4. The following statement of facts lends interest to the contention of one of the characters of The Hindered Hand, to the effect that the repressionist order of things brings forward, by its own force an undesirable type of officials.
During the recent presidential campaign the repression of the Negro was made an issue in the state of Tennessee.
The most representative audience that assembled during the whole campaign in the State was wrought to its highest pitch of enthusiasm by the following outburst of eloquence from the Junior Senator of that state: "The man that does not know the difference between a white man and a 'nigger' is not fit to be President." The kind of a state Legislature begotten by a campaign in which the foregoing remark marked the highest level of the discussion so far as the popular taste was concerned, may be judged from the following comments on that Legislature after it adjourned:
"There were many men in the last Legislature upon whose faces the mark of incompetency or worse was as plain as the noonday sun."—The Nashville American.
"It would be better for Tennessee to groan on under present laws and let the Legislature meet no more in ten years if it were possible under the Constitution."—Lebanon Banner.
"Mediocrity was in the saddle, and picayunish partisan politics held the center of the boards."—Franklin Review-Appeal.
"The Legislature has adjourned. Many praises unto the 'Great I Am.'"—Murfreesboro News-Banner.
"Throwing bricks at the Legislature is a favorite pastime, but really a brick is hardly big enough for the purpose.—Franklin County Truth.
"In our opinion the present Legislature will go down in history as the most incompetent body of lawmakers that ever sat in the capitol of Tennessee."—Tullahoma Guardian.
"The Tennessee Legislature has adjourned and perhaps done less to commend itself than any of its predecessors."—Obion Democrat.
"The people elect the legislators and the people are responsible for the character of men they elect and send to Nashville to make and unmake laws. We know the Legislature was bad, even miserable, but the members got their commissions from the people."—Gallatin News.
"The weekly press of the state is almost unanimous in its condemnation of the late Legislature. * * * As we have said before, the general littleness of the body, its petty conduct in many instances, its trades and combinations, the autocratic methods of self-seeking members, the quarrels, the cheap declamations and intemperate and undignified and unwarrantable public denunciations by members who should have shown a better sense of dignity and decency, the dishonesty in juggling with bills, the unreliability of promises—the general record and conduct of the body marked it as unworthy of the state or the approval of the people. What man of established reputation would care to be known as a member of such a Legislature as the one recently adjourned?"—The Nashville American.
These comments are from newspapers of the same political faith as the Legislature.
5. The question might be raised as to whether the conditions set forth in The Hindered Hand are true of some special locality or are general in character.
As to how general the conditions complained of are one may infer from the following editorial from a leading Southern newspaper, which never fails in defense of the South where defense is possible.
"In South Carolina, as we have noted, the safest crime is the crime of taking human life. The conditions are the same in almost every Southern State. Murder and violence are the distinguishing marks of our present-day civilization. We do not enforce the law. We say by statute that murder must be punished by death, and murder is rarely punished by death, or rarely punished in any other way in this State, and in any of the Southern States, except where the murderer is colored, or is poor and without influence. Now this state of affairs cannot last forever. We have grown so accustomed to the failure of justice in cases where human life is taken by violence that we excuse one failure and another until it will become a habit and the strong shall prevail over the weak, and the man who slays his brother shall be regarded as the incarnation of power."—The Charleston News and Courier.
6. Since the recent defeat of the ultra radical element in the national campaign, there has been a marked improvement as to the more violent manifestations of race prejudice, emphasizing the fact that actual political power can procure respect.
7. It must never be concluded by those interested in these matters that the mere suppression of mob violence approaches a solution of the race problem. The programme of the Negro race, that must be ever kept in mind as a factor to be dealt with, is the obtaining of all the rights and privileges accorded by the State to other American citizens.