The City's Shame.
Type of event: Lynchings
Location: Duluth; St. Louis County; Minnesota; United States
Citation:
The Duluth Rip-Saw, June 26,1920, page 2.
“The City’s Shame”
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THE DULUTH RIP-SAW
John L. Morrison
Editor and Publisher
Suite No. 112,
Manhattan Building, Duluth, Minnesota.
Entered at Postoffice at Duluth,
Minn., as Second Class Matter.
Telephone: Melrose 818.
SATURDAY, JUNE
28, 1884.
THE CITY'S SHAME.
One realizes the limitation of human language
when he tries to express his feelings and sentiments concerning the recent
lynching of three helpless colored men by a Duluth mob.
Duluth, the city
of Destiny, certainly has had a stain put on her fair name that will require a
generation to remove, No one ever believed that so cosmopolitan a city could
turn outlaw In a few short hours.
Lynch law and mob rule are horrible
enough when the victims are guilty beyond all human doubt, but when there is
grave doubt of guilt and injustice seems to have been done, then matters become
very serious, indeed.
No Matter how guilty those poor Negro boys may have
been, they were American citizens, They were entitled to protection, a fair and
impartial trial and then freedom or punishment, as the case might be, under the
law.
The boundless universe Is controlled by law and when society casts
aside law and order, it becomes as helpless and in as dangerous a condition as a
ship without a rudder.
It was a sad sight, indeed, to see a police
department, deserted by its head and leading officers, proven so ineffectual, if
not incompetent, by letting a mob murder prisoners whom they were sworn to
protect, even with their lives.
A little brain work, a bit of strategy
and a determination to do a sworn duty, could and would have save the lives of
the prisoners and saved the lives of the prisoners and drop of blood. Even the
municipal courtroom, accessible through an inside entrance, would have made an
undiscoverable retreat, beyond much doubt.
There was too much sympathy
with the hoodlum lynchers on the part of the police. There was a grand
exhibition of bonehead management of the twenty-five men available for police
purpose.
What a different story would have been written had Chauncey Troyer
been alive and at the head of the department. Could he know how his beloved
police force proved recreant, he would turn over in his grave.
Let there
be a thorough house-cleaning in the department and the elimination of every
yellow member. Lives, property and order depend on that department. No unfit man
should wear the star of authority. Incidentally, too, see to It that fit men are
paid a proper salary not the present starvation wages.