Duluth's Disgrace.

EDITORIAL

Devoted to Public Service; In City, State and Nation

DULUTH’S Disgrace.
Duluth has suffered a disgrace, a horrible blot upon its name that it can never outlive. Three negroes were murdered. Those responsible, the leaders of the mob, those who actually forced the doors of the jail, dragged out these victims and took part in the hanging are murderers.
They are known. They are known by the police. They are known by bystanders. They must pay the penalty under the law of their crime. Only so can this city in part wipe away this stain, for had the city itself done its duty, realized its responsibility, it would not have had a police force that would have stood by, seen the mob collect and done nothing until too late.
Moreover, it was not alone murder, but a most cowardly murder. It was deliberate and premeditated by those who are guilty. Yet not one of these few would have dared act save for mob support, nor would one of them have dared face a gun held by a man who meant business. It was a case where the right man was not there.
Early in the afternoon there were rumors of what was to come. There was no preparation made to prevent it. Early in the evening about 50 people gathered in front of the jail apparently attracted both by the mere fact of the published story of a crime committed, by the under current rumor and by the presence at the jail entrance of a half dozen or more police; an unusual occurrence.
These people were not made to move on and their numbers attracted others until a truck load of youngsters, mere boys, unloaded and started the yelling. Soon this crowd was hundreds and then soon changed its character to that of a mob, and mob activities. But it was near midnight before the negroes were dragged out to their death.
No one knew that a single one of the murdered men was guilty of the act charged, the assault upon a young girl; no one knows now that even one of them was guilty. None of them had confessed. If they all had done so, Minnesota has laws to cover their crime and there was not the slightest chance of their escaping penalty.
Now the penalty of the law must be paid, not for one crime, but for four; not by a half dozen or less negroes; but by a score of white men, who showed themselves equally brutal, for it is inconceivable that any human being could deliberately not only help hand a man of whose guilt he was not assured, who had no trial and no chance for defense, but actually cling to a pole above a dying man, kick him in the face, and be cheered and praised for his hideous act.
There is no history of a more brutal lynching anywhere in the country and Duluth’s decent citizens must see there is no escape of the guilty from fair trial, or from conviction and punishment if guilty. Duluth cannot be guilty itself of two crimes—the lynching and the escape of those guilty.