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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1935)
Borah Is Called “Assassin” Of Anti Lynch Bills NAACTP Sec’ty Writes Idaho Solon Open Letter; Asks Rights Champion “What About States' Wrongs?” New York, Nov. 30.—Sena tor William E .Borah of Idaho, who is being mentioned in many quarters ns being will ing to run for President next year, wa# characterized as the man who dealt “the assassin’s blow’ to both the Dyer feder al anti-l.vnch’ng bill in 1922 and tin* ('ostigan-Wagner anti lynching bill last M u y in an open letter to him from Walter White, secretary of the Nation al Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People, made pub’ic today. Quoting from Borah ’ s speech in the Senate May 1— the speech which is generally credited w'tli kdling the Costi gan-Wagner bill—in which the Idahoan vigorously upheld the doctrine of states’ rights, the NAACP secretary writes: “It is writ enough to talk about states' rights, but we ask vou, Senator Borah, to <rain * * that legal aiimi of yours, if you will, on states’ ‘wrongs' which have been perpetrated since you dealt the mortal blow to efforts to stop lynch ing. S lice May I, 14 persons have been done to death by mobs in the United States ” The NAAC1* letter cites from the 1935 lynch record eases where states have failed to make a move to punish lynchers and even where 1 a w enforcement officers mob ac tion. The complete letter: 44 lion. William E. Borah United States Senator [Washington, P. ('. ■“Pear Senator Borah: “In view of t he numerous current newspaper reports of the possibility of your becom ing a Republican candidate for President in 1936, and because you have not yet denied that the proffer of the nomination will he unacceptable to you, we are addressing tii\s open letter to you on behalf of 12 million American Negroes and of many white Americans who are deeply concerned with the alarming increase in lynchings in the United States. •■un may 1st. imp, you de livered on the floor of the Senate what is generally con ceded to have been the death blow to the chances of passage at that session of the Congress of the Cost igan-Wagner anti lynch'ing bill. Your speech on that occasion was fundament ally the same as that which you delivered in September, 1922, when another filibuster, led by senators from states which had the worst lynching records, succeeded in side tracking the Dyer nnti-lyneh ing bill. You, therefore, hold the somewhat dubious honor of having been the execution er of two distinctly hopeful opportunities to pass federal legislation which would have given government aid, ns in the ease of kidnapping, to state authorities to stamp out this obvious evil. “In your speech on May 1st you declared, among othei tldngs, that—‘if this kind ol bill can he passed and sus tained by the Supreme Courl we have utterly annihilated al State sovereignty; we liav< broken down State lines com pletely.’ Later on you dc dared Tl believe we can only have a great Federal Union by having great individual sov ereign Stats, and that wher the latter are destroyed we may have a Republic in name, but we will no longer have a Re public in fact—There can be no such thing as a Federal Re public unless the States at home preserve their rights as sovereign States to the extent to which the Constitution has defined them.’ “In the abstract these are very pretty sentiments. It is well enough to talk about states’ 'rights’; but we ask you, Senator Borah, to train that legal mind of yours, if you will, on states’ ‘wrongs’ which have been perpetrated since you dealt the mortal blow to efforts to stop lynch ing. Since May 1st, 14 per sons have been done to death by mobs in the United States. You have talked much and often about leaving t h e pre vention of such bestial crimes and the punishment of lynch ers to the states. Let us ex amine concretely how the states where most of the lynchings occurred have done their duty. On July 80th lOovan Ward, known to be in I sane, was put to death in open i daylight in the streets of Couisluirg, North Carolina, by i a mob which made no efforts i to conceal its identity. A few of the state authorities, we be lieve with great sincerity, at tempted to punish the lynch ers. They were unsuccessful, i Kven when this Association sent a white North Carolinian | to Louisburg and he secured the names and information . against, nine of t h e lynchers, these nine have not even been arrested, though the (informa tion concerning them was sup plied to the North Carolina au thorities on August 28th. “Only a few days ago, on | November 12th. two boys, 15 and 16 years of age .respec tively, were killed by a mob in | Colorado County .Texas. In stead of attempting to uphold the law which he had taken a solemn oath to enforce, the County Attorney openly and unashamedly d e c 1 a r e d the lynehings to be ‘the w'dl of the people’ and he and his other fellow officials have indicated in no uncertain terms that they will do nothing whatever to punish the mob which has lynched not only two boys but the majesty of the law as well. The utter fallacy of depending on state action in certain states was dramatically exposed in the recent lynching at White Bluff, Tennessee, on November 4th, where members of the mob took the deputy sheriff's gun, used it in putting their victim to death and then laughingly returned the weapon to the ac quiescent officer who is quoted as remarking ‘they all seem to be having a good time.’’ iietore me us l write is a photograph of a lynched fig ure hanging from a tree in Florida. The body is that of the man lynched at Fort Laud erdale on July 19th. Around the pendent figure stand 12 persons, 10 of them w e 11 dressed, neat, clean and intel ligent white girls ranging in age from 4 to 10 or 11 years. On the faces of these young sters, now at their most im pressionable age, is mirrored mingled horror, fascination and excitement. “I)o you feel proud of your handiwork, Senator Ilorah? And does it disturb your cons cience even to the slightest ex tent that there is the possibil ity that had the Costigan-Wag ner bill been passed last May this lynching and that of LI others might not have oc eurred ,aml irreparable dam age might not have been done to the minds and souls of these children of tender years? “It w’ill be idle speculation on the part of yourself, or any one else to say, as you did on the floor of the Senate last May 1st, that you do not I think a federal bill will stop lynching. Perhaps it won’t prevent all lynchings. But if it materially decreases the number of these crimes, should not all decent people give it a trial ? “Forget ,if you will, that most of the victims of lynch ing mobs belong to a race which has suffered for three centuries from slavery and race prejudice. Ignore the physical suffering and the an guish of the victim as he is stabbed, strangled or slowly roasted to death. Think in stead of the great harm that is done to those who perpetrate such sadistic crimes and to the good name and well being of America. Many Americans to day are alarmed at the tend encies toward Fascism being made manifest in our country. Negroes today supply most of the victims of lynching mobs; but who knows but that on a bloody tomorrow other Ameri cans whose skins are white may not also furnish living sacrifices to the gods of racial political or other prejudices? “Many Negroes, Senator Borah, live in pivotal states like Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states where Ne groeg vote and their votes are counted. In many of these states the Negro vote holds the balance of power in any norm al election. These voters and others generally, Including many white Americans, want to know if you will again in the coming session of Congress deal the assassin’s blow to ef forts for federal legislation against a crime which has taken more than five thousand victims during the last 45 years and for which crimes there have been convictions in less than one-half of one per cent o fthe cases. There are many Americans, Senator Borah, who no longer believe in the sincerity of members of the Senate who forget states’ rights when such issues as pro hibition are being discussed but who wrap about them selves the mantel of ‘constitu tionality’ when the lives of human beings are taken by lawless mobs.” A cup shaped rubber guard has been invented to be slipped on paint brushes to prevent paint running down on the handles. 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