Editorial Praises Arrest of Leaders of Wayne County Mob, Dec. 10, 1920

Judge W.A. Devin, who is presiding over Wayne county superior court, is betting on the theory that the people of North Carolina provided means for bringing to justice persons who violate the laws, and as a result four of the alleged leaders of the Goldsboro mob which stormed the court house the other night have been arrested. It may be difficult to convict them, even though their guilt be proven, but they have learned that the courts are not impotent. The sensational attack on Wayne county court house made everybody sit up and take notice; it brought to the sensible people of the state a realization of what mob rule means. Here was a mob of nearly 2,000 men shooting into the court room. The point we would like to make is that every day in the year, especially on Saturday, there are men storming the laws of North Carolina in Hickory and all other towns in this section of the state. The bootleggers and blockaders are busy. They are digging a tunnel under our civilization that will give way one of these days. It will be the cause of worse tragedies than the Lippard murder. (From the editorial page of the Hickory Daily Record, Dec. 10, 1920)