the way in the South—further indeed in the
South than anywhere else on the globe.
6. Christian Conscience.
So far I have been trying to get the subject reduced to terms
of common sense, as I see it. But there is something else to
say. While it is true that the Negro must win liberty and se¬
curity for himself by his own efforts through long periods of
time; that he must lift himself up by tugging at his own boot
straps, that he must bear his own burdens and work out his
own salvation in fear and trembling, it is also true that I must
help him bear these burdens, and decrease his fear and tremb¬
ling, and get a friendly lever under his boot heels, and struggle
in his behalf for the liberty and security that ought to be his
in a Christian land in the year of our Lord, 1917.
For my own soul's sake, I do not dare to lay Ephraim's curse
upon him and "let him alone" in his perplexities. I dare not
leave out of my scheme of philosophy or ethics or religion any
creature of God's, black or white, dumb or human.
Christian conscience is called to the task of giving the Negro
the very best possible school facilities and advantages; of se¬
curing for him exact and equal justice before the courts, and
humane treatment in our jails and convict camps; of housing
him in sanitary surroundings, and charging him fair rents for
the property he occupies; of settling him down on farms upon
fair long-term leases, and closing accounts with him in strict
honesty year by year; of helping him into the possession of
homes and farms of his own; of providing him with comforts
fully equal to those of all other travelers on our railroad lines;
of guarding his life with our own lives whenever mobs assem¬
ble to lynch him and along with him to lynch law and order and
society itself.
These are some but not all the duties that ought to challenge
even the most primitive Christian conscience. The well-being
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
41
of the Negro has not been a heavy burden of responsibility
upon our souls—either in the North or the South. And when
I say this "I chide no breather in the world more than myself
'gainst whom I know most faults," to borrow Orlando's words.
We have not been full of heaviness because of the sickness of
our Brother in Black. We have not been greatly disturbed
because he has been sitting in darkness and in the shadow of
death. We have not brought to the Negro's needs the spirit of
the Epistle to the Phillipians, or the Ten Commandments, or
the Sermon on the Mount. His liberty and security are more
and more in jeopardy as he moves about in this land of the free
and home of the brave. Race riots and lynchings North and
South are a denial of both Christianity and common humanity.
And it is time to bring to this and all other race problems a full
and courageous measure of vital religion.
Somebody once asked Beecher, whether or not Christianity
was a failure. "I don't know," he replied, "we have never
tried it." In my opinion we have never yet tried Christianity
real Christianity, the Christianity of the Christ himself—in
solving the problems of race relationships, or a hundred other
problems that rack the souls of men, and threaten the whole
world with ruin today.
"I am ready to admit," said George Bernard Shaw to a Lon¬
don audience some time ago, "that after contemplating human
nature for nearly sixty years I see no way out of the world's
misery but that which would have been found by Christ's will,
if he had undertaken the work of a modern practical states¬
man."
If George Bernard Shaw has seen a new light, I think we
may hope that the world may soon be ready to try out the
Master's way of life. And first of all that way is a way of
righteousness, said Hugh Black to our students the other night;
otherwise there can be no peace or joy for men or nations. And
it must be righteousness economic and social as well as civic,
all three, or we shall drop still deeper into the bottomless pit
of world-wreckage.
Mr. Jackson: I would like to ask Dr. Branson about the size of the
farms.
Dr. Branson: We are not cultivating too much. We have to change
the whole system. The per acre production is small.
42
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
Dr. W. H. Mills: It seems to me that in the ultimate analysis
in those things Dr. Branson has called our attention to, we
have a call, a summons, to the very highest social service. You heard
what Dr. Branson said about the supreme importance of land and home
ownership; you heard him quote the old Anglo Saxon saying "The land
is the man—no land, no man?" You heard his further weight of statistics
that the colored man is buying land. All that is perfectly true, and then
you listen to his statement that we as Christian men and women must sell
him the land. That is what it comes to. It means that the civilization of
the South is changing. It means that it makes it harder and harder and
harder for the white family in the South to maintain itself under present
tendency. I am perfectly free to say that I don't know how all this is
going to turn out. I believe with Dr. Branson that the colored man must
own the land and that as a landlord I must swallow my own prejudices
and the opposition of my neighbors and sell the colored man the bit of
land if he wants it. It makes it hard for me and for my white neighbors
but we must do it in the hope that ultimate good will come of it, but I
confess I cannot see the end.
The Chairman: I don't undertake to forecast just what our Southern
civilization may be. If 1 may say just a word—it is not all made up of
Negro majorities. That is largely true of the cotton belt,—that would be
true of about forty counties in North Carolina; but whether we want it so
or are minded to have it so or object to the Negro, it is the following out
of a fatal law; when two races side by side are struggling, the lower
always wins out against the superior race unless the superior race is
protected by superior skill, and so in the cotton belt, whether you approve
it, or I approve it, or like it, or however we struggle, the Negro is winning
out under the law. That has happened in the coal fields and the silk mills
in New England,—that they have been shoved out. I don't know what
that means in the providence of God.
Dr. Jones: I some years ago made a study of the East Side in New
York City. For five years I kept one side of a city block under intimate
observation, and I found that there was a very regular change in popula¬
tion. First that block had been occupied by Irish, then came along the
Jews and the Irish went to the better parts of the city, got better jobs,
and the Jews had just come from Europe; then the Jews went on up and
when the Jewish people had gone on up higher the Italians moved in; so I
think the white people are moving on up in the same way. I made some
careful observations as to the Negroes during the last census. In the
border states such as Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland, quite a large
number of counties actually lost in Negro population; Kentucky 8 per cent
loss in Negro population. In the black belt of Alabama, where I made
intensive study, I found comparatively few registration areas—counties
were divided into registraton areas for the purpose of registration,—
there were very few in which Negroes had increased. They had moved
southward in less populous sections just as white people had done. In
the border states the whites and Negroes didn't move the same way. The
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
43
whites increased and the Negroes decreased in the border states, but in
the black belt the Negroes and the whites moved exactly the same way,—
where one decreased both decreased and corresponding figures made the
same per cent. The property that they acquire is a great hope for their
future, but the amount compared with the amount that the white people
own is so comparaively small that I cannot see that here will be any
trouble about adjustment and it will be so gradual that white people
won't suffer. With this increased migration North, the North will have
contact with the problem, and I think the race is going to be scattered
and that all will have a hand in the problem to work it out.
44 Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
THIRD SESSION
Sunday Morning, August 5.
RELIGION THE BASIS OF RESPECT FOR PERSONALITY
J. L. KESLER, BAYLOR UNIVERSITY, WACO TEXAS.
Waiving aside every metaphysical consideration as not per¬
tinent to the purpose of our present inquiry, religion, deeply
planted in our nature and our necessities, includes a sense of
God and a sense of human conduct. It also includes as a
fundamental asset, a sense of human values. "What doth the
Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with thy God?" Men have always loved
right and done wrong, worshipped truth and followed false
gods, been conscious of reality and substituted fictitious sac¬
rifices. Every great prophet brings us back face to face with
reality, every great movement, every great event. Micah
speaks to-day's message to to-day's men because he touches
life where men live it, where men feel it, where men share it.
It is written in the constitution of the universe and in our¬
selves: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do
ye even so to them." The centre and the soul of all right
religion is here set forth. It anchors in the Infinite. It beaches
on the human shore. It invades the conscience. It penetrates
personality and fits it for the social task. It functions as
feeling and passion for democracy. It is the norm and con¬
stitution and guide to both the individual and the community.
It is the law of life. It is what Carey in his Past, Present and
Future calls "The great law of Christianity, which requires
that every man shall respect in others those rights of person
and property which he desires others to respect in himself."
Religion in its nature has a just regard and appreciation
for those qualities and excellences which constitute personality,
and its chief concern is not only to conserve them, but to
produce them. It is not only passive respect for personality
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
45
and life as the basis of a community of interest and well being,
it is the active agent in life's ministries and mercies in life's
crusade for life. Religion is a concrete, living thing. It ex¬
hibits itself in the realities of a fine life. It is personal. It
interpenetrates the feelings. It dominates the will. It lifts
the horizon. It breaks bounds. Palestine cannot hold it. Nor
race, nor color, nor climate shall shut in its ample sky. It
discovers and reveals the dignity and amplitude of human
dimensions. As Bishop Brent says, "The only relationship
big enough for any one man is all the rest of mankind."
"What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how
infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and ad¬
mirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how
like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!"
(Hamlet.)
Religion holds life itself sacred and inviolable, and will not
invade uninvited the sacred precincts of personality where
God alone meets life's high priest face to face in her holy of
holies. In a word, religion makes a man a gentleman.
And yet as we face "all the rest of mankind" to-day, what
a welter of wickedness and blood! The cries of the world
are tragic. A great unrest smoulders and threatens with
suppressed violence and volcanic fires. Rupture and unreason
hold humanity in hostile camps, while vengeance and slaughter
wreak their wreckage with unabated fury. The deep disallu-
sionments breaking forth from the weird storm of a world
war confuse and paralyze the participants and threaten the
stability if not the very existence of our political and indus¬
trial order. The ferment is already brewing in our social vats.
The storms break fearfully on the high seas. The tides run
wild. The great deep is broken up. The clouds are black, and
turbulence and deep darkness cover the sky. Men are being
lost and the progress of the centuries sunk in the wild waste
of waters, because men forget God and hate one another.
Wherever love is, there is righteousness and peace. Wherever
hate is, there is crime and war. Life fails because love is lost.
Personality does not count because hate is blind. The nations
do not understand each other, and individuals are as blind as
the nations. Racial prejudices grope in futilities and shadows
of lost perspectives and half remembered wrongs. Class aver-
46
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
sions, labor and capital, the partizan spirit can neither see nor
hear. While we sit complacent under our own vine and fig-
tree, knives are whetting for human throats. Hate is blind
and stumbles into pitfalls, and writhes in the toils of its own
fatalities like a coiling brood of Egyptian vipers, and odious
life looks out into starless night. "How can God stand it!"
For all this chaos and catastrophe there is but one sunrise. It
is love—a great brotherliness in which not a single human
being is left out, however wretched or of whatever race.
"He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there
is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his
brother is in the darkness, and walketh in the darkness, and
knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath
blinded his eyes. . . . We know that we have passed out
of death into life, because we love our brothers. He that loveth
not abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a mur¬
derer : and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding
in him Let us love one another: for love is of God;
and everyone that loveth is a son of God and knoweth God:
for God is love If we love one another, God abideth
in us, and his love is perfected in us God is love,
and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth
in him If a man say, I love God, and hateth his
brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom
he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen.....
He who loveth God loveth his brother also." (First Epistle of
John.) It is inevitable.
Love alone can heal life's sores or break the long and tragic
night of its weltering gloom.
In order that we may realize how the Christian religion
looks after the details of the individual life on the human and
social plane, I read from high authority:
"Let love be without pretense. Abhor that which is evil;
cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to
another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another;
not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
rejoicing in the hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant
in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; given to
hospitality. Bless them that persecute you: bless and curse
not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
47
that weep Provide beautiful things in the sight of
all men If thine enemy hunger, feed him: if he
thirst, give him drink." To obey this command in time of
war would stamp us traitors. War in its nature is absolutely
incompatible with Christianity. One is the fruit of love, the
other the fruit of hate. You cannot have one without love;
you cannot have the other without hate.
"Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute; custom
to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
Owe no man anything but to love one another; for he that
loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not
commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal,
Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and
if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended
in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the ful¬
filling of the law." (Romans.)
Religion requires more than to be "holy, harmless, and un-
defiled." "Ye have heard that it hath been said, 'Thou shalt
love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.' But I say unto you,
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and
persecute you Be ye, therefore, perfect even as your
Father in heaven is perfect."
Religion not only holds inviolable all human life, but con¬
tracts under high terms to save it and minister to its comfort
under all conditions of lacerating irritations. These are not
dreams. They are insights into life and requirements for
conduct.
What, then, is Christianity? (for we are to consider religion
in terms of its highest expression). It has been heralded as
grace from the Greek word, Xapis, till we forget it as a
function and think of it as a fetish. The word means joy,
charm, beauty, from the Greek word, x<npw, to rejoice,—
free, to be sure, a thing for which a thought of a purchase
or bargain is an impertinence no more to be bought in the
market place than smiles and laughter—a quality of the nature
in the renewal of its hope at the fountain, a self-discovery and
an overflowing fellowship. Christianity is righteousness,
peace, joy. It is the more abundant life. It is a bigness and
48
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
brotherliness and magnanimity. It is a stimulus to all the
embryonic possibilities of a splendid personality. It makes life
loom large, and links it on to peerless purposes and friendly
pursuits. It prophesies and projects a limitless hope and an
endless life. It is an incurable affection for the good and an
inevitable aspiration after excellence. Truth and beauty make
to it a perfect appeal. It is the happiest because the helpfullest
life. It is the biggest because the best. It looks up and king¬
doms rise. It lifts its right arm and careers spring up by the
streams of enterprise. We are co-workers with the Infinite.
It adds no burdens but love, and no labor but service and
satisfaction. It breaks upon life as beautiful as streaks of
dawn through morning clouds. It fits like a garment the body
of our life. It feeds like a food the hungers of our heart. We
drink it like a cordial of a thirsty morning, feel it like a hope
at noontide, and in the evening time it is as sweet as honey
while the couch awaits us under sleeping stars. And instead
of casting aside the wretched, it turns an undiscourageable
optimism to their relief: the lowest are made better, the weak
grow strong, the bad become good, the sick are healed, the
lame walk, the blind see, all this according to nature under the
healing power which science has provided and which Chris¬
tianity is to make prevail. The law of the jungle is that the fit
survive; the law of religion to make as many as possible fit.
It is both a conserving and constructive force.
Religion is everywhere. It is in the play. It stands forth
boldly for the square deal. It finds itself in the enthusiasm
and sturdy devotion to the honest task well done. It looks out
on honor and all kindly ministries born of a spontaneous and
affectionate generosity. It leaps for joy at the first spring
flower, the rich songs and splendors of summer weather, the
snows of winter, the bracing breeze of a frosty morning—all
nature's splendid exhibitions of beauty and wonder and power,
and the marvels of the painter's brush in the centuries of art.
"That is the true light that lighteth every man that cometh
into the world," and that is the true Christian that responds
to it all. It turns every act of the democracy of life into
parables of beauty, health, and responsible living. It ties men
on to the community. It makes life conscious of its solidarity
and the social function of life conservations. "No man liveth
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
49
to himself." Even so religion is life and sharing, and every
moment mingles it with daily ministries of the commonest
things, as in the parables of Jesus and the sermon on the
mount.
What sort of religion am I talking about? Not analytical
and compulsory, full of detail and burden like the ritual of
the Pharisees: but synthetical and ethical like the religion of
Jesus. Not God corralled and itemized like the pettifogging
of a middle age monk; but taken for granted like the Hebrew
prophets. Not saying as Caesar did of Gaul on the very first
page, God is divided into three parts, and proceed to give each
its particular location and boundary; but with the hungers of
life and its instincts for prayer, with the psalmist, "As the
hart panteth after the waterbrooks." Not locating some geo¬
graphical spot called heaven, or determining the particular
qualities of the devil's personality, or locating on the map his
exact dwelling place with weather report and temperature;
but, on the contrary, feeling and responding to those funda¬
mental ethical appeals inseparable from life, involving not
chiefly curiosity but conscience, the ethical and aesthetic
temper, the motive, the will, the whole responsible personal¬
ity—the religion of sympathy and love which feels the social
burden and the social contract and ministry as a general serv¬
ice to humanity.
Life wants no mechanics and logic chopping about the
Infinite. Nor will it endure without impatience the ignorance
which, with vandal hands, keeps partitioning and defining the
invisible and eternal. It wants reality. It feeds on experi¬
ence. It feels. Its instincts respond when life's chords are
touched. It believes in religion that inheres in life, a great
throbbing concrete thing—not an abstract dogma, a vortex of
ratiocinations and syllogisms, not a notion or any number of
notions, but a life. "In Him was life, and the life was the light
of men." Religion, all right religion, seeks to produce and to
make prevail the ideal life in all individuals and in every com¬
munity, to heal the breaches of brotherhood and extract the
fangs of injustice, to put love and care in the place of indiffer¬
ence and hate, to put co-operation in the place of competition,
to put good will into the social organism, its laws of justice, its
punitive and corrective procedure, its life.
50
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
In the case of the United States against Reynolds, the su¬
preme court declared that religion had to do only with the
relations of men to "an ultra-mundane Being." On the con¬
trary, I declare that religion not only has inter-human rela¬
tions, but that these are typical and constant—"Inasmuch as
ye did it to the least of these," for example,—and that all of
its virtues are virtues by reason of their ministry to human
life.
When one thinks of our industrial history, the strikes and
lockouts, mobs and dynamite, competitive bitterness and deep
injustice, wretchedness and poverty that dare not ask a crumb
of the bread they heap on the rich man's table, haggard hunger
lank with pain, our international jugglery and the present
unspeakable war, mobs that take from courts of justice Negro
criminals to burn them in our streets and add to crime a
blacker stain on white men's hands, and East St. Louis, in
time of peace, than which no spot of Europe has sunk more
deep beneath the brute in time of war,—when one thinks of
these things, it would seem, that claiming to be Christian na¬
tions, we have acted on the judges' decision, namely, that re¬
ligion has to do only with an "ultra mundane Being," and has
nothing whatsoever to do with or for humanity.
According to Dr. Votaw of Chicago University: "Religion,
as interpreted by Jesus and by all Christianity that has been
faithful to his teaching, and by the Hebrew prophets upon
whom he built, means reverence, trust, obedience, faithfulness,
industry, sincerity, honesty, truthfulness, justice, purity,
honor, kindness, sympathy, helpfulness, health, happiness. .
. . . For all these qualities and acts the actual teachings of
Jesus can be cited, and his own example shown. These quali¬
ties and acts, therefore, set forth the ideal life which religion
at its best proposes."
Now this is the kind of religion, not extra-mundane, but
intra-mundane, that we have got to get into our citizens:—not
abstract metaphysical mystical dreams, however beautiful, or
assumptions and professions which, as Tolstoi says, have
nothing to do with our lives, but terrestrial human obligation
and responsibility, respect for personality, and the holding
sacred and inviolable human life. We are our brother's
keeper, and brother's blood, from the first to the last warm,
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
51
weltering victim this tragic moment, cries out from the ground
against individual, mob, and national murder.
To find out a people's religion we must find out what kind
of men it produces—look for its reaction on life. If our re¬
ligion cannot make better men of us, a better community, a
better country, then we had better get another religion. For
our religion is futile, if not vicious, unless it accomplish this.
That country which has the best religion is going to make
civilization's best record. The best Christian is the best man,
the best neighbor, the best citizen; for Christianity inheres in
manhood, in neighborliness, in citizenship in both their char¬
acter and function at their best.
I was in a church the other day. Poor wretches, supersti¬
tious and degraded, bowed at the altars. That religion should
bring the wretched to its communion is fine, but that it should
leave them so is its final condemnation. Religion-—all right
religion-—loves everything that helps life and hates everything
that hurts it; not only respects life, but feels life's values and
lifts it and looks after its welfare.
I lived in another state. Men had moved to town and put
their children into the night brigade of the cotton mills. I saw
the little things the first time they ever came to Sunday school
—wild and strange—not used to the day nor human beings,
other than their daily round of drudgery. Pale, emaciated,
and sad-faced, exploited, the dear little things had lived like
night birds in the shadows, and had gone to sleep when the
sun and the flowers came out. Their fathers spent their time,
as I happened to know, lounging about the streets or at the
saloon. Religion cannot stand for that. Religion must right
that. Where fatherhood so far forgets itself as to exploit and
defeat the life of the child, religion takes it up to defend and
minister to its necessities, to insure it the right to a fair
chance, because religion respects life and stands for life's
opportunities and possibilities; and most of all, it must lift
helpless childhood's handicaps, and in so doing save the com¬
munity's greatest interest and asset.
Again, wherever there is a lack of respect, whether of race
or class, virtue is in peril. The religion of Jesus fills all life—
all races, all colors, all classes—with hope, with filiations of
brotherhood and fellowship. Jesus loved all, lived for all, died
52
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
for all. None were too high, and none too low for His divine
society. He snatched life from its perils, lifting it and incor¬
porating in consciousness the higher values and dignities and
possibilities of all the human relations, seeing in the lowest
divine qualities to make us stand in awe of the violation of
their integrity. Respect, first of all, for self and second for
men and women everywhere as human beings, with a sense of
religious values, is the basis of democracy and safety.
This country is an essentially lawless country. In a single
city eighty leading citizens were indicted for fraud at the
ballot box, and twenty-eight, as I remember, sentenced to the
penitentiary; in other places whole counties involved; and
stuffed ballot boxes in the South justified on the ground of
necessity by men who are political and religious leaders; graft
in high places manifold; violence and murder unspeakable.
Among the leading nations we stand first in wanton destruc¬
tion of human life. In a single city of a hundred thousand the
homicides average more than one a week, and yet this city does
not bear the record for murder. America, after excluding the
crimes of the Negro race, commits more homicides per capita
than Spain, France, or Italy, twice as many as Canada or
Australia, six times as many as England and Scotland, twelve
times as many as Germany, the country bearing the noblest
record for law and order, the protection of human life, and
provision for the social and industrial life of its people.
The murders in the South per capita have been greatly in
excess of other parts of our country, nor is this excess due
alone to the Negro population. In thirty-one years there have
been nearly four thousand mob murders, and three-fourths of
them were in the South. This is not due simply to non-enforce¬
ment of law. Violence and the general lack of self-restraint
manifest themselves in trivial as well as grave matters. It
belongs to the temper and constitution of a considerable ele¬
ment of our people. Unfortunately, they do not all belong to
the submerged tenth. There is a large class, who, while taking
no active part in the villainy of the mob, feel no indignation
against it, who would actually help to start it, like a dog fight,
to follow and see the fun. Certainly it does not bear testimony
to the effectiveness of our religion as a social asset.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
53
What is to be done? Many things external and legal, many
things educational and social, but many things religious also.
In the first place, we need a new brand of religion—the brand
of Jesus—a religion which puts a new value on human life;
a religion which has a larger bulk of moral qualities; a religion
which sees in every man a brother regardless of race, or color,
or class or country; a religion in which self-restraint becomes
less necessary because love is imminent and dominant; a re¬
ligion in which selfishness does not play the chief role in its
evangelism and salvation; a religion in which retaliation, the
seed of mob spirit, is eliminated; a religion which has poise
and which loves men bad to make them good, wrong to make
them right, down to lift them up, sick to make them well, blind
to give them sight, lame to heal, and which like the religion
of the Master, makes men forget themselves in life's supreme
sacrifice for others—for others whether friends or foes. The
spirit that would save itself and forget others, the spirit that
loves others last, is the anti-christian spirit. The spirit that
forgets self, gives itself for others, lives for them, dies for
them, is the Christian spirit. He that would save others is
already saved, though unconscious of it. He that would save
himself is already lost, though he does not know it. He who
is supremely unconscious of the social obligation, who knows
the truth and lives a lie, who by nightly prayers expects to
break the clutch that binds him to his beastliness, shall find
that even his selfish prayers, however pious, or his assurance,
however satisfying, only facilitate his passage to Gehenna.
There is a point on the South side of England called the
Lizard. From times of old more ships passed around that
point than any other, and moreover, it was a dangerous coast.
Sir John Kellgrew went to King James the First and besought
him that a lighthouse be set up there for the comfort and
safety of the seamen. James referred it to the Nautical Com¬
mittee. This committee reported that it was "neither con¬
venient nor necessary." Whereupon James reported to Sir
John Killgrew that he might put up the lighthouse at his own
charges, which thing Sir John Killgrew immediately pro¬
ceeded to do. It was not long till his pious neighbors made
great complaint against him, charging that he had taken away
from them their living which God had vouchsafed to them as
54
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
an ancestral right of long time standing by the wreckage of
the sea. The lighthouse was torn down and for three genera¬
tions they lived and thanked their God for the privilege of the
spoils of human life that drifted shoreward from the wreckage
of the storm.
Today there stands a great lighthouse with fifteen million
candle-power sweeping out across the stormy waters, on either
side are great Marconi wireless machines sending and receiv¬
ing messages for life's safety, while an undersea bell strikes its
deep thunder tones, heard sixteen miles away, as a warning
voice to wireless ships.
Such a contrast as this represents the transition from our
present attitude and religion to drifting life in its perils today,
to the attitude and religion that must come to provide for life's
safety. Today our pious individualistic religion, if it does not
exploit, it at least does not keep its members from appropriat¬
ing life's wreckage; if it does not cause, it at least does not
prevent as much as it might, the waste of life from accident
and industry and vicious tendencies of resentment and retali¬
ation. Religion must become Christian.
Our civilization is constituted on the competitive basis, that
is to say, the law of the jungle. A fight for supremacy is
organic in its method and motive, individually, socially, indus¬
trially, economically. War is incorporate in the present world
order. Wherever it is prevented the hot lava of violence breaks
forth in destructive streams. All of this must be changed by
the Christianity of Jesus, which is social, which puts co-opera¬
tion and love in the place of competition and hate. The whole
body politic in its relations, individual, national, international,
must be Christianized, must be reorganized around a new
centre of life values, a new aim of life's supreme conservations,
a new method of working together, a new motive and basis of
brotherhood whose life at the heart of it all is the life of Jesus.
Religion must turn the world, as it stands today, upside down
in order to get it right-side up. Our problems will never be
solved until we get right religion into life. Then will come the
reign of peace on earth, good will to men, and not till then.
Then life will be safe anywhere, for every man everywhere
will be its constituted guardian.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which? 55
FOURTH SESSION
Sunday Afternoon, August 5.
The meeting was called to order by the Chairman pursuant to adjourn¬
ment, at 2.30 Sunday afternoon, August 5.
The Chairman: Mrs. Arch Trawick of Nashville, Tenn., will now
speak on the subject, "Exposure of Womanhood Through Lynching."
THE EXPOSURE OF WOMANHOOD THROUGH
LYNCHING.
KATE HERNDON TRAWICK.
Lynching, the darkest blot on our civilization, impresses me
as a tragedy of assumptions.
At the risk of wearying you with repetition of the statements
of other speakers, whose subjects I did not know and whose
papers I have not heard, I wish to review a few of the facts
that underlie the special phase I am asked to present.
Our first assumption is that all criminals are normal men, •
endowed with normal intelligence and feeling, and that they
commit their crimes consciously, being prompted thereto by
their unrestrained desire for evil.
Sexual crimes and crimes of fraud are specific crimes of
advanced civilization. They indicate an absence of pity, shame,
and honor, lack of self-control and habits of industry.
The criminality of the rich takes the form of cunning, that
of the poor the form of violence. Crime in country districts is
more barbarous than in cities.
We speak of the Negroes who commit the worst crimes as
belonging to the "confirmed criminal" class. That class is
known as horn criminals, criminally insane, or moral lunatics.
They can not be judged by the standards that are applied to
normal people, because as a rule they are not mentally and mor¬
ally normal. Again, a criminal, according to Walter F. Wilcox,
is one who refuses to obey the laws under which he lives. Obe¬
dience is not a natural instinct, but a product of training, es-
56
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
pecially in the home and the school. The average Negro has a
very defective training in both places, and Negro criminals (as
of other races) are most often under thirty years of age.
The second assumption, dear to the public mind, is that mob-
violence is a remedy or a cure for crime and wrong doing.
Does lynching prevent crime ? If it is a deterrent in any com¬
munity, or is any good to the community, it should be legalized.
If it is not a deterrent, lynching should be abolished, for other¬
wise it has no justification anywhere, for any crime. For
every black criminal put to death at the hands of a mob, hun¬
dreds of white criminals are made. Lynching for one crime
leads to lynching for others, and furnishes grounds for an ap¬
peal to public sentiment to condone the practice. It is resorted
to to terrorize and restrain, but instead it rouses race prejudice
and deepens race hatred. The power of criminal suggestion is
so great that lynching serves as an incentive rather than a re¬
straint. Often after a public lynching, there are new and atro¬
cious outbreaks in the same neighborhood, aggravated by racial
antagonism and suspicion. Cutler tells of a Negro who wit¬
nessed a lynching and assaulted a white woman on his way
home.
There is no doubt that the attitude of Negroes to the Negro
criminal is too protective and that of whites too retaliatory.
Indiscriminate attacks by the white people encourage indis¬
criminate defense and self-protection. The Negroes need to
realize that the protection of criminals means the demoraliza¬
tion of society. So say we all, and the white people must cease
to condone lynching and stop the protection of lynchers.
If it is true that society has the number and kind of crimi¬
nals it deserves, we must assume our responsibility for our
criminal classes and stop throwing stones—both North and
South.
As long as the white man over-rides the law with impunity,
we must expect to find in the Negro the spirit of desperation,
vindictiveness and reprisal. Equality before the law and a
law founded on common sense, suited to human society of the
20th century, administered by a reconstructed, efficient, honest
judiciary, will mean the salvation of the South.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
57
Our third assumption is that Negro men are the only ones
who ever commit rape and that the crime is one of recent years
only.
As a proof of the antiquity of this crime, Kelly Miller cites
us to the Old Testament.
It is well known that rapeful assult has been known since
the earliest civilization and is a more or less common practice
among all races and people.
It has not been possible in the very limited time allowed me
for preparation to get accurate statistics of other countries.
The crime of rape occurs oftenest in England and France dur¬
ing the hot months. Heat and crime against persons make an
almost complete parallel. In England and Wales, during a
period of nine years, there were 758 convictions for rape on
children. In the same countries, in 1887, 878 prisoners were
convicted for rape. The yearly average number of cases of
rape on children in France was 698. In one year (1874) there
were 850 convictions for rape.
Lombroso's figures for Italy are an annual average of six¬
teen cases of rape for every 100,000 of the population. The
11th census returns in United States show 814 white prisoners
convicted for rape. In 1914 there were 620 commitments—450
white and 170 colored. The number of rapes by Negroes was
1.8 per 100,000 of the population. Rape by whites was 0.6
per 100,000 of the population.
Cases of foreign born 1.0 per 100,000 population.
Cases of Italians (in U. S.) 5.3 per 100,000 population.
Cases of Mexicans (in U. S.) 4.8 per 100,000 population.
Cases of Austrians (in U. S.) 3.2 per 100,000 population.
Cases of Hungarians (in U. S.) 2.0 per 100,000 population.
In Africa rape is almost unknown, and when it occurs it is
visited with the severest punishment.
In this country, from 1619 on, there was always more or
less racial antipathy. Several colonies—Massachusetts, Mary¬
land, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, and
others—had laws that inflicted swift and severe punishment
on Negroes who assaulted white women. The rigorous re¬
straints of slavery, combined with the industrial training,
served in great measure to prevent crime of all kinds.
58
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
The abolition of slavery was followed by a deepening of race
prejudice in both races.
As a result of the Reconstruction Period, habits of lawless¬
ness became fixed in both races. The number of assaults in¬
creased with the general increase in criminality of the Negroes,
and the Ku Klux Klan has found worthy successors in the
White Caps, Night Riders, and similar groups of self-consti¬
tuted regulators. Evans says that in the South, as in South
Africa, the crime has become more frequent since the races
mixed together in every day life on the same plane, and since
the black man was freed from control.
We are warned by Miller and others that grave injustice
will be done if we fasten this crime with particular emphasis
upon the Negro. It makes a settled life and development im¬
possible for the race. No people will permit a race of poten¬
tial rapists to live in their midst. No individual of Negro
blood, no matter how worthy his life and character, can escape
the taint of racial reputation. No race should be condemned
as a whole because of the sins of a small proportion of its
number.
The loyalty of the Negro men to the white women of the
South during the Civil War should forever make impossible
the belief that rape is a racial failing of this people.
The next attempt at justification of mob violence is in the
assumption that chivalry is the underlying motive and that
all lynchings are in punishment of real, attempted and alleged
assaults on women.
The appeal to chivalry is the main prop of the defenders of
lynching. It is the same sort of chivalry that denies to woman
the right to vote, to think, to work, to develop initiative any¬
where save in a man-regulated and relegated sphere. From
1885-1916, 3,693 persons were lynched. From 1884 to 1900,
51 women were lynched. Is this chivalry? Not more than
34 per cent of the entire number of lynchings was for criminal
assault. From 1882 to 1903 the average number of lynchings
for rape was 32. Since then the number has fallen below 20.
In 1915, 11 persons, or 15 per cent of the total of 65, were
lynched for rape.
In 1916, 55 persons were lynched, 23 for murder, 5 for rape,
7 for attempt to rape, 1 for rape and murder.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
59
From 1882 to 1905 lynchings occurred in every State, ex¬
cept three or four of the New England group. For a number
of years, Georgia has had the unenviable distinction of lead¬
ing with about 25 per cent of the total number annually.
The prevalence of lynching in the South complicates every
phase of the race problem. It deepens the hatred of the whites
for the Negroes—for we always hate those we wrong. It
causes the Negroes to hate the whites, for it is difficult to love
those who despitefully use us and persecute us.
Murphy says: "The criminal Negro, is a baneful and
destructive social force, small in number, and out of all propor¬
tion in morbid and unfortunate importance—because of his
often abnormal and abhorent crimes." As to the motive of the
crimes, authorities differ.
In the popular mind, attacks upon women are attacks upon
the integrity of the race, and are not only occasions of per¬
sonal offense, but of racial humiliation. This is frequently so
meant by the criminal and so understood by the community.
The whites answer horror with horror, lawlessness with law¬
lessness. W. P. Livingstone says: "This crime is primarily
one of race reprisal, because of the miseries and wrongs the
Negroes have suffered. In the case of criminal assault, they
know that such a form of retaliation touches the whites to the
quick."
Kelly Miller adds: "The criminals and outlaws of the Negro
race, who care nothing for life or death, may thus be hardened
into a resolve of revenge, and lie waiting to strike the hated
race where the blow will be most keenly felt."
Tillinghast argues that this crime has come into existence
since the Civil War. Its perpetrators in most cases are over¬
come by primitive passions, which master the criminal's whole
being, and there is present at the same time a great fear which
leads to murder.
Murphy says: "The peculiar horror of the crime, the sense
of race injury it rouses, the protection of the guilty by the in¬
nocent, produces a degree of emotional intensity and a state
of social hysteria not to be understood save by those who have
endured the experience."
Our next assumption is that lynching protects women from
the ordeal of publicity. Nothing could be more fatuous than
60
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
this statement. Under pretext of moral duty, and with no
danger of later accountability, the mob finds an outlet for the
exercise of deep seated race prejudice and hostility.
We have already said that the spreading abroad of the de¬
tails of cases of assault makes the crime worse through the
power of suggestion. Mob violence increases by the workings
of this same law of suggestion. Henry Bushnell Hart thinks
that the worst enemies of the white women are the black brute,
and the Buzzard Journalist who publishes name, place and
gruesome details of the revolting crime.
Where is the Southern chivalry and respect for womanhood,
when we allow every item of the story to be given to a gloating
public, and when we condemn the victim to life sentence of
humiliation because she feels that she is known and branded?
A trial by law could be quiet, dignified and behind closed
doors. The victim may be given a chance to recover some¬
thing of bodily and mental poise. There is no privacy nor
respect for personality about a mob when a crowd of rough,
curious, morbid, inflamed, often strange men forces its way
into the wretchedness of the desecrated home, dragging in sus¬
pected Negroes for identification. Where is the protection and
the lack of publicity? Her home is invaded, the woman her¬
self is gazed on in her hour of agony by rude and prying eyes.
Under such condition she is called on to pass sentence of death
on a human being. Whether she wants to tell the truth is of
course a question that depends upon other matters. Whether
she can tell depends upon her perception and memory, both of
which may prove to be unreliable under the great strain. All
are familiar with the fact that the testimony of young girls
is often untrustworthy and that its acceptance has led to grave
and cruel mistakes. Great emotional shocks produce an ab¬
normal mental state, and it is quite possible that the supposed
identified criminal is not the guilty man. (The case of Joseph
Glenn of Georgia (1907) proves this statement. He was posi¬
tively identified by the woman assaulted, but a fair and speedy
trial established his innocence and found the real criminal.)
What is the value of a woman's evidence or verdict under
these circumstances? "Men who have seen it," according to
Murphy, "call it a crude, ignorant, cruel travesty of justice.
A crime so personal, so domestic, so abnormal, so unutterably
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
61
infamous, barbaric, degenerate, unthinkable, can have no per¬
fect instrument for its punishment, but the court is the best
we have. The mob violates the canons of chivalry it presumes
to guard, thrusts on the victim an added martyrdom of pub¬
licity, increases by criminal suggestion the crime it has under¬
taken to prevent, takes the chance will of a minority for the
legal processes of the majority and becomes a peril to justice
and freedom."
There is another phase of the exposure of womanhood.
One of the most difficult tasks in psychological investigation
is the judgment of woman. Woman is not only physically
and psychically rather different from man, man never is able
wholly and completely to put himself in her place. Men lack
the avenues of approach to the nature of woman. There is no
parallel between woman and man, and the greatest mistakes
in the field of criminal law have been made where the conclu- •
sions have been correct if the woman had been a man.
Anatomists, historians, theologians, poets and philosophers
testify to the difference between men and women. Woman is
different in appearance, in manner of observation, judgment,
sensation desire, efficacy—and it is a mistake to count her
testimony as that of man. The present age is trying to set
aside the differences in sex and level them, but it forgets that
the law of causation is valid here also (Gross).
Men can not attain to a proper knowledge of us because they
were never women, and we can never tell them the truth be¬
cause we were never men. It is not easy for us to tell anybody.
the truth. Concealment.is almost a law of our being. Men
are fond of telling us that we are governed by our emotions,
while man is dominated by his intellect. The experience of
ages is expressed in maxims, legal differences, usage and pro¬
verbs. "Give the woman wings and she is either an angel or
a beast" still holds.
A mob has been defined as an emotionally insane crowd, fre¬
quently excited by drunkards or lunatics.
Through imitation or suggestion, criminality, insanity and
hallucination become epidemic in a mob. The suggestion of
hysteria is shown in the spread of the mob spirit. We are
familiar with its manifestations in prisons, boarding schools
62
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
and other places. Woman takes small part in revolutions, but
large part in revolts.
In popular epidemics of passion and excitement, women far
surpass men in their extravagant exaltation of obscenity and
cruelty. We are familiar with the feminine love of sensational
trials at court, of the daily papers reports of them, and of pub¬
lic executions. (Review our History of the French Revolu¬
tion.) Until public executions ceased in Austria, women were
always the great majority of the crowd that witnessed them.
At trials, women of the higher classes make up the auditors
and spectators. At public executions and lynchings, women
of the lower class predominate. Here the movement is clear
enough from eagerness and curiosity through the desire for
vigorous nervous stimulation, to hard-heartedness and unde¬
niable cruelty.
Lombroso says that woman's inclination to cruelty is funda¬
mental. Schopenhauer says that injustice is the fundamental
feminine defect. There are frequent remarkable mixtures of
kindness of heart with real bestiality. Stolle says a woman
seeking revenge is capable of anything. Feminine hatred is
much intenser than masculine. Moreover, nobody finds greater
joy in revenge than a woman.
The recent burning of Ell Parsons, rapist and murderer at
Memphis (in May 1917), is a vivid illustration of the double
exposure of womanhood, through lynching.
The mother of the dead girl stopped at nothing to bring
about the lynching of this man. It is stated that she courted
publicity and notoriety and in hysterical frenzy urged the men
to the most cruel tortures possible. The burning was a public
spectacle, attended by hundreds of women and children. A
woman store-keeper said to a friend of mine, "I would not
have missed that burning for anything in the world. I stood
so close to the Negro I could touch him, and I cut off a piece of
his shirt as a keepsake." In proof thereof she produced the
square of cloth, and my friend was horrified at the almost
fiendish satisfaction she got from the thought of the auto-da-fe.
Laroux says: "If criminals were left to women they would
kill them all in the first burst of anger, and if one waited till
this burst had subsided, they would release them all." Grosse
says that the killing points to the easy excitability, the pas-
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
63
sionateness and instinctive sense of justice in women, which
demands immediate revenge for evil. The liberation points
to the fact that women are afraid of every energetic deduction
of ultimate consequences, i. e., they have no knowledge of real
justice. Women are naturally more highly emotional than
men and as a rule have less training than men, hence this state¬
ment may be in a general sense true. If it be true, mob vio¬
lence is a graver danger to women than to men.
The conduct of women of the 20th century, at public lynch-
ings, proves that the ferocity of women exceeds that of men.
The race riot at East St. Louis, July 2 and 3, had many hap¬
penings that have not yet found their way into public print.
All those with a first hand knowledge of the tragedy, agree
that the number of killed and wounded has been much under
estimated. We read that well dressed white women pulled de¬
fenseless old Negro women off the street cars, and beat them
badly with any instrument they found within reach. Women
committed such unspeakable atrocities that it is not safe to
repeat what eye witnesses have told us.
Other public lynchings where women took part have been
reported by various writers. George Wite was burned in Del¬
aware with hundreds of women and children present. Henry
Smith, at Paris, Texas, was tortured with red hot irons. Ex¬
cursion trains were run from the surrounding country, and
women and children attended in large numbers. In 1908
Luther Herbert and his wife were burned in the presence of
throngs of people, many of whom were women and children.
In these, and other recent happenings, we have seen the fires
of race hatred fanned into a fury of flame. The collective soul
is less sensitive than the conscience of the individual. And
the souls of women are stirred by the suggestion of hatred
and bloodshed as a famished beast by the sight of his prey.
There are certain causes underlying all this race feeling on
the part of white women, whose frank discussion is justified
by the seriousness of the situation.
For generations the white women of the South have kept
silence on the subject of racial integrity. In its violations
they have suffered much and long, and underneath the pain
and humiliation has grown a feeling of hatred and bitterness
toward the Negro women who have seemed often to glory in
64
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
the shame of their illicit relations with white men. The Negro
woman for her part, remembers the unnumbered assaults
made by white men for centuries upon the women of her race.
She sees the unequal contest, where the woman surrenders,
because she lacks the moral strength, the economic safety, or
the wish to prevail.
The women of both races have much to forgive the Southern
white man. Insult has been added to injury for generations,
and I can see no remedy for the situation until the white
women refuse to submit longer to the humiliation of body,
mind and soul, they have been forced to endure under the dou¬
ble standard of our present social organization. They must
demand that further degradation of white and Negro races be
stopped, that lynchings be abolished, and that the personality
of white and colored women be respected. The white and the
colored women can never come to a place of mutual respect,
understanding and sympathy until the white man ceases to
build higher the barrier now standing between them. Hate
begets hate—prejudice breeds prejudice. Woman (white and
Negro) is the main factor in the problem of racial hostility.
The hatred engendered in the hearts of the women must finally
work out in the horrors of race uprisings unless it can be
transformed into justice and love by the dynamic power of the
spirit of Jesus Christ. The women of both races are beginning
to realize this. But it will take the women and the men of
both races, working together to bring about a genuine democ¬
racy, where honor as well as life may be safe and protected.
The Chairman: One of the most helpful things is discussion in con¬
nection with the papers, and the paper is now before you.
Mrs. Hammond: It is not going to do any good just for the women to
turn against the men. You will never get anywhere .by just turning
against them. The thing the white woman has got to do is to step up
with the colored woman and stand by them and with them. There is
something bigger than being a white woman or a colored woman or a
yellow woman,—and that is just being a woman. We have just got to see
them as women, as mothers, as homemakers. I shall never forget what
I saw at Dr. Mott's Student Conference. I was in charge of the meeting
when Mr. Trawick read his paper in which he called for respect for the
Negro woman. After this paper a Negro woman rose and said she wanted
to make a confession. I knew her and the work she did among her own
people to care for them and protect them, and how much she sacrificed,
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
65
and she spoke of her hatred of the white men and it came from the very
bottom of her heart. Then her hatred of the white woman. Her voice
was vindictive, and I didn't blame her; she spoke of how we pretended
to be Christian women but pulled our skirts back and left them to struggle
on alone, she spoke of the things that threatened the life of every colored
girl,—all the more if she has a little education and good looks. She said
that a white man had stood up before white people, white women, and
said that women of her race were entitled to respect,—that she hadn't
thought it possible that she would live to see that day. Then she stopped
speaking, just stood there and shook,—she just turned and looked at the
little group of white women with her eyes drenched with tears,—she
didn't let one fall,—looked as if she asked nothing and expected nothing.
It rests with the privileged women of the South and thank God that He
has so tied us together that white womanhood cannot be protected until
colored womanhood has been protected. A man said to me once that the
greatest obstacle to Negro morality is the attitude of the privileged white
woman to them. I asked him what he meant, and he said that we were
careful all our lives to teach our sons and others that came under our
influence that morality didn't count in a Negro woman; that we refused
to give the title to a married woman; that we were so afraid of setting
her up on our own standard that we made no difference between the
decent Negro woman and the mother of a haphazard family. That is true.
We have got to quit that thing. It is not a social but a legal question.
Mrs. F. C. Abbott: I had a friend very much interested in the Spill-
man Seminary. She visited one of the white teachers in the school for
quite a while. She came in contact with some of the finest Negro girls
that have ever lived. A great many of the girls were almost white. They
were so nearly white that they were as attractive to men as white girls
would be, and during the vacation time it was necessary for the teachers
at Spillman Seminary to send these girls home under individual chaper-
onage to keep them safe. They were high-class Negro girls and were
attractive and because they were Negroes they were prey to white men
as white girls would not be.
The Chairman: As to this question of assault by white men on col¬
ored girls. I was at a college in Mississippi and the president of the
college told me this that this happened just before I arrived. A colored
man in that town who was a drayman and had done very well as a dray¬
man and had got enough money together to send his daughter away to
school, where she was trained. She was a good looking girl and she came
back after graduation, and she was followed there by a white planter or
ranchman in Texas, and this white man hung round. The man came to
this college president and said, "What can I do? If I don't defend my
daughter I will lose her, and if I do I will be lynched." My friend said it
was a pretty hard question to answer, but he went to the officers of the
law and saw that the man was gotten out of town.
I am glad to bring a man to whom we can turn and whom
we believe we can absolutely trust to tell us the truth. I believe
4
66
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
that Professor Gilbert can understand something of what is in our hearts
and will speak frankly of the things that go deep in your heart, a man
not only a scholar but a man of splendid character generally, who will
speak to us on the effects of lynching on the colored people themselves.
Professor Gilbert is from Paine College, Augusta, Ga. He is the man
who went into Africa to establish that mission, tramping 1,500 miles in
and back. He has travelled all over the world and knows the race from
more than one standpoint.
THE EFFECTS OF INJUSTICE AND MOB-VIOLENCE
ON THE NEGRO RACE.
JOHN WESLEY GILBERT, PAINE COLLEGE, AUGUSTA, GA.
It is implied in the subject itself that injustice and mob-
violence have bad effects upon the Negro race. I believe con¬
fidently that if the causes of injustice and mob-violence against
the Negro are conscientiously admitted and eradicated, we
shall in the South and everywhere else in this country become,
regardless of color, a nation "Whose God is the Lord."
The underlying cause of injustice and mob-violence is an
almost nation-wide adverse sentiment toward the Negro. This
sentiment is not innate, but is engrafted by the training of cir¬
cumstances whereby a white person is ever surrounded in his
community life. It is higher than law. The law would eradi¬
cate and destroy injustice and mob-violence by the punishment
of the perpetrators of crimes of whatsoever nature. Law ought
to be the creature of righteous sentiment; but it is thrown
aside and down-trodden whenever and wherever a wicked and
unjust sentiment can cause a Governor to say, that as between
a Negro and the constitution of his State whose laws he had by
the "Bible oath" sworn to uphold, "To hell with the constitu¬
tion." The law forbids under penalty for its violation, that
any person shall be punished without due process of trial by a
jury of his peers.
Every criminal, whether white or black, deserves the pen¬
alty of the law; but lynching and mob-violence are never justi¬
fiable, however heinous and revolting the crime may be. And
then they leave the community with its preachers, teachers,
business men, women and children much worse off in barbarity
and degradation than it was before the commission of that
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
67
crime. Dante's Inferno does not contain more harrowing pic¬
tures than hang on the memory's walls of those who actually
beheld the burnings in Tyler, Waco, Memphis and other places.
The sheriffs, jailors, juries and judges are more often than not
cowards in the face of public sentiment when the matter at
issue is the lynching or mobbing of Negroes.
Accused Negroes, knowing that sentiment is against them in
courts and everywhere, and feeling that justice will not be
given them, often resist arresting officers, or conceal members
of the race who are charged with crime. For the same reason
innocent persons who are charged with crime run away. Ne¬
groes have too often heard of innocent persons of their race
being lynched or convicted and imprisoned. (Read extract
from Columbia State.)
When I learn as I often do from many Negroes whom I meet
on trains going North, East and West from Florida, Georgia,
Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
and Texas that they are fleeing from the places where wages
are the lowest, and lynchings, mob-violence and other forms of
injustice are rife, I feel that there is leaving the South, in the
persons of these black men, women and children the erstwhile
producers of wealth and happiness in Dixie. They only need
care, sympathy, development, encouragement and legal justice
to render them capable of making the South prosperous beyond
calculation. The South has made the mistake heretofore of
saying, in some of its newspapers and public utterances, that
Negro laborers ought to be displaced by foreign white laborers
—a thing which in South Carolina, Georgia and other places
proved disastrous upon experiment. Negro labor, though
poorly paid, was at once recalled. When larger pay was of¬
fered this laboring class of Negroes elsewhere they went and
are going because, as one told me when I spoke to him of the
cold Northern weather, "I'd rati er freeze to death a free man
than to live forever a slave to persecution, liable at any time
to be mobbed or lynched without a chance before the law."
What reasons he had for going, one unmentioned of which was
low wages! He wanted, also, better schools and longer school
terms for his children. It seems then that from only the selfish
viewpoint of industrial development and prosperity, if from
no humanitarian or religious impulse, the whole machinery of
68
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
Southern civilization—its courts, its mechanics, its commerce,
its agriculture, its homes needing domestic service would all
conjoin to change the anti-Negro sentiment and thus keep the
Negro here by giving him simple justice and protection against
mobs, lynching, and all other forms of injustice.
But as it is he feels that after all his love for, and loyalty
and faithfulness to the Southern whites from slavery days until
now, the whites whom he has served for three hundred years,
and who ought for every reason to be his best friends now have
the sentiment that the Negro is not and never will be a desir¬
able adjunct or factor in the life of the white South. Unjust
sentiment has surely created a sad condition for both races, has
doomed them both to a fate that will paralyze each; for one
can not be hurt without hurting the other. We are each our
brother's keeper. I pray that all this may change, and that
too right speedily. I desire the exodus of my people from the
South to cease. It has amounted to about 500,000 within the
last two years; but lynching and mob violence have not ceased.
Law and order are still lacking. Therefore nothing as yet can
be expected but the continuance of the exodus, for an unwel¬
come, lynched, mobbed and oppressed people of any race find
it agreeable to move out, risking better or worse, when an in¬
viting opportunity to do so is offered them. Such an oppor¬
tunity has come to the Negroes because of the great European
War which has called back to their home lands the millions
of immigrants who hitherto have done the industrial work of
the North and West. A diagram published not long ago in
one of our magazines shows by a system of lines that the great
tide of the present Negro exodus is from the states above men¬
tioned where there have been, according to the annual statis¬
tics, the largest number of instances of mob-violence, lynch¬
ing, low wages and oppression of one sort and another. The
proportion of Negro exodus from the other states is not nearly
so large as from those where there have been burnings, lynch-
ings, injustices and all sorts of humiliating discriminations
made against them. They go to East St. Louis, Chester, Pa.,
and to hundreds of other places because they vastly prefer the
hardships that come by their own choices in a struggle to build
up their own religious, educational and civil liberty and wel¬
fare to those hardships that are imposed upon them by the
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
69
very people who should love and help them most. They really
prefer the South. It is only the vile, hard and heartless con¬
ditions confronting them in many places that cause them to
leave their homes to meet they know not what in any place that
promises better treatment. I believe that the Negroes who
have gone to the North and West will return to their old homes
in the South when they are assured of protection of life and
liberty by the South. Of course a fair wage must enter into
this assurance. Therefore I hope that such a sentiment shall
be created and such laws repealed, or enacted, as the case may
require, and then be enforced, as will offer the Negro better
opportunities from every viewpoint in the South than else¬
where.
There are many economic reasons why the sentiment against
Negroes ought to be changed. Quite $350,000,000 worth of
cotton and $150,000,000 worth of other products are raised by
Negroes in the South. They do nearly all the unskilled labor
and quite half the skilled labor of the South. They do nearly
all the domestic work in the South. Now, it seems to me that
the Chambers of Commerce, the Boards of Trade, the banks,
the farmers and all the business organizations in the South,
for economic reasons, if for none other, should keep this pro¬
ducing class, this tax-value-giving class of its labor, the most
reliable in the world, in the South, if these laborers are asking
only for a fair chance, for protection and sympathy.
We are often told that the white citizens pay the great bulk
of taxes, and therefore the Negro ought to be satisfied if he can
get but a mere pittance of the accrued taxes for the public
good; for example, the poor schools and poorly paid teachers
which the South gives to Negroes. What false political econ¬
omy! What false reasoning! In the last analysis the taxes
are paid by the producers who give taxable value to the lands
they till, or the renter who pays the taxes in paying the rent.
The land without the producer, the mine without the miner,
the house without the renter, the stock without the consumer
would have no value whatever; or at best, would be only po¬
tential, not actual. This sort of reasoning justifies the Negroes
in wishing better schools, better sanitation, better roads, bet¬
ter streets, etc. I believe that all I am saying in this connec¬
tion will be endorsed by the best Southern white people, be-
70
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
cause truth is truth, whether told by one man or another, what¬
ever may be his race or color.
The white man in authority in every department of the civil
life of the South ought to see to it that the Negroes of their
respective communities have better sanitation in their sur¬
roundings. Public health demands this, because filth and dis¬
ease extend their evils to all the inhabitants of any community.
In nearly all our Southern cities the streets where Negroes
live are unpaved, and often the open ditch with its stagnant
water increases the mortality of the Negro first, and then
finally that of the whole community. We can't say that either
humanity or religion does not demand this for all concerned.
Humanity and religion mean good will to all men, and the
"application of the eternal principles of justice and righteous¬
ness now and always" to them, regardless of their color.
The great nightmare of the South is often said to be the
fear of social equality, better defined as social intermingling.
Why, this sentiment ought to be changed at once! It is but
one of the frightful tools of the wily politician hunting for
ignorant white voters. Negroes as naturally seek each other
as do the whites, and race pride makes them feel that their
race is better than any other race for them, as regards social
intermingling.
In the matter of nearly every injustice to the Negro, and es¬
pecially in the matter of lynching and mob-violence, the white
pulpit is well night silent. The white preachers whom I have
known familiary are all right at heart, as their private talks to
me and other Negroes show; but for fear of the sacrifices of
personal popularity (I can't see what other motive could impel
them) the "courage of their righteous convictions" is rarely,
almost never, strong enough to evoke a sermon from them on
the nation's injustice to the Negro. But God will yet raise up
men who will not fear to decry wrong doing wherever it may
be found in Church or State. There is no defense in the claim
that it is not "proper" to discuss social and political problems
in the pulpit. The teachings of Christ are commensurate with
every human condition and need.
The preacher and religious worker will find the story of
Peter's vision of the sheet helpful in teaching that God is no
respector of persons. The story of the sick man by the way
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
71
who, having been passed by the priest and the Levite was at
last helped by the "Good Samaritan," is good to teach. Paul's
exposition of the equality of all men before God will destroy
race prejudice when the preacher faithfully and prayerfully
tries to teach that "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither bond nor free, for ye all are one in Christ Jesus." St.
John did not believe a man could hate his brother and love God
at the same time. What I am saying does not apply to any
particular section or denomination, but to all alike. I believe
that the pulpit can and should contribute more than any other
agency to the creation of a righteous sentiment, and even laws
which will destroy injustice and mob-violence that are ever
operative mainly against the black man. I pray God that the
day may hasten in its coming when Negro ministers will
preach, as they are now doing, against the sins that cause lynch¬
ing, mob-violence and injustices, and the white ministers will
preach against lynching, mob-violence and all injustices. We
teach our preachers that they must be makers of sentiment,
and not cringing followers thereof. We two races brought up
together in the South can't afford to hate each other. Hate is
of the devil, but "God is love."
During the days of slavery Southern farmers gave $100,000
annually for "Missions to the slaves." God bless Bishops
Capers and Wightman of South Carolina. If the present-day
preachers can catch the mantle of these men and that of Bishop
Atticus G. Haygood they will do all that they can today by
way of preaching service and prayer to help the dependent
"Brother in Black." The Negro loves the South better than
he does any other place in the world and would stay there for
all time were the devil of ill sentiment and hatred run out of
the land.
Another agency in the reform which so many of our states
need, if we would really create a sentiment against lynching,
mobs and the other forms of injustice and humiliation in¬
flicted upon the Negro, is the printing press. With regards
to the Negro very many white editors and authors of newspa¬
pers, magazines, and books, are subservient to the sentiment
of either their patrons, or often to that of the owners and pro¬
moters of their publications. These writers strive ever to sat¬
isfy the tastes and sentiment of their "bosses" and readers.
72
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
Except for their native and acquired ability to use language
correctly, their own personality, their own hearts' sentiment
dares not appear in print. Violative of the rule of grammar,
but nevertheless in accord with a public humiliating usage
when speaking of the Negro, they begin this proper noun
"Negro" with a small "n" in ninety cases out of a hundred.
The name of every race and tribe on earth but that of the Ne¬
gro is begun with a capital letter. Except when it is the first
word of a sentence the word Negro is spelled with a small "n"
just as we spell the names of brutes. Usage growing out of
sentiment brings to the race this ever-present humiliation.
Books like Carroll's "The Negro a Beast," and Dixon's "The
Clansman," "The Leopard's Spots" and the "Birth of a Na¬
tion" are most cruel and poisonous effusions for white and
black to read. White boys and men who read these books and
who become inflamed by their untruthful and soul-destroying
sentiments against black men and women feel that in lynching,
mobbing and otherwise torturing a Negro they are doing no
more than wounding or killing a beast. For the sake of both
races, for the sake of God, our Common Father, these books
and plays should be immediately suppressed, especially in the
South, where many of our otherwise best friends by reading
them and seeing their untrue pictures become veritable demons
in the flesh and enemies to true civilization. Such printed
stuff is like a gun that kicks harder than it shoots. It may kill
the man who it curses, but it also kills the civilization that per¬
petuates it.
Then, as a rule, all of the vices and none of the virtues of the
race are put into print, just as though these brutes never have
any manly and womanly virtues. The Negroes do a thousand
times more good deeds than bad ones, but a perverted public
sentiment is kept perverted by the publication of only our bad
deeds.
"He who steals my purse steals trash;
But he who steals my good name
Steals that which does not enrich him,
But leaves me poor indeed."
Simple justice at the hands of the public press could make
us more respectable in the eyes of the world. Simple justice
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
73
ought, through the press, to advocate the abolishment of dingy
"jim crow" railroad cars, often with no smoking compartment
and only one toilet for both sexes of Negroes. Some of us have
to travel by night, but can not procure any sleeping quarters
on very many of the railroads. There is not the least desire
for social inter-mingling in any of these statements. It is only
for the lack of decent accommodations which public sentiment
forbids us that causes our complaint. The real truth is self-
respecting Negroes in matters of a social nature desire, to ex¬
press it in Booker T. Washington's apt illustration, to be as
separate from the whites as the fingers on the hand; but in all
things civic and constructive of the whole community life, as
united with our white friends as those same fingers are in the
body of the hand. I see hope, however, in the expressions rela¬
tive to the Negro of such newspapers as the Atlanta Constitu¬
tion, the Columbia State, The Augusta Chronicle, the Birming¬
ham Age Herald and a few others of their type in that they
have often uttered and still do utter sentiments of justice
against lynching and mob-violence. These expressions are
very helpful and encouraging to my people. Let them go on.
But the worst enemy of the Negro's welfare in the South,
and for that matter in the whole nation, is that politician,
whose whole stock in argument while he is either vote hunting
or money seeking is abuse of the Negro. The poor Negro's
bleeding back has carried many a man of this stamp into office.
Political campaigning in some places is nothing but "cussing
out the nigger." It would be a blessing for the shades of Alex¬
ander H. Stevens and Benjamin Hill to grace the South with
the memory of their erstwhile real statesmanship, so far be¬
neath them are some of their present successors. Oh for the
day to come when real statesmanship will take the place of the
politicians who ever breed undying hate between the races.
The Southern white people and black people would love each
other and would work for the utmost development of our com¬
mon section were such breeders of injustice and mob-violence
taken from their places of leadership, if for no other reason
than that they ever divide but never unite the people. "They
are 'agin' everything that is, and for everything that 'aint.' "
In the words of Sutton Griggs our only plea is, "Grant us
equality of citizenship. Fix your standards for a man. If you
74
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
choose, plant the foot of the ladder (where Negroes are today)
in a fiery test, and engirdle each round with a forest of thorns.
Do this and more, if your civilization and the needs of the un¬
born require it. But when through the fire and up through the
path of thorns we climb where others climb, hurl us not back
because of the color given us from above. Let one test be unto
all men" when it comes to service for our common country.
We have ever been true to the "Stars and Stripes," as his¬
tory witnesses, whenever we have been called to its protection.
To go no further back in history it was black men who, passing
over the prostrate bodies of Northern white soldiers that lay
down rather than face the leaden hail which belched forth
from that old Castilian "block house," and planted our coun¬
try's flag upon San Juan's heights. It was black men who
went across the Mexican border last year and gave their lives
for "Old Glory" on the fields of Carrizal. It is black men who
guard the "White House" in Washington City. It is said that
black men are with Pershing in France. I was one of the U.
S. registrars on June 5 this year in the city of Augusta, and
how proud was I to register as the first four young
students of Paine College, a school supported by the M. E.
Church, South, for the education and training of the children
of former slaves. Two more of these boys are training at Fort
Des Moines to become officers in the army which is soon to go
to Europe to fight for this whole country. Shall we as a na¬
tion, or even as a section of this nation, secure to mankind by
the blood and death of white and black men alike on foreign
soil a thing of justice which we would deny the black man at
home? God grant that we shall not be "sepulchers, whited
and beautiful without, but full of dead men's bones and all un-
cleanness within." I am provoked to use these words of Jesus
Christ for many reasons, the foremost being that at no time
in all the annals of history have my people raised their hands
against the South. The Negro is the South's best friend, and
is anxious to make her fertile fields groan with their burdens
of food and clothes for both man and beast. If the South would
have the best labor in the world, a labor that knows nothing
about strikes, nothing about mob-Violence, nothing about
lynching—a law-abiding, peavg-loving race, then let the Sokth
open the doors of hope to those Of us who still abide here in
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
75
faith, as well as the 500,000 who, having lost faith and hope,
have gone to other climes to seek better treatment and better
wages. They'll come back home when times get bearable, but
not till then, I fear.
I am glad to be a citizen coming from a race that has never
produced a Benedict Arnold, an assassin of a president, or
cowards when the country needs soldiers. I am glad to be a
member of a race who were true to the South during the days
of slavery and the Civil War. Trusts that were put into their
hands during those days were never in a single instance be¬
trayed. As a witness I call upon every Confederate veteran
of the "bloody sixties."
Then why shoud not I for every good reason feel sorely ag¬
grieved when I recall the black man's loyalty to the whole
country, regardless of section, from the times of Lord Balti¬
more at Jamestown, Virginia, to the landing of Pershing's
troops on French soil about a month ago, if my country, the
South first of all, and the North as well, fail to sweep away
lynching, mob-violence, and all other hindrances to my full de¬
velopment as a man? I can not believe that anyone in this
audience disfavors conscientiously the plea for law and order
which I make to you today for my people.
76 Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
FIFTH SESSION
Sunday night, August 5.
THE CHURCH'S OBLIGATION.
RICHARD HOGUE.
There is need today to face and to interpret or perhaps rein¬
terpret, two false forms of belief which tenaciously hold on to
the policy and people of the Church today.
The first is that the Church was founded to furnish salva¬
tion in eternity; that Church membership has as its underlying
purpose insurance for the future safety of believers, that the
Church stands as the Old Testament Ark—a protection against
eternal judgment, to come like the Flood of old, as the great
final catrastophe; that her mission is to lead men along the
narrow path, single-file, the eye of the soul seeing only the dis¬
tant goal of a far-off redemption.
The second false interpretation was to make a sharp divis¬
ion into the sacred and the secular, not only as separate from
but hostile to each other. Ignoring the obvious application of
the incarnation of the divine Christ in human form and life,
they set the divine against the human.
The highest obligation of the Church was to keep herself
holy, Her chief mission was to define and dispense doctrines for
the faithful, to formulate and furnish a creed solely as a chart
for steering the sanctified soul safely through a world that was
wholly secular and inherently wicked. God's one dwelling
place was the Church, whose functions and ministry alone had
the right to be called sacred. The Church's obligation is not
to deny the hope of heaven, nor to ignore the reality of eternity,
nor to countenance the negation of the cynic's philosophy in
answer to the cry of the human heart in the dark of a deep
sorrow or the struggle of a fierce temptation. It does not mean
the denial of the just and inevitable consequences of deliberate
sin and wilful wrong doing. It does mean the putting away of
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
77
the falsely supreme (and supremely false) conception of gain¬
ing Heaven and escaping Hell as the chief purpose of our being
put here by Almighty God. This must be done both to correct
the internal hypocrisy and the external blunders and outrages
which overrun the Church's biography and stain the pages of
secular history.
The search for Heaven as an awarded prize hereafter led
further to the disregard of the fundamental challenge of the
Christian faith—the loss of self in the service of others. It
culminated in the consternation of those who cried "Lord,
when saw we thee?" so intent on saving themselves, so ab¬
sorbed in the search for the way to their heaven.
Christ had defined Himself as the way, the truth and the
life. Their conception did not reach beyond a literally narrow
way—so narrow that they feared to go aside, to venture over
into the by - ways. They dared not get out of the path, no
matter what was beyond the border. It might be the one
stranger, beaten and bruised and robbed. It might be the hun¬
gry multitudes. So intent on their race to Heaven they did not
take time to remember His condemnation of the priest who
passed by on the other side—his own safe side. They forgot
that Jesus cut short a divine discourse to feed the multitude
on whom "He had compassion." Pursuing the upward path to
Heaven they could not hear down below the cry of little chil¬
dren—oppressed, neglected and overlooked. They did not know
that they were setting Jesus Christ aside with the children
whom they ignored. They were too absorbed to remember his
verdict on "whomsoever should put a stumbling block in the
way of one of these little ones." They uttered pious platitudes
to the elect and pronounced dogmatic damnation upon the non-
elect. They set aside Christ's command to the Church "Go ye
and save now;" and substituted the command, "Come in and
be safe hereafter."
To the enslaved and oppressed they dealt out promises of
future redemption, with no effort to bring about that rightful
and real redemption from wrong and injustice without which
God's universe is made to appear His perpetual mistake and
His open shame.
They filled theology with theories of the doctrinal devil and
definitions of Hell hereafter, while permitting the incarnate
78
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
devil to go unchallenged and human Hell to hold carnival in
the business corruption, the military carnage and the social
cruelties of the practices they failed to correct and the castes
they helped to create.
Thus did the Church throughout a phase of false belief and
a period of false prophets, thus would the Church again today
divert her purpose and delay her mission, unless we who are
here, and those like-minded, do something more than confer
and resolve in such associations and congresses as this. For
high in the councils of the Church there are still those today
who see in Christ the accepted way but not the reforming life.
There are still those who would purchase their final heaven at
the price of other men's living hells. There are still those who
seek the Church as the ark of their own safety or even the
mark of their own respectability, unmoved by the danger that
engulf and the disrepute that degrades their fellow-men. There
are still hosts of otherwise good people resting at the Halfway
House, content only to ask:
"Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by;
They are good, they are bad,
Wise, foolish, and so am I.
Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat,
And hurl the cynic's ban;
Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
And be a friend to man."
We need to outgrow the subtly self-centered philosophy be¬
hind this apparently wholesome and altruistic idea—to live
secure in one's own house and cast alms of pity or friendly wis¬
dom—to go from one's house on excursions of pressing charity
or passing reforms—what sort of emulation is this of Him who
had not so much as a place to lay His head?
No, the Church must go out and meet the forces of selfish¬
ness and greed which have imprisoned the souls of vast num¬
bers of Christian men and women. Sometimes the prison is a
stock market, sometimes a small office, sometimes a factory,
sometimes a fashion! When the Gospel of Christ seeks en¬
trance to drive out selfishness and restore to sanity and self-
mastery, they cry out, like the Gadarene demoniacs:
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
79
"What have we to do with Thee"—in business, in society,
in politics they say, "Let the Church hold to the old Gospel!"
What they mean is "Let the Church withhold the full gospel."
"Let the Church administer the sacraments," they admonish,
blind to Christ's condemnation of those who take the sacra¬
ment as a substitute for service, a false appropriation of the
supreme symbol of unselfishness, sacrifice and dedication to
live for others. "Let the Church preach Christ and him cruci¬
fied!" Well, let her do so and she will not repeat an indictment
two thousand years old; she will preach Him crucified by the
individuals and organizations which crucify Him afresh today.
"0, did we live the Christian Creed,
Did we feel the blade of human need,
Would millions of men be underfed
And others surfeited with bread?
Not till the meanest has his place
In the onward march of the human race—
Not till the lowest has his right
To love and honor and food and light;
No man a master and none a slave,
Shall the world be saved as He meant to save."
If "money" and "property" and "industry" are terms used
to interpret, it is because they are the terms into which men
have packed that selfishness and cruelty and unbrotherliness
which contradict and impede the Gospel of Christ. It is well
said that "The social menace of our day is the direct respon¬
sibility of those who have enthroned the mammon of selfish¬
ness in place of the Fatherhood of God as the providence of
progress." God sent the world's Redeemer to redeem, just
that and all that, and it means to redeem not only all we are,
but all we own or use or make, from the crime of injustice and
the tyranny of selfishness. It is all-important that we realize
that we of the Church are not here as the guardians of a Chris¬
tian alms-house, moved by a benevolent compassion and a pat¬
ronizing charity. We are not even here under the sacred com¬
pulsion of being our brother's keeper. WO are here as our
brother's brother.
80
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
If our minds are open to the full truth we shall doubtless
discover a still heavier responsibility resting on us. The full
testimony of all the underlying facts may prove our guilt. If
present conditions are due to the viciousness of an economic
system by which we profit, the inefficiency or injury of political
corruption which we permit, the culpability of Christian em¬
ployers and the deliberate detachment of the pulpit from the
public welfare, just in so far are we direct factors in the crea¬
tion of the conditions which call to us today. We may find that
the unfortunate and suffering are not only our brothers but are
our victims. We may find that our stained glass windows are
rightly named—stained with the blood of overworked and un¬
derfed children and women. You will remember the great head¬
lines in the papers at the time of the first voyage of the Lusi-
tania, the graphic desciptions of the massive machinery and
marvellous equipment of that vast and costly floating palace.
There was one "little" incident of that voyage that went unre¬
corded except in a small, almost unnoticeable squib in one pa¬
per. Just at the height of the speed-limit by which she sought
to win the plaudits of the world, down in the stoke hole a fire¬
man fainted from the heat and then went mad. It seems to me
that that incident is typical of much of our civilization. Down
in the "stoke-holes" are toiling those who make our clothing,
furnish our transportation, our conveniences, even our luxu¬
ries. A mighty revolution is going on around us today—in
America as well as Russia.
A profound and complete change is being wrought out under
our very eyes, if we have eyes to see. Most of us will live to
see it reach full tide. The welfare of multitudes of people is
being wrought out on a vaster scale than ever before. It is fun¬
damentally a spiritual struggle, for it is moving through the
hearts and minds and consciences of those who are set to the
task of bringing in the better day. And what is the Church's
obligation here? Her's is the supreme part, for above all the
world's institutions the Church stands for the control of the
spirit, without which men degenerate while they prosper and
die while yet they live.
In the first place, the multitudes now deprived of their rights
will not come into their own until the public heart shall feel
their wrongs and the public conscience shall adjudge their
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
81
rights—and the Church must bear the message which shall
reach the heart and the Church must furnish the power which
will quicken and guide that conscience. There are three main
motives that must move the Church to lead and mould the com¬
ing era of brotherhood and justice. The first is to insure her
influence—to justify her very existence. If we do not speak
and act now, if we can not show the just cause of all who suffer
injustice, then when the change comes, as it will come under
other leaders, our message will be rejected and our offers de¬
spised.
The second motive that must move the Church at this crisis
is the essential welfare of humanity. Without the Christian
bond of brotherhood material conditions may change but men
will still be divided into ruling classes and struggling masses.
Without the Christian message of Love infused into the very
heart of this mighty coming change, the forces of unrest and
the people of poverty may get what they want, but it will be
bred by a violence and born of a hatred whose bitter fruits will
be the heritage of our children's children.
And the third motive for the Church to give herself at this
time is the simple motive of loyalty to her Founder.
The friend and champion of publicans, sinners and outcasts;
the brother of the lowest and the least; commanding us to love
our neighbor as ourselves, zealous for the bodily well-being of
all who suffered, full of human compassion, unashamed to do
the lowliest work and unafraid to die the lowest death, Jesus
the world's Serving Savior is our Challenge, our Example and
our Power.
The Church is here not as a pulpit to preach infrequent
truths to passing congregations, leaving them to forgetfulness
or at best to the waste and ineffectiveness of individual effort;
but as an army of compact forces, with the efficiency of unity,
the impact of a body and the power of a united advance against
the organized forces of wrong and evil.
What then becomes of the soul's salvation? It dies as a
phrase to be born again as a fact, for your soul's salvation is
your human relation. But do we leave God out? No society,
no nation, no world that is filled with human brotherhood can
fail to apprehend the divine Fatherhood of God. That is all
we need to know about God, that comprehends all of God. That
82
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
is all that Christ taught about God, from the "Our Father who
art in Heaven" of His universal prayer to the final and spon¬
taneous expression of His and our Sonship "Father into Thy
hands I commend my spirit!"
There are grave dangers ahead of the Church that essays to
answer the challenge of the world—the call of the crowd today.
There is the danger of the withdrawal of money by the con¬
servative wealthy who decline to support a gospel they can not
control.
There is the danger of the incompetent leadership of the
uninformed and the unbalanced. There is the danger of deal¬
ing with the effects and not the causes of human ills and injus¬
tices. There is the danger of identifying evils with persons
rather than conditions, with individuals rather than systems.
There is the danger of substituting panaceas for principles, of
being sidetracked by passing reforms, of making "entangling
alliances" with programs and parties.
But all of these other dangers are as nothing beside the
danger of the greatest modern schism, that of separating life
into the sacred and secular, the spiritual and the material.
Against this danger the voice of the prophet must be lifted
ever more boldly and insistently.
"With politics, so far as they have to do with the strife of
parties and the rivalry of candidates, the Church has no con¬
cern. But with politics—the moral aspect of the life of the
State—she must deal frankly and fearlessly. When she evades
or neglects this office of public prophecy, when she gives her
strength to theological subtlety and ecclesiastical rivalty and
clerical millinery, and stands silent in the presence of corrup¬
tion, and indifferent to the progress of reform* her own bells
will toll the death knell of her influence, her sermons will be
the funeral discourse of her power and her music will be the
processional to the grave of her lost honor. But when she pro¬
claims to all people without fear or favor, the necessity of a
thorough-going conscience and a divine law of righteousness
in every sphere of life, the reverence of men will cover her
walls with praise."*
i
*Van Dyke.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
83
I shall close with an illustration which challenges the Church
to meet her obligations as multitudes outside the Church see
that obligation.
It was at the period of unemployment during the fall and
winter of 1914. In the City of Baltimore there were thirty
thousand men out of work. Thirty thousand people suffering
day after day from lack of work which meant about ninety
thousand suffering from hunger and cold. Organized charity
could not supply the needs and they did not want charity. Some
years before Baltimore had had a fire which destroyed blocks
of massive buildings in the business district. Without hesita¬
tion and without delay those structures, almost in a night, were
reared into yet more massive structures producing more pros¬
perous conditions than before. Two thousand years of Chris¬
tian civilization had taught us how to do that, but two thou¬
sand years of Christianity had not taught us to raise to self-
support and self-respect thirty thousand human beings sud¬
denly thrown out of work through no fault of their own.
The Church had nothing to do with it, you say? No, you
will not say that, though there were those who did. As a mat¬
ter of fact the churches in Baltimore did practically nothing.
A small group of people held a meeting in the office of a young
millionaire, one of those rare individuals, who is using his mil¬
lions, which others earned—not for charity but for restitution
by combating the system which produces a few millionaires
and many paupers.
There was a woman present, one of those women who are not
content to remain idle and aimless, who are not willing to be
the beneficiaries of plenty produced for them by others, with¬
out knowing the source of the purchase price, who will not ac¬
cept comfort at the cost of other women living in poverty and
suffering. Her conclusion was to have a procession of the un¬
employed. You know what happened in New York and other
such cities. I left there very much depressed, yet asking my¬
self over and over again what the Church could do. A few
days later I engaged a man in conversation on the street, a
working man. The story he told was typical. As he turned
to leave, I asked him if he would not accept a dollar. He said,
"No, thank you; I haven't been out of work but two weeks and
I don't want to begin by accepting charity." He moved on,
84
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
then turned, and the face that he had striven so hard to keep
from showing his suffering was filled with anguish and his
eyes with tears. "I believe I will take your dollar. My wife
and children haven't had anything to eat today but bread and
tea. I can't refuse for their sakes. I will take it if you will
give me your name and address so that I can return it." Inci¬
dentally, he returned it in a very much larger and finer way.
Then I asked, "What can a man like myself do with his family
comfortably sheltered and fed and who goes to bed each night
thinking of the thousands of his brothers and their wives and
children suffering? Is there anything I can do?" I antici¬
pated this answer: "No, religion has left us alone long enough.
We don't want your help now. Besides, the men who employed
us are high officials in the Church." But he did not say that.
He said, "There is one thing you can do—tell the people about
it. Tell them we want work—not charity." It seemed simple,
yet it struck the psychology of all human philosophy. He saw
that if the community itself was not allowed to forget the prob¬
lem it would solve it.
I decided to have an Open Forum where working people and
the unemployed might come arid give their views, where the
community might face the problem as a social obligation. It
was to be in a church building under the shelter and auspices
of religion. I did it without consulting my official board—I
would never have done it if I had. It was held on Sunday
nights in Chapel following a brief service in the church. I
never saw such people. I asked, "Do you think it is practical?"
I shall never forget the reply from a tall, keen-eyed fellow who
was there. He said, "I am an atheist, a Jew and a Socialist."
My vestrymen never smiled—I think they were overcome. He
said he was an atheist because he could not see how there could
be a God and permit such suffering. He came from Hungary.
He said, "I am sober and temperate." I found that he was.
"I represent thousands of working people—we don't believe
the Church has any interest in humanity. We believe that if
multitudes of people are suffering and hungry and cold the
Church wouldn't care; we believe that if women are deprived
of being mothers and let out into the great factories, chained
there by necessity, the Church wouldn't care; if little children
are robbed of childhood's freedom and home and education and
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
85
forced into lives of underpaid toil, the Church wouldn't care.
"The reason we think this is that these things are happening
right now in Baltimore and the churches are not doing any¬
thing. In all the subjects of sermons we see advertised in the
papers we don't see one that touches the needs of humanity in
this community.
"The preachers preach about Hell hereafter, while thousands
are living in Hell here and now. And we don't think the
Church cares much for Christ. Of course, I don't know any¬
thing about Christ theologically, but I do know that He was
tremendously concerned about human—yes, physical—suffer¬
ing. He was constantly going out to the mistreated and op¬
pressed—not waiting for them to come to Him. I know that
the Church will give money in answer to a plea for charity
(if she has it left over). That is what we honestly think of
the Church as a whole. When I saw that a Christian Church
was to open its doors to the discussion of a human problem,
and furthermore, that we were not to sit at your feet and have
a program rammed down our throats, but were to come here
as brothers and discuss our problems with you, then I made up
my mind that I would come, and if you were in earnest about
your human message, I would try to be more open to your spir¬
itual message."
A year later that atheist, socialist and Jew was in the upper
story of that church's parish house studying the teachings of
Jesus Christ. The scorn has left his lips, the bitterness has
gone from his heart. His challenge faces the Church and his
response will be that of multitudes of the Common People who
once heard the Master gladly—when the Church goes forth to
meet the challenge and acknowledge her obligation.
86 Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
SIXTH SESSION
Monday Morning, August 6.
Meeting was called to order at 9:30 o'clock on Monday morning, August
6, Dr. Branson presiding.
The Chairman: The morning hour is to be given to two phases of
"pression,"—depression and repression,—resulting on the one hand in
criminality and in the other direction in physical breakdown. Dr. Marion
M. Hull of Atlanta is to give us the first on criminality and Dr. Menzler
will speak on Fear and Uncertainty as the basis of physical breakdown.
He is connected with the State Board of Health. So without further word,
I present to you Dr. Marion M. Hull, of Atlanta, who treats the subject of
Depression and its anti-social consequences.
THE RELATION OF DEPRESSION TO HEALTH.
M. M. HULL, ATLANTA, GEORGIA.
In recent years there has been a recognition of the possi¬
bility of some deviation from normal health being an under¬
lying cause of crime. This deviation may be from the normal
physical or normal mental health. That a relationship exists
between the physical and moral natures is also well recognized.
Another thing which is given more consideration than in
former years is a recognition of the fact that man is not all
body, all mind, or all soul, but a trinity. Each nature influ¬
ences the other two, although possibly not to an equal
extent. The old adage of "a sound mind in a sound body" is
true in these modern days, although, of course, there are ex¬
ceptions to this rule. Some of the most active minds that this
country has ever produced have been in weak bodies; and it is
of course well recognized that many whose bodies are physi¬
cally perfect have weak minds. A perfect man would be one
in whom all of these three—body, mind, and spirit—are per¬
fectly developed and perfectly correlated. It is needless to say
that a perfect man is rare; in fact, it is an ideal which has only
been attained once, and that in the Man Christ Jesus; but an
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
87
ideal towards which each is striving, and hopes he shall some¬
time realize.
In man as we find him, taking him as a whole, there are
many stigmata of degeneration, of either body, mind, or spirit.
It is extremely rare to find a man in whom we would not dis¬
cover, upon close enough acquaintance with him, some lack of
balance, some point not fully developed.
It is not strange, therefore, that criminologists have found
that fully 50 per cent of criminals are mentally deficient, as
determined by the Binet-Simon tests. The causes which they
have assigned are heredity, environment, social and economic
conditions, suggestion, and actual disease, notably alcoholism
and syphilis. The percentage of criminals who are alcoholic
is variously estimated at 50 per cent to 80 per cent; and cer¬
tain observations which have been made seem to justify the
conclusion that probably 50 per cent of all criminals are syph¬
ilitic. This last is more conceivable when we are told that 20
per cent of Americans have this terrible disease.
One condition which would, under certain circumstances,
be denominated disease is depression. Certainly all cases of
depression would be so designated if we define disease as any
deviation from the normal mental or physical health. The
object of our study is to determine whether there is any rela¬
tionship existing between depression and crime, particularly
those crimes which lead to mob-violence; and if so, what is the
relationship.
In beginning my investigation I ascertained very early that
definite statistics are unavailable. So far, I have failed to find
the existence of any accurate data. A questionaire was sent
to officers of the courts in about fifteen cities, and their replies
agreed in two particulars: First, that no statistics are kept
as to the health of criminals coming under their jurisdiction.
Second, a general impression has been made on these officers
of the court that more than 50 per cent are physically defec¬
tive. What I shall present, therefore, shall have to be my con¬
clusions reached from a study of depression in general. I re¬
gret my inability to confirm these conclusions with any definite
statistical data.
The effects which the emotions have upon the bodily func¬
tions are much greater than would be at first thought sup-
88
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
posed. Joy stimulates, whereas grief or sadness or depression
inhibits. Mental depression causes physical depression, be¬
cause of this fact. It inhibits the action of the nerves that sup¬
ply the bodily functions. To illustrate: a number of years ago,
Dr. Hartley produced a gastric fistula in a dog for the purpose
of studying the influence of various stimuli, medical, electric,
dietetic, and emotional, upon the secretion of gastric juice.
One day when he was experimenting he had excited the dog's
appetite by the sight and smell of some savory food, and the
gastric juice began to flow freely and continued to do so. Dur¬
ing the experiment a cat came into the room and, dog-like, the
subject started for the cat. Dr. Hartley spoke very sharply
to the dog, who dropped his head, stuck his tail between his
legs, and slunk over into the corner. The flow of gastric juice
stopped immediately. Shame had acted as a depressant, in¬
hibiting the bodily functions.
Depression reduces the power of inhibition. This may seem
paradoxical in the light of the statement that has just been
made; but both are true; for depression inhibits inhibition. A
normal individual is well balanced. Every idea tends to act
itself out, but every idea has its contra-idea. Abnormal indi¬
viduals are dominated by one idea or the other. In other words,
they are unbalanced. In depression the power of stimulus
along the lines of the inhibitory impulses is lowered, and the
balance is more easily lost. For example, a normal man, strong
in body and mind, can quickly adjust himself to the disap¬
pointments and failures which come up in his every day busi¬
ness life; but a man who is physically or mentally depressed
can not throw these things off. They produce a more profound
impression upon him, and when a disappointment comes, or a
failure to accomplish what he desires, he may lose control of
himself and give way to tears. His inhibitions, or controlling
impulses, are weakened by his depression.
Third, depression impairs the ability of the individual to
make the finer distinctions. Sentiment has been defined as
that state or quality of mind which is able to discern the beauty
of an object, the morality or immorality of an act, and the
truth or falsity of a statement. It may be aesthetic or moral,
therefore. Depression lowers the ability of the individual to
appreciate these distinctions. For example, alcohol depresses.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
39
It is never a stimulant. A man under the influence of alcohol
is not able to make the finer distinctions between truth and
falsity, between morality and immorality; and in just that
degree to which he is under the influence of the depressing ef¬
fect of alcohol does he lose the power to make those aesthetic
distinctions. He allows himself to do things which in a non¬
alcoholic state he would not dream of doing; to say and do
things in the presence of a lady, for instance, or in regard to
his personal habits, which he would not for a moment allow
under other circumstances. Depression from any cause, there¬
fore, impairs the ability to make these finer distinctions.
Finally, depression is progressive, unless something is done
to check it. There is no stand-still.
The causes of depression are overwork, worry, fatigue, alco¬
holism, syphilis, insufficient action of the enunctories (skin,
kidneys, bowels), and wasting diseases. Most of these act by
autointoxication. The particular toxin is unknown in many
instances, but probably indol and skatol, from the insufficient
metabolism of the proteins, are the toxic substances in some
instances.
Reviewing the causes of crime which have been assigned by
criminologists as hereditary, environment, including social and
economic conditions, suggestion and actual disease, we can ap¬
preciate better how these act as factors when we state that a
given crime is due to an excess of energy, coupled with a lack
of inhibition. An impulse to do a certain act is excessively
strong and the power to inhibit it is abnormally weak. The
result is the commission of an act which is regarded as a crime
because of its effect on some one else's person or property.
That same amount of energy, had it been directed properly, had
it been properly controlled, had the power of inhibition been
great enough to balance it, might have resulted in the commis¬
sion of an act which would have been of benefit to some one
else's person or property.
A man might inherit from his ancestors either an excessive
amount of energy or a lack of inhibitory power which, during
a period of depression, physical or mental, would be the de¬
terminate factor in making of him a criminal. He may have
inherited normal health, but his environment (social or eco¬
nomic conditions) may have been such as to lower his powers
90
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
of inhibition so that in a period of depression he would not
have the ability to restrain the other stimuli, and as the result¬
ant, become a criminal. In suggestion, the suggested idea
dominates because the inhibiting idea is weak.
Since alcohol is a depressant, the powers of inhibition would
be so greatly lowered that it is no wonder we find such a large
number of criminals alcoholic, for the inebriate usually com¬
mits crimes of passion, of sudden impulse. He acts subcon¬
sciously ; he has lost the power of discrimination. His reason¬
ing and perception are lowered; therefore, when the sudden
impulse comes, the depression caused by alcohol is the deter¬
mining factor in making of him a criminal.
Crime is not an abstract evil. An act regarded as criminal
yesterday may be regarded as virtuous today, and vice versa.
One has defined crime "as behavior which is detrimental to the
public good." The laws which determine the criminality of
an act are therefore the expression of the standards of morals
of the people who made them. The law-abiding citizens there¬
fore, is one who controls his own life so that self shall be sub¬
servient to the public good.
That there are many criminals who are never known as such
may be proved by the words of a judge who stated not long
ago that in this country "250,000 persons whom the law never
touches are engaged in the systematic pursuit of crime. There
are four and one-half times as many murders for every million
of our population as there were twenty years ago. Ten thou¬
sand persons are murdered in this country every year, and of
the murderers only two in every hundred are punished.
Tarde says: "The moral sense has an organic base (not nec¬
essarily a cerebral place) and consequently the disappearance
or deadening of it can only be explained by a lesion, by an
atrophy or injury to the brain, or by an imperfect nutrition of
its cells; by some misfortune, in other words."
Does depression have any relationship to this ? By lowering
the power of inhibition and by obliterating in a measure the
ability to appreciate the finer distinctions between right and
wrong, truth and untruth, morality and immorality, depres¬
sion makes not only possible, but probable, the development of
crime.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
91
One or two illustrations might suffice to show the influence
which depressive states have on crime. There is a certain class
of neurasthurice, who have markedly suicidal tendencies.
Their reserve has been used up. Every normal man has a cer¬
tain amount of reserve which he can call upon when needed;
that is, when through some reason or other he has not been
able to store up as much energy in a period of time as has
been expended. A neurasthenic has used up this reserve. For
that reason, depression, physical or mental, or both, is a
marked symptom of this condition. It is not unusual for such
a patient to take his own life, to commit a crime against his
own person. The reason is not hard to be seen—his ability to
see things in their proper perspective is impaired. He has a
great desire to get rid of his suffering. The controlling impulse
in this instance is weak, and in a period of depression when it is
further weakened, he commits the act.
It is a well recognized fact that bank presidents who commit
some crime in the conduct of the affairs of the bank are men
who are "aging;" that is, the demands which have been made
upon them and the strenuous life which they have led, the close
confinement, the nervous tension, coupled in many instances
with intemperance of food and possibly drink, have produced
degenerative changes in their physical make - up, and these
physical changes frequently cause depression. In a depressed
state the ability to make the finer distinctions is lowered, and
the powers of inhibition are weakened; and either they yield
to the suggestion of some "friend" who has an axe to grind, or
to increasing personal or family demands; the judgment is im¬
paired, and their acts in managing the affairs of the bank are
such as would be considered criminal. Had those same men
been normal physically, had they not had their powers of in¬
hibition and ability to make the finer distinctions lowered by
depression, they would not have become criminals.
In conclusion, I recommend, first, that our courts should
recognize the part played by depression in the genesis of crime.
Second, that this Conference recommend to the proper authori¬
ties that a physical and mental examination of every criminal
be made, and accurate records kept. When a large mass of
statistical data of this kind is available, we shall be better able
to judge how to deal with any given criminal, and better able
92
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
to suggest such measures which will look toward preventing
a repetition, rather than a revenging, of his crime; and so that
we might know from it how to institute measures which will
prevent others similarly situated from becoming criminals. I
recognize that this is not an easy matter to carry out; and yet
these records can be made and kept as easily as the histories
of patients who are received into a hospital. Third, since
crime is so largely a matter of health—physical, mental and
moral—we should redouble our efforts in the line of preventive
medicine, looking towards the future with hope.
This bears only indirectly on the problem of lynching, but it
is relative to it, for a recognition of the fact that the criminal
is physically (in its larger sense) defective, coupled with an
improvement in the health—physical and mental—of the pub¬
lic, will reduce depression, will increase self-control, and there¬
by limit lynching.
The Chairman: Dr. Hull's paper is with the conference for such dis¬
cussion as you care to indulge in.
Mrs. J. D. Hammond: As I understand the reader of the paper,
he said that fifty per cent of the criminals were defective. That does
not say all. Don't you think that if a man is in a state of nervous or
physical unbalance which may go one way or the other, that that throws
a good deal of responsibility on society for his environment. Bishop
Berkeley said years ago about the children of the East side, East end of
London, "They are damned into the world, not born." That is what I say
when I go into the colored people's quarters—"damned into the world,
damned into the world," and we white folks damned them.
Some of you know of the report of the English prison of which Sir
Edward Bryce wrote. Three thousand prisoners traced back, their ances¬
tors and environment, and the conclusion of that report was that Lom-
broso's criminal type does not exist, and that tnere was not a single one
of those three thousand who approached the normal who would not, so far
as human judgment could determine, have been useful members of society
had they had anything like a normal environment, a normal chance in
childhood.
Dr. C. C. Menzler then addressed the conference on the subject "Fear
and Uncertainty the Basis of Physical Breakdown."
(Manuscript not available.)
Prof. J. W. Gilbert: What Mrs. Hammond has said is true—it isn't
too strong—and I have felt since I heard this paper that I would like to
throw off that fear, I feel that I am among friends and that I ought to
shake off that fear and feel free. That fear is the cause of all our troubles.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
93
In that paper that I gave you I spoke of the sentiment against the Negro.
That sentiment is so strong that there is a fear everywhere. That fear
possesses all the Negroes. It is just a fear. If they were assured they
wouldn't he lynched, sometimes innocently, if they could be sure that they
wouldn't be kicked about by the people who raise them,—if they would
have a just trial,—that fear is the cause of their exodus even if the wages
are lower where they leave—it is that fear and the promise that they
will get some little protection mostly that is at the bottom of the exodus.
I have talked with them and I know whereof I speak.
Sometimes you blame us for hiding criminals—we do, but the fear is
that they will not get a trial. If the white folks get hold of him he is
gone. If that fear could be removed it would be a big help in carrying
out the law.
Mr. Blades: I would like to give a little brighter side to this picture.
I would like to give my observation in my part of North Carolina. We
have lost recently two of our servants, an excellent cook and a house girl.
They went to the North. They knew they could get big wages. They
were anxious to preserve their places when they would come back in the
winter. It is the money that is carrying them from our place, not fear.
Each one of them has written to my wife; they got servants in their
places when they left. They are not to blame for going. In Newbern
they have a forum where they meet on Sunday afternoons to discuss their
problems and they have invited me to speak at their forum, which I have
done. Last Sunday they wanted me to go to one of their large churches
but I didn't feel equal to that, though I am very friendly to them. I helped
to build their church and helped them to pay their debt. In. Elizabeth
City, where I lived once, there was a heinous crime, and my first impulse
was to bring the criminal to justice. If we enforce the law and bring
them to justice there will be a great deal of distress and trouble saved.
We must give them a fair trial. There will never be another lynching in
Elizabeth City. The sentiment was so expressed against it that th^
people felt thoroughly ashamed. We had a lynching in Newbern, but not
a Negro in that town was afraid of his life. There is no fear among our
people. I employ hundreds and hundreds all the time and they trust the
whites and there is thoroughly good feeling between them.
Prof. J. W. Gilbert: I would like to state that what this gentleman
says is true about places. I would like to have here a diagram that shows
just how colored people leave the South. There is such a diagram pub¬
lished in a magazine about a month ago which showed by radiation of
lines to the North just how the Negroes leave. The farther north you go
the more contented the Negro is, but when you strike my State, Georgia,
—we lead in lynchings, fourteen last year, one-fourth of all in the United
States; Florida, next door to us, eight; Texas, nine. We made a study of
it, and the exodus is in proportion to the lynching—almost exact propor¬
tion. I am glad to say that the State of North Carolina is put down by all
the Negroes as a pretty good state. The State of Georgia is put down
as a pretty bad state, a mean one. The State of Florida is put down as
94
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
pretty mean, and the states of Texas and Louisiana pretty mean, and
South Carolina also—northern part of South Carolina is better. The Col¬
umbia State is our good friend — the newspaper is — but a good many
lynchings all the way down to Savannah. "When you get to Savannah
there is very little lynching. We have found those spots and they are
the ones that give us trouble.
Mr. Speer: I would like to ask a question on this subject of fear. To
what extent, if any, does fear in the lives of the white women of the
South, cause race prejudice?
Mrs. Hammond: The Woman's Missionary Council of the Methodist
Church that represents between 200,000 and 250,000 Southern women sev¬
eral years ago repudiated in a resolution the idea that Southern women
had any idea that they needed lynching for their protection.
Mr. Swearingen: I suppose I represent the State of the biggest Negro
population—five to four there. Five Negroes to four white persons. I knot
that eighty-five per cent of our people live in the country, and that not
white woman in South Carolina feels safe at night. I make that state
ment without fear of contradiction, and you can verify it by appeal tc
women in South Carolina. This fear is absolutely mutual. The fear in
our state is mutual and the people are not satisfied.
Dr. Hull: I wanted to ask if the largest exodus hasn't come from the
places where there is the largest Negro population?
Prof. Gilbert: Yes.
Mrs. Hammond: An article in the Constitution says that the heaviest
exodus is from these southwestern counties where the lynchings were,
but that in the centre there has never been a lynching, and so far as in¬
vestigation shows there has been no exodus.
Prof. Gilbert: I feel that I am intruding, but I just want to say that
it bears out that it is in spots. There are certain counties in Georgia
where the people get along together but there are other counties where
the white people can't stand to see a Negro ride along in an automobile
along the road; there are certain counties where he is not allowed to
paint his house, where Negroes cannot stay after they have bought land—
southwest Georgia. I have travelled all over the State and keep up with
these things.
The Chairman: May I interject one word? My observation is that
wherever you get one or two or three outstanding white men and women
who see that the Negroes have a fair chance, you have a better condition.
Where you have influential men in a community who stand for a square
deal it makes a difference, particularly if they have a degree of
prominence.
Mr. Blades: Isn't the reverse true also?
The Chairman: Yes.
Mr. Blades: Looking at a more hopeful side,—haven't these mobs
been fired by liquor. Now that they will keep liquor out perhaps we will
have no more mobs.
The Chairman: That is hopeful.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
95
Dr. Tillett: I want to put in a word. I have heard in recent years at
various places multitudinous speakers on the problems we are discussing
here,—but among the hundreds that I have heard the talk of two men
have got at the heart of the thing and I have been thinking why it is.
Dr. Menzler is one of them and Dr. Johnson is another. What we want
to raise up is men and women that have love in their hearts for these
helpless ones, these criminals, and not for the sake of professional or
scientific accuracy or the execution of the law as a cold-blooded manner
of carrying it out as an officer of the law, but what we need is to bare the
heart, to raise up men and women with love in their hearts for these
helpless ones, these wandering ones, and my heart has been stirred
within me as I listened to Dr. Menzler time and again on our platform
and to Dr. Johnson here, because they seem to be pleading for something
like that and for the Christ that we need, the men for whom the harvest
is ripe, not simply the clergyman in the pulpit, but men and women who
in their heart of hearts are going to do this Christ-like thing.
Dr. Hogue: I want to thank Dr. Tillett. I realize the only funda¬
mental method that leads to anything right and just is love. We need
more than that—not so much more than that, but something that will
make that love more effective. We must go .back into our schools and
teach them that they have had and are capable of creating great men.
It will develop that natural race pride, which will lead to fundamental
race integrity.
Dr. Morse: There is no doubt that fear is depressing, demoralizing,
degrading, but on the other hand, fear is stimulating,—the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There is no human being without fear.
Fear of the unknown is the beginning of science. Man fears unknown
forces. He investigated and tried to conquer fear. Goethe conquered
fear of noises and of high places. There are numbers of cases where man
conquered fear, and that is a part of education. The Jews, for instance.
They are a people who have been oppressed for two thousand years, who
have had fear or cause for fear the world over, but their fear has not
demoralized them, degraded them, but rather has acted as a stimulus,
and they are holding their place among the nations of the world, recog¬
nized as .being powerful and able in all walks of life, and it is due to the
fact that they would not be conquered. The people are lost who have no
confidence in themselves. There is a difference between the craven fear
of cowards and another sort of fear akin to reverence. People who have
that kind of fear cannot be conquered. The Negroes need to learn to fear
only what is wrong, what is unclean, what is unjust, but we must be
brave, and if we are not we will ruin ourselves. No people can be con¬
quered if they will not be conquered, and the history of the Jews has
proved that, for this two thousand years they have refused to be con¬
quered and have not been,—and that will be true of the Negroes once
they become more courageous, more manly.
Dr. Hull: Just one thing that I thought ought not be left out of the
record. We lay stress on the lynchings. I want to lay stress on those
96
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
that have not been. Just outside Wilmington there was a horrible crime
committed,—a mob began to form, but the Wilmington Light Infantry,
composed of the sons of the finest people, supposed to have the heart
blood as well as the blue blood, protected the Negro, and law and order
prevailed. That thing is spreading. We have the lynchings chronicled
but we don't have the other. We don't forget the background from which
all this springs; there is profound provocation for all this. The recon¬
struction period laid the ground for it.
The Chairman: We must be patient. Now, I just want to say one
word about this fear. I made a trip around the world four or five years
ago and one of the most distressing things I saw as I went into certain
of the Oriental countries, was the desperate fear they live under. Their
religion was fear. The crouching of the people in those lands was ter¬
rible. I agree with Prof. Morse, who has done so much for the Negroes,
—I agree quite heartily that fear ought to be a stimulus and that it ought
to do for them what it has done for the Jewish race, as Dr. Morse tells us
as a member of the race, but so far as we are concerned we must get this
handicap off the Negro. What Prof. Gilbert can do is to emphasize the
other side.
We must pass on to some business things. There are two or three
things you must discuss. Shall we have a committee that shall bring up
some constructive suggestions,—not resolutions because it might be bet¬
ter to have it in the form of suggestions. I would like a word of com¬
ment on that. It might be presented at the evening session.
Mr. Blades: I move that such a committee be appointed for construc¬
tive suggestions.
The Chairman: Is there any discussion?
The motion being put before the meeting by the Chairman, it was voted
upon favorably and so ordered.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which? 97
SEVENTH SESSION
Monday Afternoon, August 6.
The meeting was called to order at 2:30 Monday afternoon, August 6,
Dr. Weatherford in the Chair.
The Chairman: We have two very important papers for the afternoon
and we will have to move pretty rapidly to get through with them and
with the discussion. Mr. Arthur Speer, a South Carolina graduate of Clem-
sen College, connected with the welfare department of the Y. M. C. A. at
Acipco, of which Mr. J. J. Eagan of Atlanta is President, is very deeply
interested in the race problem. Mr. Speer says that when he was called
as Secretary Mr. Eagan asked him if he was interested in the Negro
problem. They have put in a Negro section there. This company has
done a great deal toward making the living conditions of their Negroes
comfortable from an economic, as well as a humane standpoint. Mr.
Speer is going to speak to us.
JUSTICE THE BASIS OF EFFICIENT LABOR SUPPLY.
ARTHUR SPEAR, Y. M. C. A., BIRMINGHAM, ALA.
When we come together, as we have in this conference, to
talk about the welfare of the black man, no one realizes any¬
more than I do the unpopularity of such a subject, which was
once confined to our own Southland, but here of late seems to
be destined to become a problem of the entire United States.
Nearly every mail brings to us letters from the North and
Northwest asking what to do with the Negroes pouring into
Northern states from the South in such large numbers. If you
want to know how a great many cities are meeting the prob¬
lem, you only have to consult your daily papers.
That is one side. The other side is not given so much pub¬
licity. However, the forces that are so surely and steadily at
work for the bettering of the conditions of the man that pro¬
duces, irrespective of color or nationality, are forging ahead
so rapidly that they are forgetting custom, past traditions, and
castes in their effort to meet the needs of the world. To say
that the South will be hit hardest along these lines is putting it
s
98
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
mildly. Her greatest asset at this time, unlike the North, is
her man power, both black and white, which she should con¬
serve, encourage, and protect. Any city or town, North or
South, that fails to face the issue fairly and squarely is asleep
in the face of opportunity.
Yesterday, at noon, in the City of Birmingham, I sat and
listened to the various speeches made by leaders of industry
and social service. One of the first subjects announced was
"Justice and Helpfulness for the Negro," by a captain of in¬
dustry, working twelve hundred Negroes in one plant. One
week ago, in the same city, I attended a conference in one of
the largest Negro churches in the South. On the one side sat
one thousand white men and women, while on the other side
and in the galleries sat a larger number of Negroes. I have
heard the Russian Greek Church choir of New York City, re¬
nowned the world over for their wonderful music, yet there
was nothing in my mind that could compare with this trained
Negro choir and chorus who sang so meaningly the very heart
songs of Dixie. Then a judge, whose father was once the
owner of one thousand slaves, spoke in behalf of justice for the
black man. He was followed by representatives of the various
associations of the city, whose concerted thought and tone was,
"Come, let us reason together."
But when representatives of the Negroes spoke, it was a
plea for help and leadership, saying, "we don't know what to
do, and we need leaders to help us in the light, and you white
people are the only ones to give them to us." Before the meet¬
ing ended, it was proposed that a commission composed of
leaders of both races be formed to suggest plans for better¬
ment and to arbitrate, when necessary, questions arising be¬
tween the two races. Somehow amid the songs, prayers and
speeches the hand of God was plainly visible. When I left that
unique gathering the words of J. D. Rockefeller, Jr., ran
through my mind when he spoke of the differences and the
trouble in the coal fields of the West in these words: "When
we got down together in a conference and understood each
other, the trouble seemed to vanish." Do we understand the
Negro? Those that have given study to the races, both black
and white, tell us that we do not.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
99
It has been said time and again that the black man does not
think for himself. That condition is changing, for his asso¬
ciation with the white man has taught him to think and not
only to think, but to observe the fruits of thought. One of the
main evidences of this is the exodus to the industries of the
North. Quite a number have censured the black man very se¬
verely for going North, saying he showed little sense in leaving
the land where he is understood and where the climate suits
him. I question both of the above conditions. It is true the
climate is severe in the North, but when you take into consid¬
eration the shacks in the South and the type of houses in the
North, the exposure is about the same. The problem of the
black man in the North now is mainly a housing one, and from
the latest accounts this is being solved. I know of Negroes
from Birmingham who have bought homes in Chicago, and we
also note a million dollar corporation recently organized in
New York City to house Negroes. From Ohio comes the news
that a number of industries are selling homes to their men,
negroes included, on the easy payment plan, and they must buy
a home and have their families with them before they can get
the job. I know of one Negro church in Chicago that has had
eight hundred and twenty-five new members added to it lately
from Alabama and Georgia, and a large number know each
other as they did down South. Do you think they will return?
Yes, they will, but only on a competitive basis.
Need of Leaders.
The need of leaders, both black and white, is so apparent in
this trying time when man power is at such a premium, it is
useless to mention it. There are so many pitfalls and unseen
troubles for the Negro going North, and here leadership is
needed to tell him what to do, the same as when the foreigners
first came to this country and were exploited by the unscrupu¬
lous. It will take strong leaders to counsel and direct him in
the North when he is endeavoring to find out by bitter expe¬
rience the fabulous tales told him about social equality, lest he
become bitter and rebellious in a land that never knew him.
Again leaders will be needed more than ever before for the
Negroes that will stay South, because those going away have
caused a restlessness among all classes of Negroes, which tends
100
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
to breed suspicion and uncertainty—a bad thing for both
blacks and whites.
No wonder the few thinking leaders that the black man has
are now crying out for help, asking what to do. The salvation
of the black race, and the white race as well, is efficient leader¬
ship on both sides to teach the one the proper relation with the
other. The black man must be taught not to imitate the white
man, that he must be proud of his kinky hair, his white teeth,
his brown skin, and his melodious voice—all the handiwork of
Almighty God. And the white man must think justice, talk
justice, and administer justice to the black man, in order that
leaders may be provided, and he himself learn to know better
the author of justice.
Justice for the Black Man in the Courts.
I will not take time to tell you something that you already
know: that is, the injustice dealt out to the black man in the
courts. I will merely quote a Southern judge on the bench of
an Alabama city, which indicates the trend of thought that is
sweeping over this Southland of ours: "Don't bring Negroes to
me," he said to the deputies, "for shooting craps and for look¬
ing on the game, just to get your fee for making the arrest.
If you do, I'll turn them aloose." From this you can draw
your own conclusion. It may have become so repulsive to him
that he had a feeling that was akin to the Roman general at
the long and bloody siege of Jerusalem, when he walked the
walls of the torn and starving city and begged the people to
stop fighting, saying: "I am tired of so much blood." But I
prefer to think that he had in mind a picture of a fashionable
card party with a cut-glass bowl or a solid silver hatpin for
stakes, or a party of gentlemen in a club or hotel room engaged
in a poker game unmolested by guardians of peace and uphold¬
ers of the law. Does the black man think about these things?
Ask him. It will do you good to get his point of view.
But not all are brought into the courts. There is a large
number, if they are unusually good, who have never been ar¬
rested and are very proud of their records. However, there is
another evil which none can escape and which would discour¬
age any class of people working and living under such a condi¬
tion, especially at this time when the necessities of life are get-
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
101
ting beyond the reach of so many people—that is the purchas¬
ing power of the black mans' dollar in comparison with the
purchasing power of the white man's dollar. In 1860-65 one
of the first signs that the leaders of our Southland noticed
which indicated that the tide of battle was going against her,
was when her money began to decrease in value. It is one of the
first things that handicaps a people and brings about discour¬
agement. Yet when the black man goes to a commissary of
a company or construction camp, furniture dealer in the city,
or the general store in the small town, he pays a higher price
for the necessities of life than the white man does. Of course
there are some exceptions to this rule, when some companies
on account of shortage of labor have used the commissary
prices for a drawing card for labor. I asked a furniture dealer
who sold large quantities of furniture to Negroes, what per
cent of his sales he failed to collect. He replied that they did
not lose any, as they kept five men out all of the time collecting
weekly payments. In addition to collecting, each man's task
was to sell one thousand dollars worth of furniture per month
and keep up with the movement of the people to see that none
was lost. I asked one agent what was the difference in his
cash price and his time price. He said a suite of furniture that
he sold for $40 cash he got $80 and over on time with small
weekly payments. As one Negro expressed it, "Boss, you can
get all the furniture you want if you pay a dollar down and a
dollar a week the balance of your life." From a system of this
kind it will be hard to develop leaders and build character even
in the white man, to say the least of what it will do for the
blacks.
Justice the Basis of Efficiency.
The president of one of the most efficient corporations in the
South in speaking of efficiency said: "You can not have effi¬
ciency without justice, and justice must come first." Every
man of the South, whether he be farmer or manufacturer,
wants to produce more, and he well knows that production de¬
pends upon intelligent and efficient labor. The old proverbial
"nigger and a mule" outfit has turned out to be a very ineffi¬
cient machine for reasons that are obvious, and is giving away
to machinery that can produce more at a lower cost. Whether
102
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
we produce cotton or coal, we are getting into a realm that de¬
mands intelligence and efficiency in labor, and when we can
not have efficiency without justice, for our own good if for no
other reason, let us give the black man justice. Justice for all
the laboring, black and white, is what the industries that ex¬
pect to live are saying, and industry is setting the pace that
farmers will have to follow or till the soil themselves.
Again we hear the cry, "If you give him justice and intelli¬
gence you can not keep him down." Shut your eyes for a mo¬
ment and think of the number of white homes that have had to
silently suffer and will continue to suffer for generations to
come because the Negro was so low down. Again, I want to
appeal to the selfish side of our reason. Can we afford to with¬
hold justice and keep the black man down? Students of low
morals and their effect upon humanity tell us that no one can
escape its influence, as it will crop out in various and hideous
forms which vitally affect the body politic. "If you keep the
black man down, you will have to stay down with him," says
Richard Carroll, negro evangelist of Columbia, South Carolina,
who has the confidence of both whites and blacks.
At the American Cast Iron Pipe Company of Birmingham,
Ala., four years ago that corporation, dominated by Southern
Christian men, decided to do something more than pay their
men wages. With this in mind they opened up the welfare de¬
partment and asked the Young Men's Christian Association to
take charge, saying, "We want every man that we have on the
pay roll, black or white, to have a square deal." They spent
$50,000 for a Y. M. C. A. building with separate departments
for blacks and whites. This past week they authorized the ex¬
penditure of $125,000 additional for the Medical and Y. M. C.
A. departments. Does it pay: ? Ask the officers, and if you are
not satisfied with that, try to buy some of the stock. Mr. J. R.
McWane, the president, and a Southern man, in speaking re¬
cently to a group of social workers about justice for the black
man, made this statement: "It is impossible to exact justice
from the Negro until we first deal justice out to him."
The Chairman: Wont you tell in two or three minutes what you are
doing at Acipco?
Mr. Speer: They are planning larger schools and building model
Negro homes; I don't mean tenements; solid foundations and modern
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
103
plumbing, well ventilated,—not one window here and one there,—but
grouping them with artistic architecture. There is a bath room in every
house and no two houses alike, and the best of sanitation. There are
35 or 40 acres in garden products—a man from the Y. M. C. A. superin¬
tends that; the company did the plowing. The black man needs medical
attention. You can't show me a doctor that wants to go to a colored man
unless he sees the money or knows him personally and knows that he
will pay him; the company has a surgeon, physician, dentist, white nurse
and two colored nurses, trained nurses, and the colored people are getting
a square deal. They are carried to the hospital and get just as good at¬
tention as white people.
Mrs. Hammond: Does a white dentist attend to the colored people?
Mr. Speer: There are two separate departments; one dental room
for whites and one for the colored; separate instruments, same dentist.
That is the medical end. There is a restaurant on the ground that takes
in a business of $3,000 a month, at cost and way below, just to give the
people good substantial food. One of the best things that the company
has authorized and put into effect is the mutual benefit association,—in¬
surance. There are many shyster insurance companies in the South to¬
day working on the Negroes that should be driven out of the country.
There are a good many Negroes at the bottom of it, with white people.
We kept a record of those operating, and this mutual association was the
outgrowth of this study. We have the institution for white and blacks,—
I am in it,—the President is in it,—10 cents a week and burial expense is
paid and $5 a week sick benefit. The company puts in a dollar for every
dollar that the men put in. I believe it is one of the best things that we
ever did, too.
Dr. Branson: What about your racial instability among the men you
hire?
Mr. Speer: We have had our share in it. When the exodus started
it was just like sheep over a fence. A reaction has set in. We noticed
it several months back. Up to the time this exodus started our men
stayed for years. I can't give you the figures, but plenty of labor all this
time that others were short.
Mr. Brooks: Were these modern improvements begun before the
exodus ?
Mr. Speer: Yes, before. We organized four years ago and made
improvements from that time on.
Dr. Branson: I understand that in one community 207 factory homes
were occupied by 347 families within a few months. I am not speaking of
colored people for the moment. I am wondering what effect the welfare
plan had on holding them—is it decreasing under this plan?
Mr. Speer: This last year has been bad; before that a very small
per cent. We have figures but I have forgotten them. They left us last
year just the same as anybody else.
The Chairman: In as large a per cent as they did others?
Mr. Speer: No, not nearly as large.
104
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
Dr. Branson: This restless moving is the biggest problem we have
in the Southern industry, and your people are working at a plan that
will decrease that. On the other hand, I was in one mill village where
607 factory operatives worked and they had not lost a boy or a girl in
twenty-seven years in that mill building. Two boys moved out and back
and three girls moved out and married, and two moved back—lost one in
twenty-seven years, and every factory hand there owns and lives in his
own home.
Dr. Rice: Isn't it true that workers resent having things handed
down to them—hasn't history proved that they resent having things
given to them?
Mr. Speer: Yes; whenever anything is handed to him it is a stab at
his self respect. He thinks, "I want to pay for what I am going to get.
I don't want you to give me anything." That is in the heart and mind of
every true American. When they moved away as was mentioned here,
you will find there is in some way absence of a square deal. You will
find it.
Dr. Rice: In passing I want to say that I sympathize profoundly with
the splendid, liberal, heroic efforts made by such a corporation, but I
have no confidence in the efficiency of it to solve the question, for no
man in America, black or white, wants to have things handed out to him.
Finally, he will be disappointed. We must get at it from another stand¬
point.
I went to East St. Louis to investigate those conditions a little, and I
am sorry that the country does not know just what that situation is. It
is not primarily a race question. It is primarily a labor question. Cer¬
tain corporations in that city determined not to recognize the labor
unions and have nothing to do with organized labor. East St. Louis is
thoroughly organized and the white man has a grip on the labor world
there. These companies refusing to deal with the union got into trouble
and sent out agencies to bring Negroes in, not because there are not
laborers enough to do the work,—I was assured there were plenty there,
—but they know the colored man cannot organize in the very nature of
the case, and will not, and in one final effort to break the power of the
labor union they are offering the colored man as a living sacrifice to the
God of Greed. Coming into Kentucky, I chanced to meet a sort of home¬
spun philosopher, living in the mining district, and fell in conversation.
I saw three Negroes loafing on the staton platform where I saw one
white. He said that 90 per cent of the Negroes refused to strike. When
there was a strike they seldom took part in it. They say, "We are
satisfied—we are not going to have anything to do with these labor
people. Let me reassert that in East St. Louis it is not a race question
primarily. They were mostly foreigners who took part in that. I talked
two hours with policemen, soldiers and just anybody.
The Chairman: Mr. A. M. Trawick has prepared a paper but is unable
to be present, so Dr. Morse will read his paper for us.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
105
Dr. Morse: I am going to charge you for reading this paper, in the
way of giving me a few minutes of your time for a few remarks. I have
the floor, Mr. Chairman, and there is no way of getting it until you hear
a few sentences of mine.
I envisage this Negro problem as but a small fragment of a large
human problem that is world-wide and as old as the human race itself.
It is helpful to look at it from that point of view. It is a human problem.
There are prejudices the world over, fifty-seven varieties, and then more,
not only between white and black man but red and yellow man and
brown man and so on, and religious prejudices as old as religion, and
economic prejudices between employer and capital, educational preju¬
dices and all sorts of prejudices between man and man. The one lesson
that we haven't been able to learn in all our history, in all our struggle
toward civilization, is how to live on this little earth ball like human
beings and not like wild beasts—we have not learned that lesson of
human beings living together in mutual helpfulness instead of destruc¬
tion. We are like children rushing pellmell over each other, trying to
get in to see the show. We must learn that there are enough seats in the
circus for us all and we can get in in an orderly fashion and every one
will have a chance to see the show. We must grow up and learn that
lesson in larger things. Take the war in Europe, if the peoples of Europe
had learned that lesson, there is room enough in the sun and on earth
for us all, there wouldn't be this awful spilling of blood that there is. We
must democratize our thoughts as well as our institutions. We have
been thinking, each of us has been thinking, that he is the chosen people
of God; my people considered themselves the chosen people of God, the
Greeks thought so, the Angle Saxons,—now the Teuton has the worst
case. There is autocracy of thought. The Teuton wants to Teutonize
the world, the Greeks want it to be a Greek world, the Anglo-Saxon to
Anglo-Saxonize the world—"We are the people." What we want to do
is to get democratic minded and realize there is room on earth for all,
white, black, green or brown, whatever religion he may be. I like that
thought about the orchestra—an orchestra with a hundred pieces of
music. We don't want all violins—we don't want all drums—but a great
variety, and when they all play together we get wonderful music. How
absurd to say, "Throw away your instrument and play the violin—that
is the king of instruments, and then we will have music." So how absurd
for us white men to say, "Throw off your skin and put on white skin;
throw off other ways and take white men's ways." There is room on
earth for the Negro—room on earth for all peoples, and what we want
is a greater democratization, a greater tolerance of the different. We
cannot tolerate the different. Now, civilization means to tolerate the
different—not wanting to assimilate him or annihilate him. I want the
Negro to continue to be a Negro, and develop to be the very best Negro,
and make the best Negro contribution to Negro civilization. When we
get such points of view—it is not my point of view—I hope I am one of
a large number of people who are thinking along that line—when we
106
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
begin to democratize our thinking as well as our institutions, and act
upon them,—when human beings learn that in the long run it does not
pay to exploit the weak—when these corporations and those who have
established large corporations, learn it is not good business to pay star¬
vation wages, and when in the future in the new era dawning as a result
of this terrible war, when the shock brings on a new era, when we who
have had a wrong philosophy in religion and economics, when they cease
to exploit a weak race, and seeing a chance to make millions will use that
genius of organization and influence, not to exploit the weaker but serve
them, as they are doing through the Red Cross, and as these young men
here who are preparing themselves now to serve, we are going to have a
solution not only of the Negro but the human problem, and the strong are
not only going to live, but let live the weak and help the weak to rise
and develop.
MOB VIOLENCE AND THE INCREASE OF CRIME.
A. M. TRAWICK, NASHVILLE, TENN.
A mob is any crowd or assembly of human beings brought to¬
gether in defiance of established law and order for the purpose
of correcting, punishing or wreaking vengeance upon another
human being on account of an act, crime or suspicion of crime
which, to the minds of the members of the mob, may be hurtful
to society. The act of the mob, to distinguish it from legal
procedure, is called lynching. The law does not lynch; lynch¬
ing is not legal punishment. The essence of lynching is de¬
fiance of law, a supreme disregard of its established methods
of procedure.
Since human society has been organized in the world, mobs
have arisen from time to time to execute summary vengeance
upon evil doers. But that feature of the mob's violence which
goes by the name of lynching is almost wholly a development
within American life. No where else in all civilized society do
mobs exhibit that peculiar characteristic—utter defiance of
law and order—and no where else do they manifest such
marked tendencies to degeneracy and criminal consequences as
put a distinguishing stamp upon American mob violence. To
trace the psychological development of the American mob-
crowd would be a profitable study, but one that does not bear
immediate reference to our present purpose.
Mob violence shows a marked tendency to degenerate, and
to become not a summary act of vengeance, but an exhibition
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
107
of fiendish ingenuity in the torture of human beings. In colon¬
ial days lynchings were devised to punish horse thieves and
teach Tories a lesson in patriotism. The purpose of the mob
was attained when the horse thief promised to leave the coun¬
try, and the Tory cried "Liberty forever." Death was not the
objective, nor torture the delight of the crowd. In our day the
mob does not consider its work well done unless the victim
writhes in agony, and yields up his quivering flesh inch by
inch to the sharpened knives or slow burning fires of his tor¬
mentors. In a State where cruelty to animals is a misde¬
meanor, and the wanton killing of a horse a felony, where the
torture of rattlesnakes and mad dogs is forbidden by the dic¬
tates of refined human sentiment; in brief, in the State of Ten¬
nessee in the year 1917, a human being is chained to a log,
green wood is piled around him, ten gallons of gasoline are
poured over him, his ears are cut off, his body is otherwise
mutilated, and the torch is applied while five thousand people,
men, women and little children, applaud the deed. Some one in
the crowd raises the murmur, "They burnt him too fast," and
along the roadsides over which ten thousand other people are
journeying that morning to witness the event, the frequent
complaint is heard, "they burnt him too fast." The crowd that
thus participated in the torture, burning and mutilation of Ell
Parsons near the city of Memphis demonstrated beyond any
doubt that lynchings have degenerated into a tiger-like enjoy¬
ment of cruel torture and ingenious ferocity.
We need not wonder at this flare-back to primitive vindic-
tiveness. A lynching being essentially lawless, reverts to ele¬
mental savagery, and delights in the supernumeraries of death.
It hungers and thirsts not for justice, not for the majesty of
the law, not for the punishment of offenders, not for the deter¬
rence of others who may be criminally minded. It drinks to
society only when the stream of its victim's life blood is swol¬
len by such tributaries as shrieks and groans, hoots and howls;
it demands not death, but souvenirs of flesh; it is swept by pas¬
sion more primitive than reverence, and dominated by incen¬
tives more imperial than respect for man-made codes and pen¬
alties. Mob violence is the recrudescence of the tiger in man.
As the distance increases between tiger ferocity and civilized
culture, the reversion becomes more emphatic in cruelty. Cut-
108
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
ler's conclusion is accurate: "There is ground for believing
that as the practice of lynching continues, the punishments in¬
flicted tend to increase in severity, and the victims are tortured
more and more before death comes to their relief."
The degeneracy of mob-violence is still further manifested
in the causes which incite men to the act of lynching. In the
modern epoch of lynching, which dates from 1882, there are
two great groups of causes. The first group contains one
crime, the crime against white womanhood, the unspeakably
horrible crime of rape. In the second group are ninety or
more offenses, ranging all the way from murder to hog steal¬
ing, from arsen to jostling a man on the street, from poisoning
wells to impudence, from resisting arrest to the suspicion of
cussing. For many years all lynchings found their justifica¬
tion, in the minds of those who wished to justify them, in the
assumption that womanhood must be avenged at all costs. In
recent years four-fifths of all lynchings have had for their in¬
citing cause offenses in no conceivable way related to dishon¬
ored womanhood. Women themselves are the victims of mob-
violence in these days of lynching degeneracy. During the first
six months of the year 1917 one woman was lynched who, from
the news dispatches, was of unsound mind.
As a defense of womanhood, lynching ever was and ever will
be a miserable failure. Every lynching that has ever snuffed
out the life of a rapist, with attendant mutilations, has made
the thought dominant in some brutal mind that it was possible
to overpower a defenseless woman. Every lynching party
that ever piled green wood around the victim's feet, had in it
some men who were not themselves untainted defenders of
woman's honor, and that fact, known to others, has aroused
hate and fury and the determination to get even by taking ad¬
vantage of some other woman. Yet it was a woman's voice
that cried out when Ell Parson's body crumpled up in its
chains: "They burnt him too fast." That woman and all who
applauded her, did not know that the only safeguard of woman¬
hood is in law and order, in the crystallized sentiment of cul¬
tured humanity. Savagery offers no protection to women. The
mob has never given any woman a spotless reputation, and no
woman who ever stood on a hillside and cheered a mob bent on
the burning of a fellow human being, went from that point of
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
109
observation to a home insured against a conflagration worse
than the one she witnessed.
Mob violence is as ineffective against "minor offenses" as
against the one major offense; as impotent to stop hog thievery
as to stop rape. For be it always borne in mind that lynching
is a lawless act, done in deliberate contempt of established law
and order. Just as a stream can not rise higher than its source,
so a mob-crowd can not produce respect for law. It is born of
hate, it is nourished by hate, and it reproduces its kind. What
connection is there between our mob-murders and our blood-
guiltiness in general ? There are more homicides in the United
States than in any other country within the range of what is
called civilization, and more in the South in proportion to popu¬
lation than in any other part of our Nation. We can not point
to our home life and say our mobs have helped to keep them in
peace, for we have our full quota of divorces. We can not
point to the child life of our land and say that through lynch-
ings they have been kept untainted, for we have our full share
of children born out of wedlock.
During the year 1916 we witnessed a lynching which added
a new cause to the list of "minor offenses." A disciple of
Booker T. Washington, a believer in the doctrine of economic
stability, Anthony Crawford, was prosperous, indusrious,
paying considerable taxes on improved property. Too pros¬
perous, perhaps, not properly deferential, he lost his temper in
a business transaction. When the mob finished with him they
left him like garbage on a dump heap. A distance too great to
be spanned by words marks the difference between Sam Hose
and Anthony Crawford, yet the mob-mind knows no distinction.
The hate, the contempt, the vindictiveness turned loose on
these two men at opposite ends of the scale, are nothing less
than the germs of a virulent contagion, destined inevitably to
afflict humanity in days to come. A hundred persons died in
East St. Louis as the result of economic rivalry and race hatred,
wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind. What the reaping
shall be, no man dare prophesy.
A third form of degeneracy following mob-violence is the
lapse of public sentiment. After all, the greatest tragedy is
the mob's death blow at civilization. It is not the victim in
chains with ten gallons of gasoline over his clothing that suf-
110
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
fers the extremest agony. Civilization's highest product is a
well directed, well regulated public sentiment, and when civili¬
zation curls up and lies down before a mob, saying, "It can not
be helped," then the death agony indeed has come. Society, in
declaring mobs to be inevitable, pronounces the death sentence
upon its own existence, and introduces disintegration within
its own members.
By such an act, society excuses crime. How seldom it is that
any serious attempt is made to apprehend and bring to trial
any of the members of a mob! Society says to its lawless mem¬
bers : "You are stronger than I am; my mandates against cru¬
elty to animals, against torture of snakes and mad dogs you
must obey; but when you torture a human being I will not dis¬
turb you, unless perchance you burn him too fast."
Not the actions of the mob alone does society condone; it
becomes easier for men to violate other laws and be guiltless.
If five thousand men can kill a Negro and be unmolested, why
may not one man kill a Negro if he so desires, and have no fear
of the consequences! A few days after the lynching of Ell
Parsons, a news note came out of Memphis to the effect that
two men, one a booze spotter and the other his friend, got into
a fight with a Negro in a dark alley, and killed him. One of
the men was fined for carrying a pistol.
A lynching is a suggestion of crime. During the execution
of Ell Parsons, one of the most prominent leaders placed (a
young) Negro boy at the other end of the log to which the vic¬
tim was chained, and ordered him to take particular notice of
what would happen to a "nigger" who put his hands upon a
white woman. Men have an all but unconquorable tendency to
move in the direction of a dominant thought. The thought
made dominant in that Negro boy's mind by that spectacle was
that, since he was nothing but a "nigger," it was expected of
him that he would do violence to a white woman, and that he
must avoid the consequences by being too cunning to get
caught. Satan himself could not have found a more cunning
method of suggesting crime to a growing boy. Perhaps a mir¬
acle of grace will suppress the fires that day kindled in a boy's
soul; let us devoutly hope it may be so. If not, the mob's action,
and the man's words, may have started another conflagration
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
Ill
which in days to come may cause another woman on the hillside
to lament: "They burnt him too fast."
What is mob violence but the direct antithesis of civilization!
The mob is the easy switch-back to the tiger. Civilization is
the effort of man to attain his ultimate destiny. He marks his
progress not by the sky-scrapers he builds, not by his wireless
telegraphy, his submarines, his airships. He leaves his indel¬
ible mark upon the ages not by creating machines to do his
work, nor by his power to destroy his fellowmen. His civiliza¬
tion is proven by his ability to keep the beast out of humanity;
his boasted greatness is gone when the man gives place to the
tiger. Since 1882, 3,373 persons in the United States have been
hanged, burnt, and otherwise illegally executed by mob-vio¬
lence; a, total of more persons than were killed in the Spanish-
American war; about ten times as many as have been sent to
death by German submarines. The South has had the far
greater number of these lynchings, and on account of them
we have suffered untold hurt to our internal peace, to our
friendly race relationship, and to our good name abroad. Not
one good thing have we accomplished by our fiendish mob-vio¬
lence. Hate has bred hate, suspicion has given birth to sus¬
picion and sympathy, friendship and co-operation are more
difficult to secure today than they were forty years ago. There
is no common ground upon which, as races, we may stand and
labor for the abolition of crime unless we first successfully
achieve the absolute eradication of the diabolical crime pro¬
ducer, mob-violence. May God and all good people co-operate
to hasten the day of the mob's ending.
During the course of the reading of this paper, Dr. Morse interjected
the following:
May I interject here just to keep the record clear that this lynching
at Abbeville did not occur on account of this one word of insolence. This
Negro lived there a long time and he was one of those bumptious Ne¬
groes. The white folks knew him around as a .bumptious Negro. That
was just the last straw that broke the camel's back. I am not saying this
in defense of lynching, but just to have the record clear.
Dr. Tillett: I want to call attention, in the light of that splendid
paper, to one of the most serious difficulties that we encounter in rem¬
edying the evil. Professor Morse called attention to the fact that we are
all agreed and that we meet year after year and the best we can do is
to keep ourselves keyed up and moving on, but we are agreed as to what
112
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
ought to b© done. Indeed, the great body, rank and file of cultured
Christian manhood and womanhood of the South is agreed. Who is at
the bottom of the mob business? I give it as my judgment that of the
ringleaders that go in to revenge the rape of women, fifty per cent of the
mob and the ringleaders are men that would be, and many are, guilty of
the same crime themselves. They are not only men who would rape
colored women but men who would violate the same law with regard to
their own white women. That is the type there, and we are not reach¬
ing them. You spoke of the difficulty of getting editors and politicians
to attend and take any part. If I had to answer the question as to whom
you could count on to lead the mob, I would say find the men who at
heart are the most criminal; who would themselves violate every sanctity
of womanhood, pick them out,—pick them out and I would say they are
the men who would lead the mob to murder. We have got to get at that
crowd that leads the mob, by the strong arm of the law.
lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
113
EIGHTH SESSION
Monday Evening, August 6.
THE SCHOOL AND THE NEW ATTITUDE TOWARD
HUMAN LIFE.
CHARLES MCTYEIRE BISHOP.
Over against the heightened valuation of life today stand the
brutal facts of the European War with its millions slain, and
the appalling number of homicides in the United States, ex¬
ceeding that of any other civilized country, and of the lynch-
ings of Negroes by whites chiefly in the South. Even the war,
wicked as it is, shows on its obverse side a striking and inspir¬
ing picture of human appreciation of life in the unwearied and
marvellously skilled service of multitudes of surgeons and
nurses, in almost perfect hospital equipment and in the varied
ministrations of the Red Cross Army. There is some relief
to the mind in the knowledge of the fact that society is organ¬
ized with considerable effectiveness against murder of the
ordinary kind, and the murderer is hunted down and usually
punished by the operation of organized courts of justice. But
in the case of the lynchings there is absolutely nothing to pal¬
liate its hideous savagery and no compensation or atonement
for the shame and outrage which it brings upon our civiliza¬
tion nor for the manifold injury which it works upon society.
It is worse than either of the other crimes. It is war stripped
of all courage and orderliness and dignity, and hopeless even
of any indirect or accidental good result. It is murder which
in its fury excites every other vicious passion to the utmost
and with strange demoniac power sweeps over men, women
and children like a malignant epidemic involving them invol¬
untarily in its degredation. And strange to say it meets with
no effective opposition; society is not organized to put an end
to it; men apologize for it, officers of the law are paralyzed be¬
fore it or even connive at it, ministers of the gospel feebly
114
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
question whether they are called upon to lead the community
in attempting to cure it, teachers are even more timid lest they
themselves suffer in some way from this madness of the mob,
and the smaller type of politicians consider how they may turn
the mob spirit to account for themselves. Our instruments
and modes of social control have either broken down before
the problem which this actual vogue of mob murder has pre¬
sented to us, or else we have failed to marshal them as forces
against it.
On the other hand many individual students have concerned
themselves about it with the greatest earnestness and the keen¬
est sense of responsibility. Sociologists and psychologists,
statesmen, journalists, social workers and ministers of the
Church have joined in denouncing it as a hideous and unpar¬
donable crime; many have suggested modes of treatment of it
as a social and moral disease to be cured by some empirical
method, and some have tried to study it as a phenomenon of
discoverable and explicable history and nature, have sought as
it were to find and separate the germ of the disease in order
it may be to devise the antidote or compound the medicine by
which it might be counteracted and overcome.
It does not appear that the denunciations of those who are
stricken with horror at the crime, and who see nothing to do
but to point out its terrible nature in the strongest possible
language, it does not appear that they have a very large influ¬
ence in creating that renovated state of mind which must pos¬
sess the general public in order to stop these outbreaks of
crime. With mysteriously devilish regularity they continue
to occur about once or twice a week "somewhere in" the South.
Nor have the scientific students of social and psychological
phenomena been able to render any very effective service as
yet. They have suggested explanations and sometimes reme¬
dies which have often left the practical workers in despair.
To say that the mobbing of a negro who had somehow become
the object of social wrath is the "rescrudescence of the instinct
for cruelty native to man," or "the revival of the sportsman's
passion of the ancient hunter of big game," or is but "the ex¬
pression under the quick inflammation of the spirit of the
crowd of an ineradicable race antagonism" is but little more
than to fit new names to the thing which one is trying to ex-
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
115
plain. Any or all of these statements may be true as far as
they go. The crime which issues is neither excused nor pre¬
vented by them. The measureless consequences of evil are not
lessened thereby.
Indeed we have not made any progress toward the solution
of the moral and social problem involved when we merely write
down the terms of it in a changed phraseology. I fear that the
mistake we have made is to adopt the principles of the wrong
science. The science which we must use here is the analogue
in the social and spiritual realm, not of biology which is his¬
torical and descriptive, but of chemistry which is analytical,
and perhaps I might add of physics which is dynamic and con¬
structive. The psychological task is simpler than has been
thought, and the results of the study may be set forth in the
very plainest terms. The human emotions involved in the
lynching of a Negro are plain cruelty and revenge and hatred.
Or stated negatively and in a slightly different aspect of the
case the mob is lacking in love, lacking in self-control, lacking
in respect for law, lacking in regard for human life.
Though this is but simple, even commonplace, language, in
my judgment it is more nearly scientific than the other because
it gets us to the simplest elements of the thing investigated,
and, as a scientific analysis ought to do, it suggests the solu¬
tion of the problem.
The fundamental task before us is the one of Religion and
Education. For my part I still believe in the mighty invigora-
tion of the moral life which comes in that religious experience
which is called "conversion." With it come clearer moral per¬
ceptions and new access of moral courage. The reality of this
experience offers us almost our only hope of the moral redinte¬
gration of society within the life of any adult generation. The
sanctions of religion are powerful stimulants of the moral en¬
ergies and deterrents from moral wrong-doing. We not only
can appeal to religious motives and utilize religious methods,
but we have a right to demand the co-operation and even ex¬
pect the leadership of the Christian Church in the effort to
put an end forever to this crime against human life and against
society.
But education, which is the handmaid of religion in one as¬
pect of it, and which in another includes the experiences and
116
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
the activities of religion, is of course the surest means of cor¬
recting an evil like this of which we are speaking. In the
broad sense every man is what he has been educated to be—
not only in power but in quality, not only in mental faculty
but in moral character. For myself I accept the Herbartian
psychology which gives little weight to heredity and recog¬
nizes but slight differences in the original endowments of av¬
erage human individuals. Allowing for the variations ac¬
counted for by varying physical structure we are all of us, in
mind and character, in sentiments, tastes, prejudices, inclina¬
tions, disposition, and then at length and of course, in custom
and tradition, what we have been made by our surroundings,
our exemplars and our teachers. Granting the significance of
a certain individual reaction to these various influences it nev¬
ertheless remains true that, on the whole, man is what he has
been educated to be. In my opinion little weight should be
attached to the would-be scientific talk about "dim racial mem¬
ories," the "resurgence of prehistoric animal instincts" and
the "vestigial passions of the cave man." For our purposes at
least these are words, mere words. But whether selfishness
and cruel anger and revenge and bloodthirstiness are to be
thus described or not it is the business of society—the task of
morality—to overcome them. Or, rather to produce a man
who has escaped them—who has grown beyond them and
above them. The truth is that race-prejudice is just preju¬
dice—no deeper and not a whit less unworthy. The super¬
ficial plausibility afforded by difference in color and physiog¬
nomy has no more moral significance than that suggested by
difference in language or other racial modes and customs. Cer¬
tainly it has no Christian sanction. Jew and Gentile, Greek
and barbarian, bond and free, white and black are all one in
Christ Jesus. The highest moral and social standards the
world has known have been what they are precisely because
they have refused to recognize these so-called racial and na¬
tional and tribal distinctions, as well as all difference of class
or caste and all personal antagonisms due to selfishness and
pride as having any weight affecting the moral principles of
justice and love. As to what physiological reasons there may
be against the physical union of opposite racial types I am not
competent to speak. I am strongly disposed to believe that
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
117
there are important social reasons against such physical union
—but this I am not now discussing. But that the only solvent
of the unhappy antagonisms between races and nations and
peoples and persons in this world, to which all belong and
which belongs to all, is Christian love and justice is so plain
on the face of it, and so unmistakably the distinguishing Chris¬
tian doctrine of society that to deny it is both stupid and anti-
Christian. And any belief in the invincibility of race antago¬
nism and mob-fury and cruelty and revenge is a species of
treason both to Christianity and to humanity.
Now what I am coming to is this, the fundamental human
elements involved in murder by mobs are simple and plain.
They are to be described by ugly words, but they are words
which all of us understand. They signify those moral quali¬
ties—or lack of qualities with which the social task is eternally
concerned. But this is not an impossible task. It can be suc¬
cessfully carried through. The agencies to be used are relig¬
ion and education, or in the broadest sense education, which
include the influence and power of religion.
In this work the instruments of formal education known
collectively as the School must play their part.
This introduces at once the question of moral training in the
schoolroom which is still in solution in the American mind.
Into the general proposition I can not go. But the question in
hand has not only moral significance in the narrow sense as
applied to individuals. It has implications of the widest social
importance. It involves the civic welfare in the most vital
way. It has to do with the happiness and prosperity as well
as the moral character of this whole nation of ours, and espec¬
ially of the South where twenty millions of whites and ten
millions of Negroes are fellow-citizens, and where both races
are likely to persist in perpetual distinction. It is therefore a
matter of necessity that the schools, which are the training
camps of citizenship without which democracy will degenerate
into anarchy, should undertake and effectually carry out that
training which will make the social life of these two races tol¬
erable, which will lift it to the plane of the worthiest civiliza¬
tion and realize democratic freedom for all men. And since
the crime of the lynching of Negroes is a constantly recurring
phenomenon in our Southern life, and since it is perhaps the
118
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
most malignant and widely destructive sin against the general
social well-being of the South, it should be made the specific
center of, or occasion for, a system of moral and social instruc¬
tion and training deliberately designed to correct the evil—to
bring the passions from which it springs under control and to
cultivate the social sentiments of love and justice.
While it may be that the chief responsibility for elementary
moral training rests upon the family and the Church, never¬
theless our schools ought to be centers of moral enlightenment.
In that age of extreme suggestability, during which the child
is more under the influence of teacher and schoolmates than
of any other persons whatsoever, the sentiments and tastes,
and even the so-called principles which come at last to lie at
the very base of his impulsive action, or on the other hand to
control it, are moulded into his forming personality. The sen¬
timent of justice and the applications of its principles are
largely determined for him at this time and under these influ¬
ences. So also with love and its applications with reference
to which we are all such miserable sinners because such
wretched ignoramuses. On the other hand the power of self-
control which is so manifestly the outcome of wise discipline
is largely the product of the school where it may be taught
partly by direct instruction but chiefly by example and sugges¬
tion and that wise organization of school life the value of
which the good teacher knows.
Elementary courses in morals, sociology, psychology and
good government will finally be introduced into the curricula
of the common schools. But the teacher will doubtless see that
it should be in that out-of-class instruction which determines
so largely the real spirit and character of a school that the
proper human sentiments and modes of thought and attitudes
of life are developed which will dominate the character with
honor, justice and love.
But teaching needs to be made specific and concrete. Like
the experiment in the laboratory which sometimes reveals al¬
most at a glance the meaning of a whole chapter in the text¬
book, the citing of a concrete instance may clearly open before
the growing boy or girl an unperceived field for moral obliga¬
tion and activity. I would to God that we had ten thousand
teachers in our Southern public schools who would openly and
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
119
persistently teach their students that race-hatred was a moral
and social sin, that to deny justice to a Negro as to any other
human being was narrow and mean and selfish, that lightly
to regard human life even of the lowest and most ignorant
and most guilty of men were to be guilty of a profanity the
black blight of which would lie upon the soul like a spiritual
drought, and the desert blast of which would wither at last all
the beauty and the fruitage from the gardens of the human
world.
But the institutions of the higher education should also do
their part. In them are to be trained the teachers who are to
go forth to their tasks among the young growing humans of
the schools. There also parents, ministers, editors, publicists,
statesmen and all cultivated citizens should have had these
sentiments and principles, which must control a civilized and
Christian society, rationalized and brought into relation and
harmony with the whole scheme of adult human thought and
useful social activity. In a very moving address before the
Religious Education Association some years ago Dr. Francis
Greenwood Peabody said, "The social question needs not only
a science but a philosophy. It must be not only approached by
the scientific habit of mind, but it must be defined as a move¬
ment of ethical idealism." In a previous paragraph he had
said, "The modern social question can not be fought through,
or crowded through, or blundered through; it must be thought
through."
Here is suggested partly the office of the college and univer¬
sity in relation to a social problem which is at the same time
a recurrent crime and a violent and explosive destroyer of
civilization.
But I wish to speak a word about the service of the college
which may be considered in another aspect of its life. The
college is a little world—it is human society organized in min¬
iature. The principles of democracy and liberty, of justice
and service and kindness, of the value of human rights and the
sanctity of human life, ought to be fostered and maintained—
ought to be wrought into the ideals and attempted to be car¬
ried out in the practice of the daily life of the student body. It
is a shame to the institution when a youth comes forth from a
college narrow and partisan and selfish and grasping. It is
120
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
a reflection upon the kind of education received if the graduate
is still bound in the spiritual slavery of caste-pride or race
prejudice. A "liberal education" as we are accustomed to call
it should have set men free, as long ago the greatest of all
teachers said the possession of the truth should do.
In conclusion I would suggest that the immediate utilization
of student sentiments and initiative in this service might be
of both practical and educational value.
Everybody knows that the young idealists of our college
communities want to "get busy." They are great propa¬
gandists. They have a call to service. It would be easy to
organize the entire student body of almost any of our South¬
ern colleges into a "Society for the Suppression of Lynching."
Under the right sort of guidance these young experimenters
in life might be informed as to the social consequences of these
crimes, might be made the preachers of a crusade against law¬
lessness; and all might become fixed in the sentiments and
principles which would prevent or control social uprisings in
pursuit of vengeance and in the spirit of lawlessness.
If such associations could be formed in a number of our
Southern colleges and an intercollegiate fraternity of feeling
and co-operation of effort brought about, it might become an
effective force for the suppression of this particular form of
lawlessness, and in support of law and order in general. A
small beginning has indeed already been made in this direc¬
tion and an attempt to arouse the interest and secure the co¬
operation of the heads of our Southern colleges.
But college presidents are busy men. They have already
more irons in the fire than they can use or keep from burning.
They have so many meetings to attend, so many addresses to
deliver, so little time for study; and moreover, there are al¬
ready so many organizations among college men and college
students that college presidents hardly dare undertake the
leadership of a new movement and a new kind of organization.
I beg, however, to suggest that under the influence of this Con¬
ference now in session, and in the moral and social exigency
which mob-violence continues to make so threatening, the col¬
leges of the country might be made the centers of influence
and activity for the redemption of our civilization from the
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
121
criminal obsession which exhibits itself in the lynching of
negroes.
CONSTRUCTIVE CONCLUSIONS .
The recent migration of thousands of Negroes from the
South to other sections of the country, the almost simultaneous
outbreaks of lawlessness and mob violence against Negroes in
widely separated regions of the North, West and South have
aroused the attention of the Nation. This conference on Law
and Order did not come into being as a result of recently
aroused public opinion. It is rather the culmination of the
efforts and the study of that growing body of citizens of the
South who have long realized the perils of the situation and
who are moved by the compulsion of Christian conscience and
the call of an obligation that is founded on justice and brother¬
hood.
We have not met to voice a wholesale indictment against
either the white or the negro peoples of the South. Criminality
on the one hand and the spirit of mob law on the other are by
no means prevalent through the whole South. We recognize
with profound gratitude the remarkable progress made by the
Negro race in material prosperity, in education, and in moral
integrity, and the spirit of helpfulness North and South that
has encouraged and accelerated these gains. Already negroes
own property in the South valued at $900,000,000. Their
young people fill thousands of public schools sustained for the
most part by the self-imposed taxes of the Southern white peo¬
ple. Their own higher educational institutions, industrial
schools and colleges are doing a work and rendering a service
that can not be valued too highly. A full recognition of this
is essential to the complete understanding and co-operation of
all forces, North and South, white and black, that are in the
last analysis necessary to the right solution of a nation-wide
problem with its nation-wide responsibility.
We are convinced that the solution of the problem before us
is essential to the task of making democracy safe in America,
that America may help to make the world safe for democracy.
1. The so-called Negro problem is a detail of the age-long and
universal human problem of how the different peoples of the
earth, and even the same people, though separated by differ-
122
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
ences in religion, language, customs, civic attitudes, social and
economic status, occupation, profession, and a multitude of
other differences, can dwell together in peace, harmony and
mutual helpfulness, and not in discord and mutual destructive-
ness. In but very few places on our planet has this lesson been
learned; hence, the ceaseless wars, conflicts and frictions. The
friction between the races in the South is but a part of this
whole.
2. Probably the most fundamental and important element in
the complex Negro problem is the economic one. Heretofore the
strong, either in body or mind, have used their strength to
exploit the weak for their own advantage and aggrandizement.
The Negro being weak has naturally been exploited. When,
in the new era that is dawning the strong shall use their pow¬
ers not to exploit the weak, but to serve them, then the Negro,
along with other weak and backward races, shall receive not
only a square deal, but help and encouragement to develop to
the fullest their native capacities for the enlargement and en¬
richment of all human life.
3. This conference deprecates any lack of certain and speedy
justice by due process of law in the case of any and all crime.
4. All officers of justice who resist any attempt at public dis¬
order on the part of a mob should be publicly commended in the
highest degree.
5. Public sentiment should be so cultivated as to make it im¬
possible for any officer to retain public office who does not to
the utmost of his ability carry out his full oath to enforce the
law he is sworn to uphold.
6. We hold as fundamental that for the Negro, as well as for
all other human beings, home ownership is the basis of secur¬
ity, stability of citizenship, full-statured civic responsibility,
law and order and social progress.
7. We recommend the establishment of Law and Order
Leagues everywhere to correct unfortunate conditions, im¬
prove surroundings that lead to insanitation, poverty, disorder,
and crime, and anticipate and prevent mob violence whenever
threatened.
8. We urge the importance of regular and fearless charges
to grand juries by trial judges on the evil of mob violence.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
123
9. We look forward to the time when physical and mental
examinations by recognized experts shall be made of all per¬
sons on trial in our criminal courts.
10. We endorse the formation of a Southern Speakers Bu¬
reau of Law and Order, the members of which may be called
on to speak before all bodies concerned with social problems,
looking forward to the establishment of similar bureaus in
every Southern State.
11. We realize the immediate need of a fund for publication
and extension work, and to this end we urge that contributions
be sent to Dr. W. D. Weatherford, Nashville, Tenn.
12. We suggest that abundant literature on race problems
be placed in all libraries throughout the South. A reading list
can be had from Dr. W. D. Weatherford, Nashville, Tenn.
13. We suggest the editing of text-books on elemental mor¬
ality, on the lives and works of noted Negroes, and on the prob¬
lems and progress of the Negro race, to be placed in the regular
curriculum of all Negro public schools.
14. Since the chief remedial force for the prevention of mob
violence is the development of a right public sentiment, and
since women have a large share in the creation of public senti¬
ment, we believe there should be concerted action by women
for the education of white women on the evils of mob violence,
through the agencies of the home, the women's clubs, the
church organizations, the schools and colleges. We believe
that the women need to impress upon the men of the country
that mob violence is not an effective protection of womanhood.
We believe further that no race is stronger than its woman¬
kind ; and, therefore, we exalt the integrity of the home as the
largest asset of any race, white or colored. We believe that
true chivalry on the part of all men demands respect for wom¬
anhood, either white or colored.
15. A committee shall be appointed to submit for the consid¬
eration of State Teachers' Associations, State Conventions of
Political Parties, State Press Associations, and State Church
Conventions, short resolutions urging obedience to law and
condemning mob violence.
16. That this committee prepare and submit to State Boards
of Education for use in public schools in connection with the
study of civil government, a monograph setting forth obe-
124
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
dience to lawfully constituted authority as a paramount duty
of citizenship.
17. We pledge to each other and to the people of both white
and black races in the South, our utmost endeavors to allay
hurtful race prejudice, to promote mutual understanding, sym¬
pathy and good will to procure economic justice, and in particu¬
lar to condemn and oppose all forms of mob violence.
Dr. E. C. Branson,
Professor of Rural Economics, University
of North Carolina.
Dr. W. D. Weatherford, Nashville, Tenn.,
Student Secretary Y. M. C. A.
Dr. Richard Hogue, Baltimore, Md.,
Secretary Pursonus Aid Society.
Dr. C. C. Menzler,
Secretary Tennessee State Board of Chari¬
ties.
Mrs. Arch Trawick, Nashville, Tenn.,
General Secretary Y. W. C. A.
Mr. Jackson Davis, Richmond, Va.,
Southern Agent General Education Board.
Dr. W. F. Tillett, Nashville, Tenn.,
Dean of School of Religion, Vanderbilt
University.
Committee.
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
125
LIST OF PERSONS ATTENDING LAW
AND ORDER CONFERENCE
BLUE RIDGE, N. C., AUG. 4-6, 1917
Mrs. W. C. Winsbrough, Atlanta, Ga.
Philip H. Wisman, 702 Boulevard, Salem, Ya.
James H. Dillard, Charlottsville, Va.
F. C. Button, Frankfort, Ky.
Wilbur F. Tillett, Yanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
J. B. Blades, Newbern, S. C.
John A. Rice, 5068 Washington St., St. John's M. E. C. South, St. Louis.
Mrs. John A. Rice, Washington St., St. John's M. E. C. South, St. Louis.
E. Stagg Whitin, National Com. on Prisons and Prison Labor, Columbia
University.
Mrs. J. D. Hammond, Dalton, Ga.
Stuart G. Noble, Jackson, Miss.
Richard W. Hogue, Baltimore, Md., Box 140.
W. H. Mills, Clemson College, Clemson, S. C.
J. E. Swearingen, Superintendent of Education, Columbia, S. C.
E. C. Branson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C.
Walter B. Hill, Washington, D. C., U. S. Bureau of Education.
Lemuel Bailey Green, 1248 15th St., Augusta, Ga.
Mrs. Thomas W. Lingle, Secretary N. C. Dept. of Social Service, Davidson,
N. C.
Estelle Haskin, 122 18th Avenue, South, Nashville, Tenn.
Eugene C. Brooks, Trinity College, Durham, N. C.
Mrs. Archibald Davis, 1220 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Ga.
Mrs. H. A. Durham, 224 Patton Avenue, Asheville, N. C.
A. J. Speer, Acipco YMCA, Birmingham, Ala.
N. C. Newbold, Dept. of Education, Raleigh, N. C.
Jackson Davis, 702 Chamber of Commerce Bldg., Richmond, Va.
Arthur D. Wright, Box 15, Richmond, Va.
C. Fletcher Quillian, 3 Brantley Court, Cambridge, Mass.
B. F. Riley, 2033 13th Avenue South, Birmingham, Ala.
Thomas Jesse Jones, U. S. Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C.
John W. Gilbert, Payne College, Augusta, Ga.
G. P. Phenix, Hampton, Va.
Rev. John Little, Louisville, Ky.
C. C. Menzler, Secretary Tennessee State Board of Charities, Nashville,
Tenn.
J. H. Brannon, Dept. of Education, Columbia, S. C.
V. O. Gilbert, Frankfort, Ky.
126
Lawlessness or Civilization—Which?
Mrs. E. L. Souby, Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Alexander Johnson, Empire Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa.
Miss Charlotte Dye, 8514 Fifth Avenue, Birmingham, Ala.
J. R. Stepp, Black Mountain, N. C.
Marion M. Hull, M.D., Atlanta, Ga.
Lonnie Stepp, Black Mountain, N. C.
Mrs. F. C. Abbott, Charlotte, N. C.
Dean J. L. Kesler, Baylor University, Waco, Texas.
Gilbert T. Stephenson, Winston-Salem, N. C.
C. M. Bishop, Pres. S. W. Univ., Georgetown, Texas.
Mrs. Arch Trawick, General Secretary YWCA, Nashville, Tenn.
W. D. Weatherford, International Committee YMCA, Nashville, Tenn.
Mrs. C. Fletcher Quillian, 3 Bromley Court, Cambridge, Mass.
W. S. Currell, Pres. University of S. C., Columbia, S. C.
SELECTED LIST OF BOOKS ON THE RACE PROBLEM.
In Black and White, Hammond, Revell.
A clear statement of conditions by a Southern woman.
Following the Color Line, Baker; Doubleday, Page & Co.
One of the fairest statements by a Northern man.
Human Way, The
Report of Southern Sociological Congress Papers, Atlanta, 1913,
published by the Congress, McLachlen Bldg., Washington.
Negro's Progress in Fifty Years, American Academy of Polit¬
ical and Social Science.
Negro Life in the South, Weatherford; Association Press,
N. Y.
A statement of the principles and spirit which will help solve the
problem.
New Voice in Race Adjustment, Student Volunteer Movement,
N. Y.
Papers presented at colored Christian Student Conference, 1914.
Present South, The, Murphy; Longman, Green & Co.
One of the clearest statements of principles underlying the relation
of the races.
Dace Distinction in American Law, Stephenson; Appletons.
A clear, scholarly statement of the legal aspects of race problems.
Washington, B. T., Builder of a Civilization, Scott-Stowe;
Doubleday, Page & Co.
A most illuminating statement of the life and work of this great
leader.
nSK UNIVERSITY
IN THE CITY OF NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
FAYETTE AVERY McKENZIE, Ph. D., L.L.D., President
An Institution for the Higher
Education of the Negro
CREATOR OF NATIONAL AND INTERRACIAL PEACE
The character of education
given at Fisk Univesity is
proving increasingly valuable
in the
PROMOTION OF
INTERRACIAL
PEACE
The broad courses of study
in History, Philosophy, Ap¬
plied Ethics, Science, etc.,
give that broad outlook on
life, that appreciation and
tolerance of the viewpoints of
other social groups which are
so necessary for peaceful
human intercourse.
It is the hope of the pres¬
ent administration that it may
wisely and sympathetically
direct the courses of study in
a way that will render dis¬
tinct service in helping to in¬
terpret the races to each
other.
It has been conclusively established that
education of the Negro brings such an obe¬
dience to the law that crime is practically
eliminated. Only one Fisk graduate has
ever been convicted of any form of crime.
Fisk students and Fisk graduates have
established a splendid place for them¬
selves in the appreciation of the citizens
of Nashville and throughout the South.
No investment can compare with invest¬
ment in education as social insurance
against disorder, violence and crime.
The United States Bureau of Education
officially recognizes Fisk as one of three
institutions of distinctive college and pro¬
fessional rank for Negroes in the United
States.
The United States Commissioner of Edu¬
cation, Dr. Philander P. Claxton, from
Tennessee, in a public address last Janu¬
ary, appealed to the country for an endow¬
ment at Fisk of a million dollars, that it
might continue to improve the significant
work it is already doing for the South and
the Nation.
Aid in large and small amounts is
needed at all times, is particularly needed
at the present time. This need will be
met by the generosity of those who believe
in efficient methods for social welfare.
THE UNIVERSITY APPEALS TO THOSE WHO
ARE INTERESTED TO COME AND SEE.
niiniiiiuwutuiuiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'.iiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiir.iniiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiimiiiiiHiiiii!!;
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE I
PRESIDENT
Moorefield Story
VICE PRESIDENTS
Archibald H. Grimke
Rev. John Haynes Holmes
Bishop John Hurst
John E. Milholland
Mary White Ovington
Oswald Garrison Villard
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
Dr. J. E. Spingarn, Chairman of
Board
Oswald Garrison Villard, Treasurer
Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, Director of
Publications and Research
Roy Nash, Secretary
James Weldon Johnson, Field Sec¬
retary.
Chicago
Jane Addams
Dr. C. E. Bentley
Boston
Joseph Prince Loud
Butler R. Wilson
Baltimore
Bishop John Hurst
Dr. F. N. Cardozo
Springeld, Mass.
Rev. G. R. Waller
DIRECTORS
Washington
Prof. Geo. Wm. Cook
Brooklyn
Dr. V. Morton Jones
Dr. O. M. Waller
New Haven
George W. Crawford
Philadelphia
Dr. Wm. A. Sinclair
New York
Rev. H. C. Bishop
Mrs. Florence Kelley
Paul Kennaday
Charles E. Russell
Arthur B. Spingarn
Charles H. Studin
Dr. John G. Underhill
Lillian D. Wald
William E. Walling
With Memphis and East St. Louis fresh in our memories, we know that
the fight for humanity and democracy abroad is not more important than
the fight for humanity and democracy at home.
ENLIST NOW in the N. A. A. C. P. Your support was never needed
more than now.
Address Communications to JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, Acting Secretary,
70 Fifth Avenue, New York
The Crisis
A Record of the Darker Races
The Voice of Those American Negroes who believe themselves men—the
equal of other men, and entitled to every manhood right.
Published monthly at 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City, by the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
and edited by W. E. B. DuBois
Circulation, Over 40,000
One Dollar a Year