Duluth Editor Succumbs to Brief Illness.

DULUTH EDITOR
SUCCUMBS TO
BRIEF ILLNESS

John L. Morrison, Editor-Pub-

lisher of “The Rip Saw,” Vic-
time of Fatal Illness.

Urged Legal Equality

After Lynching in 1920, Printed
Facts; Condemned Officials

For Negligence

Duluth, Minn., May 24.–John L. Morrison, editor and publisher of “The Rip Saw,” and lover and advocate of law and justice for all, is dead.
It was he who first discovered and published in his paper the “Rip Saw” that a great injustice had been done the colored circus hands that were mobbed and done to death in this city in 1920. At that time the tension was strained to the breaking point between the races and everybody that was able armed themselves and resolved to die before being lynched.

Refuted Accusation.

Editor Morrison made a thorough investigation of the affair and published his findings boldly with glaring headline thus–“Negores Did Not Rape the 17-year-old White Girl as Alleged.” So eager was the public to know the truth that the first edition was soon bought up entirely; then the second edition was published because the demand was so great and it was soon exhausted; then the third and fourth editions and they were still going like hot cakes.
The editor said then that his paper was never in such demand before.
Editor Morrison still maintained that a great mistake had been made and it has never been proved that he was wrong, and most people believe he told the truth.

Condemned Officials.

The openly condemned mob violence and all those who were connected with that horrible crime, even the authorities that permitted it to happen, and was not content until the principals of the mob were convicted and the chief of police and the head of public safety and been retired from office.
Previous to this time one found reading the “Rip Saw” was looked upon with suspicion but a mail carrier claimed that on his route where he had delivered only a few copies before, he was required to carry a great many copies of the “Rip Saw” to the very best people.

Underground Railway.

Mr. Morrison was born in Tabor, Iowa, near the famous “Mason and Dixon Line.” His family belonged to the anti-slavery group and many

(Continued on page 4)

DULUTH EDITOR DIES
AFTER SHORT ILLNESS.
(Continued from page 1)

were the slaves that domiciled on his father’s premises during the day and fled north by night. When he noticed food being carried out to the barn he knew that some fugitives were on their way to freedom.
John L. Morrison had a number of relics of old John Brown of Harper’s Ferry fame and he remembered when the noted abolitionist had stopped at his father’s place on his way from Kansas.
If there were more John L. Morrisons or men like him, Americans would have less cause for shame.
As there was only one Fred Douglass, one Abraham Lincoln, one Booker T. Washington, one Wendell Phillips, one Harriet Beecher Stowe, one Julius Caesar, one Brutus, and one Toussaint L. Overture, the race cannot expect more than one John L. Morrison.
John L. Morrison was a friend and member of the N. A. A. C. P., attended all their meetings when possible, heard all the prominent speakers, and commented favorably in his paper on all of them, including Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, Dr. Roman and Mr. Pickens.

“Night hangs upon his eyes

His bones would rest–

That have labored to attain

this hour

In general honest thought

For the common good to all

His life was good,

He was the noblest Roman

of them all.”
A law-abiding citizens had no cause to fear the “Rip Saw” and its brave editor, but the paper was a hornet to the wrong-doer.
John L. Morrison leaves a wife and two minor children, a girl 14 and a boy 13 years old, John L., Jr.
They should be remembered, and he will not be forgotten.