Mob Lain) in America. The Chicago Tribune began in 1882 to keep a table of the lynchings of negroes by mobs in this country. The figures thus secured, while probably not absolutely accurate, closely approximate the true situation. Mrs. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, of Chicago, herself an educated colored woman of ability, has interested herself for many years in the wholesale murdering of members of her race by Judge Lynch, publishing several pam phlets on the subject. In one of these, com menting on the figures obtained by the Chi cago Tribune of lynchings of her people, she says: "Of these men and women who have been put to death without judge or jury. less than one-third of them have been even accused of criminal assault. The world at large has accepted without question the statement that negroes are lynched only for assaults upon white women. Of those who were lynched from 1882 to 1891, the first ten years of the tabulated record, two hun dred and sixty-nine were charged with rape; two hundred and fifty-three with murder; forty-four with robbery; thirty-seven with incendiarism; four with burglary; twentyseven with race prejudice; thirteen quarreled with white men; ten with making threats; seven with rioting; five with miscegenation; in thirty-two cases no reason was given, the victims were lynched on general principles. Of the one hundred and seventy-one per sons lynched in 1895 only thirty-four were charged with criminal assault; in 1896, out of one hundred and thirty-one persons who were lynched, only thirty-four were said to have assaulted women; of the one hundred and fifty-six lynched in 1897, only thirtytwo were so charged; in 1898, out of one hundred and twenty-seven persons lynched, twenty-four were charged with the alleged "usual crime;" in 1899, of the one hundred and seven lynchings, sixteen were said to be for crimes against women."1 'Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mob Rule in New Orleans (pamphlet), pp. 46-47.
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The analysis of this shocking record by Mrs. Wells-Barnett is presented to show that the claim made by Southern editors, that criminal assaults made upon white women by negroes, is the main cause of the presence of lynch law, is not borne out by the facts; and that the charge that the negro is a moral outlaw is a false one, evidently made for the purpose of creating public sen timent against him and otherwise injuring his prospects. Indeed, one editor himself ad mits that the prevalence of rape as a moving cause for mob rule is greatly exaggerated. Nevertheless, it is freely given out, not only in the South, but elsewhere in this country, that the commission of the crime of rape is mainly the incentive to action by the mob Mrs. Barnett's study of the figures estab lishes the fact that this is not true, so far as her own race is concerned. Of course, she goes no further into the question than it relates to her own people. But whatever the reason for the administration of Judge Lynch, the Tribune's figures represent an appalling condition of affairs, one diametri cally opposed to the genius of our institu tions. If we connect the facts and figures sub mitted by the Chicago Tribune with the re port of the attorney-genera!, together- with the discussion prepared by Mrs. WellsBarnett, are we not brought face to face with a condition of affairs in this country which calls for something more than passing pro test or calm denunciation? Is there not plainly visible in the figures submitted, con fessedly not wholly reliable, enough to show that the American people are losing, per haps not rapidly, but steadily, that respect for the due administration of the law, which belongs to a truly loyal, law-abiding and great .nation? When we stop to consider that the conviction of the mob under the present order of things is practically impossi ble, are we not confronted with a condition of affairs which require a high order of pat
