|
1heCainbridgeRecGrd
Polished Monday, Wednesday and Friday
Entered as second class matter in the Postoffice at Cambridge, Md.
CAMBRIDGE, MD., DEC.
1931
Putoluuied Bi
Webb & Webb
Subscription price One Dollar and half; six months, Seventy-five Cents. Postage paid.
Obituary or In Memoriam notices cost live cents per line, each insertion.
Advertising Rates furnished on application. Job Printing of every description, neatly executed on the most reasonable terms. Correspondence solicited.
Friday's Lynching
te lynching which occured Friday, in Salisbury will ; undoubtedly, and rightly be charged to the misrepresentation campaign, (bat. has been carried on by some of the -Baltimore newspapers. It is. easy for any one exercising- the slightest de-give ol' fairness to fallow the, psychology which lead up '<> this unfortunate afafir.
Several weeks ago a family of four persons was murdered'. A hegl'o was arrested and confessed his g^uilt to several persons ana gave t§e.m his reasons for committing the crime. ,One or two of the ll.-illi more City papers ran sensational headings and misleading news articles concerning the crime and as the result of this The InternalionaI Labor Defense League got into V-
Reprinted of Saturday's Editorial <>-,
the Eastern Shore From The
- .. .
Morning Sun
DISGRACE
Editorial Reprinted from The Evening Sun of last week
No Temporizing
More Misrepresentations
In an editorial carried by the Bal timore Sun Saturday morning a: campaign of misrepresentation of the Eastern Shore of Maryland is-carried to the point of being insulting to every resident of this peninsula, although we do not .suppose this makes any difference to the:*puWishers of that paper. We republish the editorial on this page. J1'**-.
We deny emphatically that mob violence has existed on the Shore for four weeks as alleged by The Sun. The only time there has been :inob violence was when Mr. Ades* was slightly mishandled at Snow Hill and on that occasion those composing thfe crowd had no desire to seriously injure Mr. Ades but simply wanted Mm to understand that the people of that section resented the methods which he was employing in the Lee case. Of course if The Sun feels impelled to1 defend, protect and nuturer the organization
less than a month ago a mob formed down in Worcester county' and made an effort to lynch a Negro accused of murder. Failing to find its intended victim, the members of the me-b apprea^ed their blood lust, to some extent at least, by beating up one of the lawyers appointed to defend the prisoner.
There was much excitement created The Governor insisted that the Negro would be protected at any cost an;'announced his intention of catling out the National Guard.
That sounded, fine, but that it wa-= effectively in quelling the mob spirit we venture to doubt. For yesterday, in Kent county, another mob formed, on the Chestertown jail and through it wth the announced intention of lynching a Negro accused „of attempted rape. The Negro haej already been spirited away but so violent, were the would-be lynchers thai, they searched jails in four counties before giving up hope of shedding blood.
It /is clear that making the gesture of ''protecting the prisoner" is not enough. Mobs, as everyone know;;
¦ The Eastern Shore has reaped it reward. For four weeks its 'Teckles elements have proclaimed mob law For four weeks its officials and it responsible citizens have yielded ground. They started with theii minds fixed upon law as the mean of dealing with crime, however atroc Lous. But they have increased'.? wavered. In the Yuel Lee case th< court could find last Monday no con ditions which would prevent a fa:' and orderly trial at Cambridge, al though no more than two weeks ag the same court and the State's Attor ney had petitioned the Governor foi troops and for police "armed for an emergi-'ncy./V That Judicial Aiiljij. so strangely in accord with popula clamor, so hazardous in the view o: observers, was hailed on the Easter] Shore as a vindication of the dignrtj of the people! And, as if in logica
sequence, last night a mob in Sails bury heeded the law not at all, bu instantly wreaked barbarous ven geance upon a Negro murderer. We say the Eastern Shore has it
reward. Whether the reward take: the form this morning of sati faetioi 0]- of shame we have no means o' knowing. We do know that the East era Shore's reward is> shams for trv State of Maryland. It is Uverit; years since Maryland has. been d'.s
¦¦raced by this savagery. We hat"
supposed the freedom from ('-'.sgi'aci was permanent. It is not ijejesjsar to demonstrate to intelligent men an women that lynching is an a :saul upon the State, upon the law and up on civilization—or that in unloosing t,he violent, murdeious impulses o many men its r*fte* upon the com munity ranks it as the gravest o crimes. Our decent people know tha and it had net been supposed that' ir any oil an;' seasoned community oi this State, decent an*d intelligent people would throw wk'-e the gates to the mad and unreasoning and bid them take command. It was a false pr':de and a false security. The lowest am, least civilized elements did take command, and that remains true whether oi- not men of position participated in the Salisbury lynching or tacitly approved it.
There will be hope that this upsurge of barbarity will bring intelligent men on the Eastern Shore to their senses, and that they will take whatever steps nesd to be taken to assure respect for the lav; in the case of the two Negro:; yet to be tried for serious crimes But there is a duty beyond that. There is a duty upon the officials of Wic-' omico county and upon Governor Ritchie to seek out the members of the Salisbury mob and to punish them. It must be admitted that there is no great hope that the county oficials will do so. The size of the mob and the manner in which the lynching was carried out point to official indifference and complacency. That, however, only makes it the more imperative that the Governor use the full power of -.his office and that he per* mitno technicalities to stand in the way .of ruthless prosecution.
|
