U.S.A. LYNCH LAW

Hokitika Guardian, 30 November 1933, Page 5

U.S.A. LYNCH LAW

OPINION DIVIDED

GOVERNOR ROLPH CRITICISED

, United Press Association—By .Electric 'iiwegraph— Copyright.!

NEW YORK, November 28

The press is divided over Governor Rolph’s statement on the San Jose lynciiings. Some of the more sensational journals approve of it by implication; while the more conservative and representative ones denounce the statement heartily. The New York “Evening Post,’’ in a leading article, praises the decisive action of Governor Ritchie, of Maryland, as being “in sharp contrast to Governor Rolph’s blatant alignment of himself with men who have brought disgrace on their State.” The New York “Herald-Tribune’’ terms Governor Rolph’s statement as “the foolish remark of a cheap politician.” It contends that the example set by the police work of the Californian authorities in solving the Hart crime has been competely nullified. Clerical bodies throughout the nation are making strong representations against ■ Governor Rolph’s action with a few exceptions. A notable exception is Doctor Henry Darlington, who is rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of Heavenly Rest in New York, who lias telegraphed Governor Rolph his congratulations. Ho has explained that he thus meant to commend a change from public indifference to a visible expression that kidnapping must be stopped. Mr Clarence Darrow, whose, brilliant legal defence of Loeb and Leopold in Chicago, a decade ago for a similar offence to the Hart murder, saved them from the death penalty, commented: “I do not approve, of capital punishment, which is merely legal lynching, so 1 can only condemn illegal lynching.”- .

LYNCHED NEGRO DISINTERRED

HEAD HACKED OFF

NEW YORK, November 28,

As an aftermath of the disturbances in Maryland, a mob there invaded the cemetery and disinterred the body of the negro who was the lynching victim. The mob hacked off the head, and some of the members of the mob said that they would ship the head to Governor Ritchie as

a “souvenir.”

During thg, riots, the mob continually shouted that they would never vote for Governor Ritchie again, but that they would vote for Governor Rolph if he ran for the United States Presidency,

ANOTHER NEGRO LYNCHED

NEW YORK, November 28

' zA message from St. Joseph, in the State of Missouri, states that Lloyd Warner, aged 19 years, a negro, who confessed to attacking a white girl was hanged and burned across the street from the Courthouse lawn tonight by a mob which had a battle with the Police officers and National Guardsmen to seize him in the Buchanan County Gaol.

VARSITY PAPER’S OPINION

NEW YORK, November 28

Regarding the lynching question, the editors of the Harvard University “Crimson,” an undergraduate newspaper, praised Governor Rolph, of California, in a leading article to-day. They declared: “Thurmond and Holmes were too guilty to' he accorded the delightful interlude called American criminal justice. The mob is sick of a system that convicts 299 out of 300 law-abiding citizens for violating the automobile traffic regulations, and then refuses to convict seventy-nine out of eighty persons accused of murders.”

ANOTHER SAN JOSE LYNCHING

NEGRO HANGED; BODY BURNED

(Received this day at 11.15 a.m.)

ST. JOSEPH (Missouri),

November 29. Apparently taking to heart Governor Rolpli’s commentation on lynching, a mob to-night stormed the local gaol and took Lloyd Warner, a negro youth, charged with attacking a white woman, and hanged him to a nearby tree early in the evening. The State Governor, Mr Parks, called out the militia, but they were slow in mobilizing. A Government tank which they were using was attacked by the mob and put out of commission by stones. Finally the sheriff gave the prisoner to the mob, who promptly hanged him. They then poured petrol on the body and.burned it.