p. 8 | MOB REASON AND LAW by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 17, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 20.

MOB REASON AND LAW.

By Editor

WE have no words to express our abhorrence of the low, brutal, lustful crime of the Georgia negro, committed the other day. But, however brutal and devilish it was, it was no excuse for his barbarous, savage, fiendish execution by the mob. One Southern gentleman truly remarked that after mutilating and burning their victim they ought to have eaten of his flesh, and the savage picture would have been complete. Then, even worse than this, on the unsupported testimony of the poor wretch they burned, they hung another man, a negro preacher, whom his employer declared to be, in his belief, innocent, and who till he died averred his own innocence. His employer was willing that the man should be imprisoned; but asked only that he should have a fair trial. This the mob once promised, but a word fired them again, and the poor fellow was hung, from mere mob prejudice. That such a spirit is not confined to the South is evidenced by the work of the mad mob of strikers in Warden, Idaho, who shot wantonly their own friends, supposing them to be non-union men. They then blew up with dynamite the property of the mine-owners to the value of $250,000. And all this was done simply and solely because those on whom the mob wreaked its vengeance did not agree with the mob. The miners had asked for a raise of wages, and the mine-owners had granted it, but the mine-owners would not discharge the non-union men at the demand of the union. In the South it was a "nigger" who fired the mob by an atrocious double crime; but in Idaho it was mere disagreement with the union, and, even tho a non-union man were shot, what matter? he is only a "scab."

We would not for a moment charge the entire South with this race hatred or this crime. We are sure if the late Mr. Grady had been at the head of the Atlanta Constitution it would not have justified the mob spirit. Neither would we lay at the door of all laboring unions the fearful crime of the Idaho miners; for we are persuaded that it will not be countenanced by the mass.

We take occasion to point out the increase in mob law, and its foolish, unreasoning action. If the mob ever does justice it is generally in connection with crimes over which there would be no doubt as to the issue in court. The men with money and position, likely to influence courts or juries, are never mobbed. Mob judgment is rarely ever calm or deliberate. This is shown in the hanging of the negro preacher, and the drilled mobs of the miners shooting their own men. The "reason" of the mob is mad, unrestrained, prejudiced passion. In no sense is it Christian in character, tho every actor in its mad work be a church-member. "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." But the mob does not believe this. They are unwilling not only to trust legal measures, but God. A country that has furnished 127 lynchings during the last year, can hardly be called Christian. And, lastly, all this increase of violence shows, according to the "sure word of prophecy," that we are nearing the coming of the great day of God, when Christ shall take to Himself His great power and reign, and in whose presence all sin and all who have identified themselves with sin shall perish.