MOB LAW IN AMERICA. BY DUANE MOWRY,
Of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Bar. A WRITER in an English magazine a few years ago1 had occasion to make the following observations: "More than one thousand men and women have been lynched in the United States during' the last ten years. Mob violence is spreading. It is not confined to the district south of Mason and Dixon's line. New York State and the Quaker State have suffered the mob to mur der blacks within their borders, and have made no effort to punish the lynchers, l 1882 there were 52 negroes murdered by the mob; in 1892 there were 160. Last year (1893) the number must have reached 200. In South Carolina last year there were thir teen lynched, in Georgia sixteen, in Ala bama twenty-seven. The atrocities perpe trated during the present year justify the opinion that if the remaining eight months maintain the record of the opening four months of the year, 1894 will stand out as the worst year, in point of numbers and bloodthirstincss. since the days of the Ku K'iux." And yet the average American is strong in the conviction that he is an integral part of a liberty-loving, law-abiding people. And it is within the easy reach of the memory of a large contingent of the living, that the claim has been made and insisted upon as literally true that we, as a nation, are. pre eminently, and without qualification, an enlightened, civilized and humane people. To say that a different condition exists, or to charge that a different sentiment prevails. to any considerable extent, would be at once disputed and construed to mean a libel on the good name and fame of our country. Nevertheless, there is reason to claim that the statements of the writer quoted are, un fortunately, too true; that our boasted love ^Contemporary Ret'im.', p. 823 (June, 1894).
for law and order and fair-play, is not an universal sentiment by any means; that, in practice, the very reverse is frequently more nearly representative of the real situation. Proof of this may be found by reference to the almost daily violations of the criminal statutes by whole communities, including the actual burning of negroes for alleged crimes, without a hearing, with scarcely a passing protest, and often with open and shameless justification. Statistics dealing with mob violence in this country are exceedingly difficult to obtain. The Census Office does not furnish them. And they are only obtainable in a disjointed, often incoherent, sometimes irre sponsible, and always unsatisfactory manner. Even then there is more or less coloring of the facts. Local pride will sometimes attempt to suppress them. Some communities appre ciate the awful disgrace which attaches to mob law in their midst, and they would gladly minimize the stigma which must rest on their neighborhood. Political and social reasons will contribute to distort and mis represent the incident. And it is generally admitted that little is gained by publicity, certainly nothing for law, order and good government. The attorney-general of the United States, in a recent report to Congress, says that in the last twelve years the number of homi cides in this country has risen from four thousand to ten thousand five hundred per annum; that of the number represented by the last figures, in round numbers, one hundred were convicted of murder by the courts, and two hundred and forty were exe cuted by lynch law. In some of the States this proportion is less; in others it stands three lynchings to one conviction for homi cide and rape.
