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From Atlanta Constitution, July 25, 1919

NO WONDER

No wonder the good people of
Telfair county, outraged at an in-
human orgie of a small gang of
drunken barbarians, sought, for the
protection of the good name of the
county, to keep the story from the
public.

They succeeded for several
weeks, but the press of the coun-
try, now informed of the details of
the atrocity, is ventilating the af-
fair in a manner which, to say the
least of it, is doing Georgia no
good.

The Constitution hoped, when it
sent to Telfair county for the true
facts of the affair, that the reply to
would prove the reports to be an
exaggeration. In this we are dis-
appointed.

The correspondence published
elsewhere on this page tells its
own revolting story—a story that
carries its moral and that should
determine every decent man in
the state to leave nothing undone
that will put an end to this sort of
brutal lawlessness in Georgia.

What better evidence could be
presented of the necessity of the
enactment of the anti-lynching bill
now pending before the Georgia
legislature than is embodied in
this gruesome story?

The occurrence upon which they
bear stands as a shameful blot
upon the good name of the state;
and it would be a discredit even to
the barbarians of darkest Afriea,
had it taken place in their domain.

Everybody knows that the bet-
ter sentiment of Telfair county
does not stand for things of this
character. Those people are among
the best in the state.

The greater the pity, therefore,
that they should permit the good
name of their community to be be-
smirched by a handful of drunken,
brutal, lawless barbarians.

It is inconceivable that a thing
of this sort should happen without
any effort to get at the bottom of
the situation and to bring the cul-
prits to justice.

By enacting the measure now
pending in the general assembly
that body, if it has the grit to face
the situation, can provide the
means to put a stop to mob law
in this state.

This monstrous affair does not
concern Telfair county, nor Geor-
gia, alone, but it concerns the
American republic as a whole; and
we might as well look the future
squarely in the face and be pre-
pared to accept federal jurisdiction
in crimes of this kind, if our own
state has not the courage to meet
the situation and apply the remedy.

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