p. 6 | Politics and Mob Rule

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 17, 1908

Politics and Mob Rule

A CORRESPONDENT of the Northwestern Christian Advocate furnishes a vivid report of the recent outbreak of mob violence in Springfield, Ill. He declares that “the remote and real cause was the indescribable ‘black belt,’ which through twenty-five years of municipal misrule, has grown to such proportions as to be a menace to the whole city.” He continues:—

To such depths of debauchery has politics descended that the “nigger vote” in this wretched district was more patronized and coddled than the decent citizenship of the entire remaining portion of the city. The price of votes was raised from time to time until it reached the five-dollar-a-head level. Leaders were naturally developed with which candidates dickered. . . . The heroic struggle of the colored churches and the better element of the negro population to uplift their race, has been neutralized and defeated by shameless politicians and corrupt officials, who for personal gain or greed have not hesitated to debauch and destroy, so far as they were able, the manhood and self-respect of this unfortunate people. What could be expected of such conditions but riot and disorder?

The stability and permanency of a republican government are assured only by the self-control of its citizens. Anarchy and mob rule are encouraged when the self-respect and the self-control of the individual citizens are bought and sold in the market. The outbreak at Springfield, Ill., is only an indication of what will become more and more general as the result of the more wide-spread corruption in politics, and the almost uncontrolled sway of the evil passions.