p. 16 | A SAD PICTURE by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 22, 1905

A SAD PICTURE.

By Editor

The following is from an editorial in the Springfield Republican, entitled, "Mississippi and Negro Crime."

Governor Vardaman's speech last week at the opening of the Mississippi corn and cotton carnival considered the subject of crime in that state in a way that must interest students of questions relating to the negro race in the South. Answering certain charges as to the number of homicides in Mississippi, the governor gave an account of a personal investigation that he recently made. It had been reported that from January 1 to April 1, of this year, there had been over 200 murders. The governor did not believe the story was true, so he wrote to the sheriff of each county for the actual number of homicides committed from New Year's to November 15.

The result of this inquiry, says Governor Vardaman, showed "that there were 297 homicides committed, and of that number 230 were negroes, and 227 of them were committed by negroes on negroes. In this connection I want to impress upon you this other truth that was revealed by that investigation—that they were all very young negroes, of an average of less than 25 years of age, and while they did not state it in all the letters, a great many of them stated that they occurred around crap games."

Surely this shows the need of Christian education and Christian missions. The South ought to welcome all which are truly Christian, and Christians ought to support them.