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Prominent Salisbury Man Killed By Negro Who Was Lynched
essary for me to say that I do not believe in lynching as a solution of our difficulties, but I wish to add this work of solemn warning:
"That so long as Yuel Lee goes untried, unsentenced and unhung the door is being opened more widely into . limitless possibilities."
USflDiE TOD.JJLUOTT
Salisbury Business Man Who
Was Murdered Friday
Laid To Rest
Matt Williams, 35-year-old negro, who Friday afternoon shot and killed Daniel Elliott, prominent Salisbury manufacturer, while the latter was seated at his desk, in telephone conversation with a friend; and then turned the pistol on himself in an effort to take his own life, was dragged from the Peninsula General Hospital Friday evening, at about 7.30 o'clock, marched to Courthouse Green in Salisbury, and hanged from a tree on the lawn of the Court House.
Afterward, the body was taken down, and behind an automobile confiscated by leaders of the angry mob, dragged to a vacant lot near the negro settlement and burned.
The murder of Mr. Elliott stirred Salisbury, and the entire Eastern Shore, as no crime has affected this section in years. Coming as it did, upon the heels of the brutal murder by Yuel Lee of a family of four near Berlin, and according to observers, apparently being directly traceable to the Lee crime, and the delay in bringing the murderer to justice, little was needed to set off the spark which resulted in the execution of summary justice at Salisbury Friday night.
Saturday Governor Ritchie announced that a sweeping investigation would be made of the affair at Salisbury, and stated that all of the resources of the State had been placed at the disposal of the Attorney General and other authorities making the investigation.
Mrs. Elliott, wife of the murdered man, is a native of Snow Hill. Before marriage she was Miss Lottie Vickers, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Vickers, for many years residents of Snow Hill.
On Sunday, from the pulpits of many of the churches of the Eastern Shore, ministers denounced the lynching, but in a number of cases placed the blame upon the. delay in the Lee case. Scores of Shore ministers denounced the activities of alleged Communist organizations in Baltimore, and condemned Bernard Ades for his activity in Shore affairs. . '
Rev. John J. Bunting, Methodist minister of Crisfield, in his sermon Sunday night, deplored the lynching, but placed the blame directly upon the shoulders of the Baltimore city press, and the International Labor Defense League, of which Bernard Ades is counsel. Mr. Bunting asserted that the people of the Eastern Shore are just as law-abiding as the people of Baltimore City, or any other section of the country, and declared that the Eastern Shore does not need the advice of the Baltimore press or of the International Labor Defense League, or any other Communistic or Red organization, to direct its affairs. But for the activities of these organizations, and the distorted statements appearing in Baltimore papers, Mr. Bunting asserted, the unfortunate affair at Salisbury would not have occurred.
The general impression, in all sections of the Eastern Shore, is that but for the interminable delay in the Lee case, Williams would not have shot Mr. Elliott, and even if he had, the Courts would have been permitted to take care of the case in the usual manner.
The funeral of Daniel J. Elliott, of Salisbury, lumberman and manufacturer who was murdered Friday afternoon by Matthews Williams, negro employe, was held Sunday afternoon from his residence. Thousands of people lined the streets to see the funeral cortege wend slowly through the business section to Parsons cemetery on Division Street, where interment was made. Huge banks" of flowers, sent by friends, business organizations and citizens from all over the Eastern Shore, covered the sides and ends of the grave.
No indication of the tense feeling which had reached its peak on Friday night when the negro was lynched, was observed at the funeral. All was grief and sympathy for the family of the murdered manufacturer. As the pallbearers lowered the casket into the grave, faces grew tense and stern a*id the silence was only broken by the weeping relatives. Small cnil-dren clung to their mother's hands as if realizing that they were witnessing the most tragic funeral in the history of Salisbury. Prominent men and women of the city moved closer to the edge of the grave as the minister repeated the burial services of Mr. Elliott's church. On the outskirts of the crowd, men less responsible in the community shook their heads and muttered to each other.
The funeral was at three o'clock, but it was nearly 4.30 when the last witness to the burial and the last automobile left the cemetery. The main street leading past the cemetery was block to traffic during the ceremony and it was not until nearly 5 o'clock that it was fully open.
The services at the grave were conducted by the Masonic Lodge, of which Mr. Elliott was a member.
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THIS IS SANE
The Wilmington, Del., Every E editorial last Saturday, which is fa in the matter:
"The lynching at Salisbury, Md slayer of a white man was hanged
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