AN UGLY EPIDEMIC by New York Tribune

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 17, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 23.

AN UGLY EPIDEMIC.

By New York Tribune

No careful reader of the newspapers can have failed to notice that the peculiar form of mob outrages committed by disguised men adopting the generic name of "White Caps" has for several months been extending, until now there is evidence of the existence of these lawless organizations in at least half a dozen States. The pretext used by these criminals—for that is what they are—is always the same: that is, they take upon themselves the functions of "regulators;" they have in charge the morals of the regions they infest; they not only supersede the constituted authorities, but they arrogate jurisdiction over matters entirely outside the province of legislation. Riding by night, masked and armed, they surround isolated farm and other houses, drag out the inmates, both men and women, and often flog both sexes brutally and cruelly, and with a cowardly ferocity and defiance of decency that give the lie flatly to their pretense of concern for the public morals. The outrages perpetrated in this way have become in some States so numerous as to constitute a serious indictment of the communities that tolerate them, and a standing disgrace to the officials who are charged with the maintenance of law and order and the protection of law-abiding citizens from malefactors; and there can be no question that the peculiar lawlessness referred to threatens to discredit the country abroad as well as at home. The most disturbing feature of it is the spirit which underlies and prompts it. It is impossible to believe that where White Capism springs up there can be that rooted and intelligent apprehension of the principles of free government which every American ought to possess as a birth-right; nor could these outrages be endured with the strange apathy too commonly observed in such cases, were even those who disapprove but do not repress them, alive either to their privileges or their duties as citizens.

Certainly this kind of lawlessness must not be regarded as of little importance. It is, whatever else it may be, most clearly an indication of widespread ignorance of all that the American citizen ought to know as he knows the most essential matters of fact.

When, in the frontier territories, vigilance committees are organized for the suppression of crime which the authorities are too weak to deal with, a really wholesome ferment may be traced in the movement. But the White Caps are a distinct turning back of the crude frontier make-shift methods upon older and long-settled communities, and they are disturbing, because they reveal, when least it should have been anticipated, views of democracy and of social obligations and responsibilities, such as the most uninformed recent immigrants from the darkest regions of Europe might entertain. In these cases it cannot be pretended that any failure of the administrative machinery has preceded and stimulated the mob action; for most of the alleged offenses punished by the White Caps are not recognized as offenses by any American statute. There is, in truth, a seed of anarchy in this ugly epidemic of White Capism, and it must not only be stamped out vigorously and effectually, but its resurrection at any future time must be made impossible by the diffusion of fuller and sounder knowledge as to the rights and duties of citizenship.