number, and still pile up a large competence to lay by for a rainy day.”

The progress of the Negro since his emancipation is a marvellous story. It reflects credit upon himself and it is a lasting tribute to the Northern philanthropists and those broad-minded Southerners who environed him with effective helps and valuable opportunities, and who gave him such stimulating encouragement. By and through these elements the Negro has been able to give a striking evidence of his ability for a self-developing American citizenship.

And yet, all of his splendid progress in education and all of the useful qualities developed in him as an industrial factor have not protected him against terrible outrages and unspeakable cruelties. When he was eliminated from the field of politics by state constitutions, adopted for that sole purpose, it was our hope and prayer that he would at least find some compensation for the wrong in safety from the mob and in the enjoyment of that peace which should attend every law abiding citizen, whether white or black. Our hopes have not been realized and we are forced to the conclusion that the brutal treatment of the Negro is not due to the fact that he was in politics. Nothing less than an intolerant race hatred could be the moving influence of such ferocity and fiendishness as characterize the lynchings of the black man in this country. Where Negroes are concerned mob law too often has displaced judges and juries and terrorized sheriffs and done away with prison walls. Its ravages are confined to no section of the country. Occasionally white men are the victims of its awful fury—but only for the most terrible crimes; but let the Negro’s offence be great or small, he is not secure from its vengeance. Our enemies succeeded for a long time in making the country believe that the black man was lynched only for the unspeakable crime. The record has always belied this charge. Bishop Candler of the Southern Methodist Church said the other day that two years ago the figures for a year showed only sixteen cases of rape against 128 lynchings. He gave, too, this significant warning, “If the people will not control the mob, the mob will soon control the people.” That best and fairest of men President Roosevelt, sees the danger. He knows that they who violate the rights of one race of men, unrestrained, will soon violate the rights of another. In his own vigorous way he has spoken to the country on the subject of mob law. It is to be hoped that one speaking from so exalted a place will arouse the American conscience from the slumber into which it has been lulled by an unconcern dangerous to individuals and to the country alike. Referring to the crime 

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