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The Wrong Way.
There is a right way and a wrong way to do everything—the mob of two thousand men and ¦women who lynched a negro accused of murder in Salisbury, selected the wrong way and as a consequence brought shame upon Wicomico County and the State of Maryland as well.
If the State's Attorney and other officials of a neighboring .county had displayed backbone enough to arrest leaders of a mob (that attacked Mr. Bernard Ades, attorney for the Labor Defense
League, who wended his way to Snow Hill in the interest of Yuel Lee, a negro accused of murder, and had seen that they were tried and convicted, the Salisbury lynching would not have occurred. The utterance of the Snow Hill State's Attorney and other officials that Mr. Ades had no right to interfere in a murder case on the Eastern Shore is positively ridiculous—he not only has a right to appear in courts of justice i on the Easteim Shore, but courts of justice in any part of the United States where the interests of a client calls him.
The crime for which Yuel Lee was arrested and is awaiting trial 'was most revolting. The crime for which the negro, Handy, paid the penalty at the hands of tin; Salisbury mob was shocking. The Wood lust of the Eastern Shore has claimed a victim. Lynch law has prevailed. The brutality and barbarism of prehistoric times has been re-enacted. All rules of religion have been violated. Little or no effort on the part of the Police Chief or the Sheriff was made to stop the mob and it Wreaked its vengeance. Upon the altar of cruelty it immolated not jnerely a negro murderer, but justice and decency, which form the foundation of a civilized community.
The deed is done. The blot has been placed upon the map of Maryland. The Governor has promised that the leaders of the Balishmy mob will be brought to the bar of justice and punished, hut we doubt if they ever will be.
Forty-six years ago a lynching took place in Baltimore County, but we do not believe that such a thing could happen here today. Our judicial machinery moves too fast and too smoothly for citizens to become'restless. Our Chief of Police and our Sheriff are equal to any occasion, and unlike the weaklings who hold corresponding offices in Wicomico county, would stand until a bullet ended their existence in order to protect a prisoner—a duty which they are sworn to perform.
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